I don't care if he's not a top-tier candidate- I won't materially support any of those that are.

Speaking of Ron Paul- where's the caveman lately?

I originally thought the guy was a nut. Both the Dems and the Repubs despise him, and that piqued my interest. After some prodding by mikerotch, I examined his position on a variety of issues as objectively as possible. Strangely, I agree with a lot of what he says. I disagree with some of his positions, but at least I see the logic he uses. What impresses me the most about him is his apparent sincerity. There isn't a single candidate on the Repub or Dem side that exhibits even a modicum of sincerity. Hell, you have Hillary at one end, the consummate political opportunist and sycophant, and the manic self-absorbed Rudy Giuliani at the other. The event that really impressed me was Ron Paul's meeting with the Google employees. You could see this was a den of young, dyed-in-the-wool liberals who were looking to tear apart this Republican candidate. Instead, he had them applauding after awhile. He was gentlemanly, candid, sincere and consistent. It's so sad. The culture in this country has become so polarized. Each side of the political spectrum (with the help of the mainstream media) has promulgated this situation in a heavy-handed effort to manipulate and control voters. So many are unwilling to talk with each other. Look at how simple political discussions on Spearboard have degraded into pointless name-calling, bickering, posting and re-posting of biased op-ed pieces, etc. Ron Paul is the only candidate who appears willing to meet at a common ground without being a pandering opportunist. Unfortunately, for that, he is unelectable.:(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIzP8ONtkv8

I mostly like RP & agree with him on a lot. The big divide for me is that he is an isolationist & I think we're past the point in history for that.

All in all, I'm not real cranked up about any of the front runners at this time in either party. Odds favor me voting against someone next year rather than for someone.

Little-Known Paul Harnesses Web, Pulls $5 Million CNN's Situation Room reports Rep. Ron Paul's (R) long-shot, libertarian-oriented campaign "reports the congressman from Texas raised $5 million over the past three months. That's in the same neighborhood as what rival John McCain is expected to report and it's five times -- five times what former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee reportedly raised. It's also more than $3 million more than Paul raised over the first six months of this year. Paul can partially credit his big bucks to a strong following on the Internet."

Cool.

Speaking of Ron Paul, where has Mikerotch been??

Sorry for the absence guys. I went to Alaska a few weeks ago and took some time away. Upon return I learned of the tragedy with Nikki and had a hard time posting anything at all, spearfishing or political. I never met her, but I still felt terrible for her family and friends so the desire to post, (one of my favorite things) kind of went away. Meanwhile, I am delighted to see that the Ron Paul Revolution continues to gain steam even in the spearfishing electronic world.
Wayward, based on past discussions I'm pretty confident that, given a list of issues, there is no other candidate whom you would agree more with than Ron Paul. There certainly is no candidate that compares to him even in the slightest regarding 2nd amendment issues. The "isolationist" label, at least from a historical perspective, is inaccurate. (Granted, by GW Bush's definition, he certainly would be, since he doesn't believe in running other countries via puppet rulers we install or maintain financially) A more accurate version of what Dr. Paul's beliefs are regarding foreign relations can be summed up in his response to a New Hampshire mullet wrapper who labeled him an "isolationist" after his interview.The link is :
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul413.html

Mikerotch, Back Out Of The Cave

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/

honestly it kind of amazing how much , at least at a quick glance, better Ron Paul is then the other candidates

Welcome back Mike! We've missed you. And yes, it has been a depressing time the past couple of weeks.

honestly it kind of amazing how much , at least at a quick glance, better Ron Paul is then the other candidates
Thanks exactly the same impression I had. I don't fully agree with his views on the Iraq war, but at least he got me to listen and understand his perspective. As a result, I've changed some of my views about the war and George Bush. I'm tired of the self-righteous left-wing screaming, posturing, threatening, name calling, slandering, etc., about the war. I don't see them saying or doing anything substantive about it. They appear to care more about taking the White House to impose their beliefs on us than the country and its people. They seem a lot like some of the more influential, self-serving Republicans they point fingers at. Ron Paul is the only candidate I've seen who makes people across the political spectrum at least stop and listen. Sadly, his greatest critics appear to be fellow Republicans.

Welcome back Mike! We've missed you. And yes, it has been a depressing time the past couple of weeks.
It's good to see you back. I hope you had a great time in Alaska. And yes, the past few weeks have been quite sad for our spearfishing clan.:(