Ron on the Air

David Weigel | August 8, 2007

Ron Paul's campaign has its first TV ad up in Iowa, a plug for the candidate and a plea to vote in the Ames Straw Poll:

I've been wondering when/if Paul would have media focusing on his more traditional (in the post-Bob Taft sense) GOP positions—taxes, abortion—and soft-pedaling Iraq and the drug war. Here's the first of it.

(Barring some sort of crisis I'll be at Ames on Saturday and have a report about it shortly thereafter.)

UPDATE: Ben Smith is seeing all kinds of Paulania in Iowa:

There's a huge billboard on the drive to the Des Moines airport promising that Paul will both end the war and abolish the IRS.

And as I drove by it, I heard a radio ad touting Paul's legislation to catch Osama using an archaic legal instrument called a letter of marque and reprisal — to, essentially, hire a bounty hunter.

Only in the ad, which I can't find online, bounty hunters are referred to as "stealth warriors," who provide a method both cheaper and more Christian (!) than war.

On the way to O'Hare airport on Monday, at the blue line Addison L stop, I saw a hand-made Paul sign hanging on the overpass.

Comments

|8.8.07 @ 2:26PM|#

Good luck, Dr. Paul. You'll be getting my vote in WA state.

|8.8.07 @ 2:34PM|#

Sweet.

|8.8.07 @ 2:39PM|#

Given the current weather here -- hot with extreme humidity and dynamic conditions -- we could accentuate a Ron Paul victory with some truly cataclysmic weather phenomena (i.e. the world apparently coming to an end).

|8.8.07 @ 2:43PM|#

The beginning kinda sounds like the Southpark singing:

There's a great man we can count on...

|8.8.07 @ 3:48PM|#

I live in Iowa - was driving the Hwy 5 bypass south of Des Moines and saw homemade Ron Paul signs hanging from every overpass.

|8.8.07 @ 3:49PM|#

Handmade signs are all over Columbia, SC.
"Google Ron Paul" usually.

paul|8.8.07 @ 3:53PM|#

errr is it a good idea for them to be advertising his intention to abolish the IRS? Not exactly one of his more popular ideas.

|8.8.07 @ 3:58PM|#

is it a good idea for them to be advertising his intention to abolish the IRS? Not exactly one of his more popular ideas.

With accountants, anyway.

|8.8.07 @ 4:05PM|#

Barring some sort of crisis I'll be at Ames on Saturday and have a report about it shortly thereafter

RON PAUL in 2008

Hey cool. I'm going to be in Ames too! Do you think you could bring Kerry with you? Or perhaps Brian and Nick? Cause I'd like to meet them ;)

See you Saturday! And the rest of you should pack up the minivan and make the drive too!

RON PAUL '08

|8.8.07 @ 5:16PM|#

Got a brother who lives in Iowa. I don't talk to him all that much and we haven't really talked politics in years. Not knowing his current political views, i called him up and asked him to go vote for Ron Paul in the straw pole.

He laughed at me.

|8.8.07 @ 5:45PM|#

Saw my first car, other than mine, that has a Ron Paul for President '08 sticker. Dr. Paul fever is catching like a virus. Go Ron Paul!

|8.8.07 @ 5:45PM|#

I walked out of the NW train station in Chicago a couple of weeks ago after work and saw a couple of people with Ron Paul signs handing out flyers. It was very weird to see. I don't know what kind of response they got, but considering how people feel when they are heading to the train to go to their suburban home after a long day of work, I'm guessing it was a little bit chilly.

Edwardian|8.8.07 @ 6:26PM|#

"Dr. Paul fever is catching like a virus. "

...for which the vast majority of American voters have been vaccinated.

Anonymo the Anonymous|8.8.07 @ 7:11PM|#

...for which the vast majority of American voters have been vaccinated.

OK, I gotta admit, that was a pretty decent line.

|8.8.07 @ 8:05PM|#

What percentage of Americans have been audited by the IRS or have close friends or relatives who have been audited? I'd bet that most of those people would favor abolishing the IRS.

On the other hand, today on the radio I heard an argument against abolishing the IRS: what's going to happen to all the IRS employees? This is probably a seriously problem since there are lots of IRS employees and they are unlikely to be competent enough to be hired at another job.

loupeznik|8.8.07 @ 10:04PM|#

I hung some of my own signs here in Texas.

Revolution

|8.8.07 @ 11:12PM|#

There are lots and lots of Ron Paul signs along the highways here in North Idaho - making it a near certainty that he has no chance of success.

|8.8.07 @ 11:48PM|#

I DO like the 'letters of marque and reprisal', though. Beats the hell out of sending more of our troops into a civil war to die.

Edward|8.8.07 @ 11:48PM|#

A hand-made Paul sign hanging on the overpass!!?
Well, that's it. Ron Paul will win for sure! Gee willikers, that's good news!

Billy Awesome|8.9.07 @ 10:31AM|#

Is Chicago (where I live), like, a hotbed for Ron Paul activity? Several people on this thread have mentioned seeing stuff around. I saw a small but devoted Ron Paul group at Taste of Chicago. I see homemade "Ron Paul 2008" signs tied to trees around Wrigleyville. Seems to me I've seen some overpass signs and/or grafitti as well. Is this a national thing?

Bopo|8.9.07 @ 1:21PM|#

I wonder when this site is gonna cover the huge amount of earmarks he has been trying to set aside.

|8.9.07 @ 1:24PM|#

I wonder when this site is gonna cover the huge amount of earmarks he has been trying to set aside.


...and other politicians don't do this?

jjj|8.11.07 @ 1:49PM|#

That statement is a tad misleading. Although half might be pot users, less then 45,000 are in jail for pot offenses. It is still 45,000 too many, but at the same time I think spouting histrionics such as overstaments of marijuana's incarceration rates or the idea that medical marijuana is some type of miracle drug