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Meet the Press and the Expectations for Ron Paul
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By Jim Roberts
Dec 23, 2007 |
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This could have been a shining moment for Ron Paul. He was finally given his national stage against Tim Russert on the number one Sunday Morning political talk show. Paul looked miserable at times and sounded worse. This was not a good appearance for Dr. Paul, the NBC appearance was not kind.
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| Meet the Press and the Expectations for Ron Paul (NBC) |
Russert was prepared with tons of material and he delivered several "off the wall" quotes and questions for Paul. While I'm not even certain that wa fair, that is the way of the media in this day and age and I had high expectations for Paul in this interview. He sorely disappointed. He was hit with every available question from Russert and he should have known this was coming.
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There is no way to compare this interview with any other candidate from the Republicans or the Democrats. Paul is running as an outsider, but has shocked pundits with his fundraising. That gives him a higher profile than any other long shot, and Russert was licking his chops and ready to pounce.
He easily made the hypocrisy case. Russert said, "Let me ask this. Term limits. You ran on term limits. "I think we should have term limits for our elected leaders." You've been in Congress 18 years." Paul answered that he never ran on "voluntary" term limits.
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Russert slammed Paul on decriminalizing drug use. He pointed out that in the past Paul had said, "All drugs should be decriminalized. Drugs should be distributed by any adult to other adults. There should be no controls on production, supply or purchase for adults." Russert asked, "Is that still your position?"
Paul answered that he would with a long-winded response. He said he would decriminalize it at the national level. Now I'm certain the hard core Paul supporter thought this was a great answer. But for soccer moms and dads that are watching this interview, Paul just basically said that he will make it easier for their kids to score dope in their eyes. They likely tuned out after that answer.
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For those that didn't it got worse. Paul was forced to say that he would vote against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 if it were brought up for a vote again today. It was pointed out that he deemed Ronald Reagan "a dramatic failure." And his answer on the Civil War was mind blowing. He said that Abraham Lincoln made a mistake by going to war to free the slaves and his plan would have been to "buy the slaves and free them."
I was extremely disappointed with his performance. He presented a picture of a man that is completely out of touch. It was a bit stunning as he sounded so presidential when he appeared with Glenn Beck on CNN last week. But on Sunday morning the questions were tough and Paul failed to even get across his basic premise of smaller government. Even when he did talk of dumping programs he provided no reasonable alternative for the country and how we would progress after the axe falls. He only said he would abolish the IRS, and dump the FBI, the CIA and pretty much all of the other alphabets. He had to put the explanation point on that with the solution with an alternative, but failed.
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For those watching for the first time many of his answers and statements will shock people. This was not the time for Ron Paul to shock casual observers, this was the time for him to present a reasonable alternative for change. He failed.
--Political Analysis by Jim Roberts
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