GOP Establishment’s War on Ron Paul Backfires - Again

From: The Borg Blog

Two weeks ago, I reported here how the presidential campaign of Ron Paul received an apparent set-back when he was inexplicably excluded from an important candidates forum in Iowa, where the first-in-the-nation caucuses will be held early next year. Nevertheless, just as he has in previous cases where the GOP establishment has sought to bar him from the party, Dr. Paul has managed to turn a lemon into lemonade and has found a great gift in a room full of elephant dung.

Upon learning that the Iowans for Tax Relief and Iowa Christian Alliance had banned him from the June 30th forum - despite sending invitations to every single other Republican candidate that has appeared in the three debates previous - and after a futile attempt to convince them to reverse their ill-advised decision - Dr. Paul opted to hold his own forum immediately after and just across the street from the “main event” on Saturday. The result, according to the Des Moines Register and numerous eyewitness accounts, was the “main event” playing second fiddle to the Ron Paul Express.

In separate stories, the Register reports that just over 600 people attended the official forum- with hundred of seats left empty and the response relatively “subdued.” Dr. Paul filled his venue with at least as many “raucous” followers - though the Paul campaign and an actual attendee report well in excess of 1,000 in attendance, including hundreds of supporters happy with their standing-room-only presence.

Even if the low-ball number is correct, Ron Paul attracted as many supporters as the candidacies of Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Tommy Thompson, Tom Tancredo, Sam Brownback, and Duncan Hunter combined. And he did it with less than a week of preparation, versus several months for the forum that rejected him. Just as book bans generally blow up in the censors’ faces, this continued effort to blacklist Paul from the Republican presidential debate is just lending fuel to his campaign. You can’t buy publicity this good, and his opponents are giving it to him for free.
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As a live blogger reported, Paul discussed the inseparable connections between life and liberty, the legal rights of a fetus and the illusion of property ownership, the deficit and our impending economic crisis, the trouble with the federal reserve system and fiat money, how war is the health of the state, the unconstitutional Iraq War, Just War Theory, the march for endless war, the pyrrhic trade of our civil liberties for the promise of security, why he is running (to preserve liberty), and that “the little government that we should have should be local.” Finally, be sure to check out this post-Iowa forum/post-speech interview with Ron Paul (video).