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Three things hurt him with the mainstream media. First, he's not as savvy at manipulating the media with soundbytes as people like John McCain and Newt Gingric
by jtbigwoo 13y ago
Three things hurt him with the mainstream media.
First, he's not as savvy at manipulating the media with soundbytes as people like John McCain and Newt Gingrich. He always has a provocative answer to questions, though, so he's a regular on some news shows.
Second, his supporters are extemely loyal, but he's not that influential in his own party. In Republican presidential primaries, he rarely rose above 10% of the vote. His supporters lean libertarian and haven't traditionally been able to elect their candidates like the social conservatives and business conservatives have. He's probably not in the top 20 most influential people in his own party. Just off the top of my head, he's behind Limbaugh, Hannity, McConnell, Boehner, Cantor, O'Reilly, Perry, Cruz, Rubio, Gingrich, Santorum, Jindal, Rand Paul (his son), and Cornyn. He's probably also less influential than folks most people have never heard of like John Thune, Jim Lankford, Roy Blunt, Jan Brewer, Reince Preibus, Rick Scott, Sam Brownback, and John Kasich.
Third, his newsletters from the 80's and 90's are pretty racist and nasty. (The newsletters called Martin Luther King Jr. a pedophile among other things.) He has said lately that he didn't write or review those newsletters and has disavowed them.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/98883/ron-paul-incendiary-newsletters-exclusive http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/98883/ron-paul-i...
Edit: I meant Roy Blunt the U.S. Senator, not Roy Blount the humorist.
- a8da6b0c91d 13y agoMLK was a pervert. People are going to freak when his FBI files are finally unsealed. It's pretty clear why release was delayed.
- dreamdu5t 13y agoYou're contradicting yourself. If the FBI files aren't unsealed, how do you know what's in them?
- Aloha 13y agoJust because the files are not open, doesn't mean we don't have some idea whats in them.
- jessaustin 13y agoPresumably the files will be opened at some point. Is there anyone here willing to wager that they will give any indication that MLK was a pedophile? How young are we talking? How much will you wager?
- Aloha 13y agoI was speaking in general terms. Do I think MLK was? No. Do I think there are secrets in his files that would be embarrassing to him and his kin? Oh sure, there are no saints, and everyone has a couple of skeletons. The assertion in this thread what that he was a pervert - that does not inherently equal pedophile it likely means pervert by the standard of the time - which by todays standards would be merely kinky.
- jessaustin 13y agoThe only reason MLK came up here was this claim: [Ron Paul's] newsletters called Martin Luther King Jr. a pedophile among other things.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- jessaustin 13y agoAre you really talking about the Wait, Wait -- Don't Tell Me! guy, or do you mean Roy Blunt? I'm just asking because when I was in high school I shook Roy Blunt's hand at some dumb "geography bee" or whatever. b^)
- jtbigwoo 13y agoOops, good catch, thanks.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 13y agoHasn't the "oh I didn't write or read or approve of those newsletters" been debunked?