Ron Paul

Ron Paul
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 14th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3 1997
Preceded by	Greg Laughlin
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 22nd district
In office January 3 1979 – January 3 1985
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 22nd district
In office April 1976 – January 3 1977
Personal details
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Carol Paul
Children	Ronnie Paul Lori Pyeatt Rand Paul Robert Paul Joy Paul-LeBlanc
Profession	Physician, Politician

Ronald Ernest Paul (born August 20, 1935) is a 10th-term United States congressman from Lake Jackson, Texas, a member of the Republican Party, a physician, and a candidate for the Republican nomination in the 2008 presidential election. He has represented Texas's 14th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1997 and represented Texas's 22nd district in 1976 and from 1979 to 1985. Paul also ran for president in the 1988 presidential election as the nominee for the Libertarian Party, while remaining a registered Republican. After graduation from the Duke University School of Medicine in 1961 and his residency in obstetrics/gynecology, he was drafted and served as a flight surgeon during, but not in, the Vietnam War.

Ron Paul has been referred to as a conservative, a constitutionalist, and a libertarian. Paul's pro-life and states' rights positions are intertwined. He supports free trade, sharply lower taxes, smaller government, and a non-interventionist foreign policy, advocating a withdrawal from NATO and the United Nations. He voted against the the Iraq War Resolution and the Patriot Act. Paul supports reduced government spending and states that he has never voted in Congress to raise taxes or to approve an unbalanced budget. He has called for the abolition of the Internal Revenue Service and the federal income tax. Paul also opposes illegal immigration, gun control, and the existence of many federal agencies.

Over the course of his 2008 presidential campaign, Paul has generated strong support on the Internet and is among the top Republican Internet search terms as measured by Hitwise, Alexa Internet, and Technorati. In YouTube, he leads the other presidential candidates, with over 28,000 subscribers. His supporters have claimed that he is unfairly ignored by the media, citing online polls that indicated that he won four out of five of the 2008 GOP debates to argue that he deserves more recognition. While he places in the top tier in Republican straw polls, Paul has never polled higher than 4% among Gallup samples of voters leaning Republican.

Early life and education

Paul was born in Green Tree, Pennsylvania, to Howard Caspar Paul, the son of a German Lutheran immigrant, and Margaret Paul. His family owned a dairy farm in the small town, which lies just outside of Pittsburgh. He was the third of five sons born during seven years in the Great Depression. Paul's father had an eighth-grade education and was co-owner, along with his siblings, Lewis and Arthur, of Green Tree Dairy. Paul began working at his father's dairy at age five. Later he delivered newspapers, worked in a drugstore, and became a milkman when he was old enough to drive. One of the customers on his milk route was baseball legend Honus Wagner.

He graduated from Dormont High School in Dormont, Pennsylvania, in 1953 with honors. He excelled in track and field, winning the Pennsylvania state championship in the 220-yard dash and coming in second in the 440-yard dash as a junior. He was also on the wrestling team, played football and baseball and was president of the student council.

Paul paid for his first year at Gettysburg College with saved newspaper-delivery, lemonade sales and lawn-mowing money. Paul delivered mail and laundry on the side while in Gettysburg; for one year, he managed the college coffee shop. He gave up track after a knee injury but joined the college's swimming team instead after taking it up as therapy. He had been offered a full scholarship to run for the track team but declined it, worried that he would not regain his previous speed. Paul was inducted into the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, where he served as steward and house manager. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1957.

Although he had once considered becoming a Lutheran minister like two of his brothers, Paul decided to pursue a career in medicine instead and was accepted to Duke University School of Medicine, where he received his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) in 1961. He conducted his internship and a year of residency training, both in internal medicine, at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit from 1961 to 1962 and residency in obstetrics/gynecology at the University of Pittsburgh from 1965 to 1968.

Paul adheres to the economic philosophy of the Austrian School of economics and has authored several books on the subject. He has pictures of economists Friedrich von Hayek and Ludwig von Mises hanging on his office wall.

