March 12, 2007
Ron Paul is off and running for President

By the time you read this, Rep. Ron Paul will most likely have made the announcement that he is running for President.


U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, a fierce critic of the Iraq war, formally will declare his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination Monday when he appears as a guest on a C-SPAN call-in program.

Paul, R-Lake Jackson, created a presidential exploratory committee in January, allowing him to begin collecting money on behalf of his bid.

Kent Snyder, the chairman of that committee, said Saturday that Paul is scheduled to be a guest on Washington Journal on Monday morning and will make his announcement then.


Some folks, like me and Vince, have speculated that Paul's desire to party like it's 1988 means his Congressional seat will come open. That may yet come to pass, but the word at this time is that he still plans to run for re-election in CD14. So he's free to pursue being the Republican version of Dennis Kucinich and to shake the national fundraising tree in a more effective manner, something which will no doubt come in handy when he does stand for re-election in CD14. And who knows, maybe he'll catch fire. It's not like the GOP frontrunners are a compelling lot, so why shouldn't Ron Paul believe that his time is now? If Anthony Dutrow can believe, so can Ron Paul.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on March 12, 2007 to The making of the President
Comments

Ron Paul is arguable the least effective, least relevant member of the House of Representatives - and has been for some time. It's pretty hard to comprehend why he thinks he has the slightest chance of becoming president. This means the Republicans have gone through their varsity squad, the reserves and the cheerleaders. Now we've got the doddering, dementia-afflicted grandparents taking the field.

Posted by: Dennis on March 12, 2007 6:56 AM

It's not like the GOP frontrunners are a compelling lot

The day GOP frontrunners are compelling to progressives like yourself or the other lefty netroots bloggers will truly be a day that politics has been turned upside down, I think you'd agree. :)

But the notion that John McCain and Rudy Giuliani aren't "compelling" (generally speaking) is odd to me. Either one certainly has some work to do with theocons, yes (especially Giuliani), but not "compelling?"

Bob Dole was not "compelling," generally speaking. I don't see McCain or Giuliani quite the same way. But hey, if they do prove not "compelling," there's word Fred Thompson is waiting in the wings. Somehow I doubt that excites the lefty netroots much either, though. :)

Posted by: kevin whited on March 12, 2007 7:57 AM

Of course they're not compelling to me. If you haven't noticed, Kevin, there's a lot of grumbling among Republicans that none of the frontrunners is compelling to them. As well one might imagine, given that none of McCain, Giuliani, or Romney have particularly sterling reputations among movement conservatives. Imagine if the Democratic frontunners were Joe Lieberman, Zell Miller, and Harold Ford. As is the case with Ron Paul in this field, Dennis Kucinich might look a bit better by comparison if that were his competition.

Posted by: Charles Kuffner on March 12, 2007 8:22 AM

Now we've got the doddering, dementia-afflicted grandparents taking the field

Frightening visual, particularly for the extra burden placed on our health care system.

Multiple broken bones following the flying wedge at kickoff, cardiac events every other down ... could there possibly be enough defibrillators and ambulances on standby at the field?

Scary.

Posted by: PDiddie on March 12, 2007 8:29 AM

Ron Paul makes a lot of sense for many disgruntled Republicans. He has consistently upheld The Constitution and worked for smaller government throughout his congressional career. His message is going the resonate with a lot of "thinking" conservative voters. Ron Paul has a better chance than most people are giving him credit for.

Posted by: Chris on March 12, 2007 8:49 AM