John Stossel and Ron Paul

David Weigel | December 10, 2007

ABC's John Stossel, an unabashed Ron Paul fan, sat down with the candidate to talk about choice. No questions about whether he'll jump parties, no quibbling about the war, no challenging his donations: Just talk about decriminalizing drugs and de-regulating consensual behavior. Stossel comments on the interview at ABC's site:

Paul notes that when our country was founded, the role of the government was to protect the general welfare, enforce the rule of law in court, maintain property rights and allow for free markets and free trade — "not to run our lives, and run everything in the economy."

It's a habit of politicians to identify problems and try to "fix" them with new laws and bureaucracies.

While some of these reforms may be well-intended, says Paul, "good intentions won't solve our problems," and more often they encroach on the personal liberties that have made our country great.

The one issue I have is Paul's halting but total defense of gay marriage. I think it's a pander: I've heard Paul tell conservative audiences that "gay marriage" is an oxymoron and a joke, and here he's taking the Jonathan Rauch position. But if you're going to pander, might as well be to libertarians.

Here, from the beginning of the decade, is a shorter Stossel segment that features Paul.