Family

Paul and his wife Carol (née Wells) were married on February 1, 1957. Carol asked Ron to their first date to a Sadie Hawkins dance. They went to colleges in different states but kept in touch. The couple married in Ron's senior year at Gettysburg College.

They have five children: Ronnie, Lori, Rand, Robert, and Joy. They also have 18 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. While they lived in Detroit for his residency, Carol ran a dance school in their basement. Three of the Paul children, Robert, Rand, and Joy also became medical doctors. Rand Paul is an eye surgeon in Bowling Green, Kentucky who sometimes appears at events as a surrogate speaker for his father and has founded Kentucky Taxpayers United. Robert specializes in family practice. Like Congressman Paul, his daughter Joy specializes in obstetrics/gynecology. Paul supported his children during their undergraduate and medical school years, not allowing them to take part in subsidized federal student loan programs. He has not signed up for a congressional pension for the same reason. Paul usually goes home to Lake Jackson on weekends.

When her husband was campaigning in the 14th District, Carol Paul decided to help his campaign by compiling family recipes into a cookbook and sending it to constituents. The cookbook is filled with pictures of the large Paul family. Since originally published, five editions have been written. She and other family members keep a "Recipe of the Week" on her husband's Congressional campaign website.

Military service and medical career

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Paul's medical training was interrupted when he was drafted during the Cuban Missile Crisis into the United States Air Force. He remained in the military during the early years of the Vietnam War. He was never sent to Vietnam, instead serving active duty (1963–1965) that took him to other countries, including South Korea, Iran, Ethiopia and Turkey. He served as a flight surgeon out of Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, from 1963 to 1965, attending to the ear, nose and throat problems of pilots. He then served in the Air National Guard from 1965 to 1968 while completing his medical residency in Pittsburgh. He achieved rank of captain during his service in the Air Force.

Two years after leaving medical school, Paul worked in the emergency room of a church hospital in San Antonio for a wage of $3 per hour ($18 per hour in 2007 dollars.) Paul later specialized in obstetrics and gynecology where he delivered more than 4,000 babies. He took over the medical practice of a retiring doctor in Lake Jackson, Texas, where he was busy as the only obstetrician and gynecologist in Brazoria County. Paul said of his time as a doctor, "I delivered forty to fifty babies a month and did a lot of surgery." Paul did not accept Medicare or Medicaid as a physician; instead, he worked for free or arranged discounted or custom payment plans for needy patients.

Early congressional career

A physician for several years in his district before he went into politics, Paul became a delegate to the Republican Party of Texas convention in 1974. He had decided to enter politics on August 15, 1971, when President Richard Nixon advocated a complete departure from the gold standard for the U.S. dollar. He said, "After that day, all money would be political money rather than money of real value. I was astounded."

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Ron Paul led the Texas Delegation to nominate Ronald Reagan (left to right: Ron Paul, Jack Fields, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Archer)

Paul was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for Congressman from the 22nd District of Texas in 1974, an election where Democratic candidates won heavily, against the incumbent Democrat Robert R. Casey. When President Gerald R. Ford appointed Casey as head of the Federal Maritime Commission, a special election was held in April 1976 to choose a new congressperson. Paul won that election but lost six months later in the general election to Democrat Robert A. Gammage. The vote was close: fewer than 300 votes out of 180,000. He then defeated Gammage in a 1978 rematch. Paul won new terms in 1980 and 1982. Paul was the first Republican to represent the area in the House of Representatives. He was one of only four Republican congressmen to endorse Ronald Reagan for president against Gerald Ford in 1976, when Paul led the Texas delegation in support of Reagan at the national Republican convention.

Paul delivered babies on Mondays and Saturdays during his entire term as the 22nd District representative. During this time, he began to gain his reputation as "Dr. No", with his refusal to vote for laws he felt to be unconstitutional.

Paul was the first member of Congress, in the 1970s, to propose term limit legislation for the House of Representatives, where he declined to attend junkets or register for a congressional pension while serving four terms. He proposed legislation to decrease congressional pay at the rate of inflation. In 1980, when a majority of Republicans favored President Carter's proposal to reinstate draft registration, he pointed out the inconsistency in their views, and according to The Wall Street Journal, told them that they were more willing to register their children than they were to register their guns.

Paul served on the House Banking Committee during this time, where he spoke against the inflation he saw as being caused by the Federal Reserve. He also spoke against the deregulation of banking rules that allowed for the Savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. The US Gold Commission created by Congress in 1982 was his idea, and his conclusions from the commission were published by the Cato Institute as the book The Case for Gold. Paul's chief of staff from 1978 to 1982 was Lew Rockwell. Paul was a regular participant in the annual Congressional baseball game.

Paul was an unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. Senate in the 1984 GOP primary against Phil Gramm. Having chosen to run for the Senate instead of re-election, Paul left Congress in 1985 and returned to full-time medical practice and was subsequently succeeded by Tom DeLay, then a member of the Texas House of Representatives. In a farewell address on the House floor, Paul said, "Special interests have replaced the concern that the Founders had for general welfare. Vote trading is seen as good politics. The errand-boy mentality is ordinary, the defender of liberty is seen as bizarre. It's difficult for one who loves true liberty and utterly detests the power of the state to come to Washington for a period of time and not leave a true cynic."

1988 presidential campaign

In the 1988 presidential election, Paul defeated American Indian activist Russell Means to win the Libertarian Party's nomination for the U.S. Presidency. Appearing on the ballot in 46 states and the District of Columbia, he placed third in the popular vote (with 431,750 votes — 0.47%), behind Republican George H. W. Bush and Democrat Michael Dukakis. Paul was kept off the ballot in Missouri due to what The St. Louis Post-Dispatch called a "technicality" and only appeared as a write-in candidate in the state. Although he had been an early supporter of Ronald Reagan, Paul was critical of the unprecedented deficits incurred by Reagan's administration, for which Paul's opponent George H.W. Bush had been vice-president.

During his time as a Libertarian candidate, Paul was viewed as the "standard bearer" of the party and gained supporters nationwide who agreed with him on many of his positions — on gun rights, fiscal conservatism, home-schooling, and abortion, and he won approval from others who thought the federal government was heading in the wrong direction on other issues. These supporters formed a nationwide support base that encouraged him to return to office and supported his campaigns financially. His 2008 campaign chair, Kent Snyder, first worked for Paul on the 1988 campaign, when Snyder says that Senator John McCain told him, "You're working for the most honest man in Congress."

Paul said that he was trying to do more during his presidential run than reach office: he was trying to spread his liberty-minded ideas and would often talk to school and university groups, some of whom weren't old enough to vote. "We're just as interested in the future generation as this election. These kids will vote eventually, and maybe, just maybe, they'll go home and talk to their parents." He traveled the country for a year speaking about issues such as free market economics and the rising government deficits. He said, "That's why we talk to a lot of young people. They're the ones who are paying these bills, they're the ones who are inheriting this debt, so it's most likely these young people who will move into this next generation in government."

After the election, Paul had a coin business, began his own think tank, the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education, published an investment newsletter, and continued his medical practice until he returned to Congress.

Newsletter article controversy

An article in a 1992 edition of The Ron Paul Survival Report (a newsletter Paul had published from 1985) contained disparaging comments concerning race and Paul's political opponents. According to the Atlanta Progressive News, the newsletter accused President Bill Clinton of fathering illegitimate children and using cocaine, and called Representative Barbara Jordan a "fraud" and a "half-educated victimologist." The article said that government should lower the legal age for prosecuting youths as adults, saying: "black males age 13 who have been raised on the streets and who have joined criminal gangs are as big, strong, tough, scary and culpable as any adult and should be treated as such." The newsletter also said, "only about 5 percent of blacks have sensible political opinions," "If you have ever been robbed by a black teen-aged male, you know how unbelievably fleet-footed they can be," and, "95 percent of the black males in Washington, D.C. are semi-criminal or entirely criminal."

In a 2001 interview with Texas Monthly magazine, Paul acknowledged that the comments were printed in his newsletter under his name, but that they were written by a ghostwriter and did not represent his views. He said the remarks referring to Rep. Jordan were "the saddest thing, because Barbara and I served together and actually she was a delightful lady." He said that he took moral responsibility for the comments with which he disagreed being published under his name. Texas Monthly explained, "What [had] made the statements in the publication even more puzzling was that, in four terms as a U. S. congressman and one presidential race, Paul had never uttered anything remotely like this."

Later congressional career

Campaigns

Paul's Congressional portrait

In 1996, Paul returned to Congress after a tougher battle than he had faced in the 1970s. He was hopeful that he would be more effective in Congress after the Republicans took over both houses of Congress in the 1994 election. His Republican primary opponent, Greg Laughlin, had support from leaders within the Republican Party, including House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Governor George W. Bush. Incumbent Laughlin had switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican side the year before, and the Republican National Committee, hoping to encourage other Democrats to switch parties, threw its full support behind Laughlin. Despite these efforts by the national party and some of its aligned interest groups such as the NRA, challenger Paul won the primary. It was the third time he had been elected to Congress as a non-incumbent.

While Gingrich and other Republican leaders visited the district stumping for Laughlin, Paul ran newspaper ads quoting Gingrich's harsh criticisms of Laughlin's voting record 14 months earlier, before Laughlin had switched parties. Baseball pitcher (and constituent) Nolan Ryan, a friend of Paul's, served as his honorary campaign chairman and appeared in ads for him, and tax activist Steve Forbes also supported Paul's candidacy. Paul was elected for the coastal 14th Congressional District rather than the 22nd District he had previously represented. The change in district was a result of the borders of redistricting as Paul continued to maintain his home in Lake Jackson.

His Democratic opponent in the fall election, trial lawyer Charles "Lefty" Morris, lost in a close margin despite running numerous attacks on Paul, including his past votes to repeal federal drug laws in favor of state legislation and portions of old newsletters, and was assisted by the national AFL-CIO. Paul in turn labeled Morris a pawn of trial lawyers and big labor. He raised more money than Morris, with the help of his national network of donors: $1.2 million to Morris' $472,153. Ken Bryan, a Democratic consultant to some of Paul's opponents, has said, "He has one of the largest contributor bases in Congress, outside of the leadership." Most of Paul's contributions are given in small amounts by individuals. That year, he had the third-highest amount of individual contributions of any House member, behind Speaker Newt Gingrich and Bob Dornan.

In 1998 he again won the primary and the election and outraised his opponent by a large margin, $2.1 million to $734,000. Opposing a Democratic rice farmer and former Matagorda County judge, Loy Sneary, Paul won by 11 percentage points; he ran ads warning voters to be "leery of Sneary." Paul accused Judge Sneary of voting to raise his pay by 5%, increasing his judge's travel budget by 400% in one year, and creating more government bureaucracy by starting a new government agency to handle a license plate fee he enacted. Sneary's aides said he had voted to raise all county employees' pay by 5% in a "cost of living" increase. Paul countered that he had never voted to raise congressional pay.

In 2000, Sneary ran against Paul again, with Paul winning 60% to 40%. He raised $2.4 million to Sneary's $1.1 million in that campaign. Paul was re-elected in 2002. Unopposed in 2004, he was re-elected to his ninth term in the Congress, and he was re-elected again in 2006 for his 10th term by a 20-point margin, outraising his opponent $1.2 million to $600,000.

He has drawn two primary challengers in the next election: Eric Dondero, a former aide fired by Paul, and Chris Peden, a Friendswood city councilman.

Relationship with district

Paul continued to work as an obstetrician in Brazoria County, Texas, even while serving in Congress, delivering many of his constituents' babies. As of 2001, he was one of few doctors in the House (eight, including dentists) and part of an even smaller group that continued to practice while in office. Journalists have reported that it is not unusual for younger people in his home district to approach the congressman and say that he delivered them.

Paul opposes some forms of legislation that coastal or rural members of Congress typically support. Paul's district in Texas is larger in size than Massachusetts and borders the Gulf of Mexico with 675 miles of coastline, also including suburbs of Houston; it was redistricted prior to the 2004 election. Paul is opposed to federally funded flood insurance because it requires those who do not live near flood zones to subsidize those who choose to live in an area that is prone to flooding and does not allow those in flood zones to choose their own insurer. In an "overwhelmingly rural region," Paul opposes farm subsidies because they go to big corporations rather than small farmers. Despite voting against bills with large support in Congress, such as the farm bill, the congressman's "contrarian nature" and devotion to lowering taxes has appealed to voters in the 14th District. One survey conducted by Paul of the constituency found that 54% agreed with his goal of eliminating the federal Department of Education.

While Paul votes against most spending bills, he has diverted funds that have already been authorized by other bills into his own district. Paul spends time in the district to compensate for "violat[ing] almost every rule of political survival you can think of." He sometimes spends three to four days a week in his district addressing constituents' concerns, often accompanied by one of his grandchildren. He attends graduations, civic ceremonies, and Boy Scout honor ceremonies. In an expansive district, it is not unusual for him to log more than 300 miles per day visiting constituents or handling their concerns. He reaches out to 14th District voters on veterans' issues, such as procuring medals for war veterans who lost or never received their medals; he holds medal ceremonies for those whose medals are being presented. He has helped senior citizens of the district get free or low-cost prescription drugs through a little-known drug company program. His staff sends out birthday cards to constituents, as well as condolence cards on the deaths of family members.

Legislation

Paul sponsors many bills in Congress, such as those that would abolish the income tax or the Federal Reserve, many of which do not get out of committee. Nevertheless, he has been named one of the "50 Most Effective Members of Congress" by Congressional Quarterly. He has sponsored successful legislation to prevent the Department of Housing and Urban Development from seizing a church in New York state through eminent domain and a bill transferring ownership of the Lake Texana dam project from the federal government to Texas.

Paul has introduced bills which would apply a $5,000 tax credit per child towards spending on any type of children's education-related expenses, public, private, or home schooled. He first proposed the Family Education Freedom Act in 1997 and has introduced it in all the Congressional sessions since, including 2007; the bill currently has six co-sponsors. He has also introduced companion legislation in the form of the Teacher Tax Cut Act, which would provide all elementary and secondary school teachers with a $1,000 tax cut, and the Professional Educators Tax Relief Act, which would give all K-12 school librarians, counselors and other personnel the same $1,000 tax credit. He has also introduced the Education Improvement Tax Cut Act, which would allow $5,000 deductions for any type of donations to scholarships or to benefit academics at any school.

In March 2001, Paul introduced the "Constitutional War Powers Resolution of 2001," which would repeal the 1973 War Powers Resolution and thus prohibit presidents from initiating a war without a formal declaration of war by Congress. In 2001, however, Paul voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force, which authorized the president, pursuant to War Powers Resolution, to respond to those responsible for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack. In order to prevent Congress from yielding its constitutional authority to declare war to the executive branch, which does not constitutionally hold that power, Paul introduced legislation in October 2002 giving Congress the opportunity to declare war on Iraq, rather than merely "authorizing" the president to deploy forces without a declaration of war. He said he would not vote for his own bill, but if his fellow members of Congress wished to go to war in Iraq, they should follow the Constitution and declare war. As one of six Republicans to vote against the Iraq War Resolution, Paul inspired the founding of a group called the National Peace Lobby Project to promote a resolution he and Oregon representative Peter DeFazio sponsored to repeal the war authorization in February 2003. His column "35 Questions That Won't Be Asked About Iraq" was translated and published in German, French, Russian, Italian, and Swiss publications before the Iraq War began.

Paul has said his fellow members of Congress have increased domestic spending by 33 percent since George W. Bush came into office. After introduction of a 2005 bill that was touted as "slashing" government waste, he wrote that the bill only decreased spending by less than a fraction of one percent and that "Congress couldn't slash spending if the members' lives depended on it." Paul said in 2004 that he had refused to vote for more than 700 bills creating a larger government over his previous two terms in office.

He has also said that fellow legislators voted for the Patriot Act without reading it first; the bill was more than 300 pages long and was passed into law less than one day after being introduced. He has introduced legislation called the "Sunlight Rule" which would not allow a vote on legislation to occur until 10 days after the bill's introduction, with the intent of giving lawmakers enough time to read bills before voting on them. For amendments, 72 hours would have to be allotted for members and staff of the House of Representatives to examine their contents.

In 2005, Paul introduced the Sanctity of Life Act, a federal bill that would define human life as beginning at conception and remove abortion from the jurisdiction of the federal judiciary., effectively overturning Roe v. Wade. Defining embryos and fetuses as persons would make abortion murder and outlaw fetal stem cell research and some contraception and fertility treatments. He has also introduced a constitutional amendment which would remove federal jurisdiction over abortion.

Also in 2005, he introduced the We the People Act, which, if made law, would forbid federal courts (including the Supreme Court) from hearing cases on subjects such as the display of religious text and imagery on government property, abortion, sexual practices, and same-sex marriage, would make federal court decisions on those subjects non-binding as precedent in state courts, and would forbid federal courts from spending any money to enforce their judgments. Both of these bills were re-introduced by Paul in 2007 in the 110th Congress.

Affiliations

Congressman Paul serves on the Committee on Financial Services where he is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade, and Technology, the International Relations Committee, and the Joint Economic Committee. He is vice-chairman of the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee of the Financial Services Committee and also serves on the Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy, Technology, and Economic Growth. Under the Committee on International Relations, he serves on the Western Hemisphere and Asia and the Pacific subcommittees.

Paul served as honorary chairman and is a current member of the Republican Liberty Caucus, a political action organization dedicated to promoting the ideals of individual rights, limited government and free enterprise within the Republican Party. He also serves on the Liberty Caucus (sometimes called the Liberty Committee), a group of liberty-minded congressional representatives from both sides of the aisle. He hosts a luncheon for the Liberty Caucus every Thursday. Other members include Walter B. Jones of North Carolina, Jimmy Duncan of Tennessee, Virgil Goode of Virginia, Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland, Scott Garrett of New Jersey, Zach Wamp of Tennessee and Jeff Flake of Arizona. He is a founding member of the Congressional Rural Caucus, which deals with agricultural and rural issues and the Congressional Wildlife Refuge Caucus.

Unlike many political candidates, Paul receives the overwhelming majority of his campaign contributions from individuals. In 2005–2006, individuals contributed 96.8% of the funds he raised.

Paul remains on good terms with the Libertarian Party. He addressed its national convention in 2004.

Actions in Congress

Paul was one of 17 members of Congress who formed a bipartisan coalition to file a lawsuit against President Bill Clinton in 1999 over his conduct of the war in Kosovo. In the filing, they accused Clinton of not reporting to Congress within 48 hours on the status of the action as required by the 1973 War Powers Resolution and not first obtaining a declaration of war from Congress as specifically required in the Constitution. Congress had voted 427 to 2 against a declaration of war with Yugoslavia and had voted to deny support for the air campaign in Kosovo. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that since Congress had voted for funding after the United States was already actively engaged in the war with Kosovo, legislators had sent a confusing message about whether they approved of the war. Paul said that the judge's decision was an attempt to circumvent the Constitution and authorize the president to conduct a war without approval from Congress.

2008 presidential campaign

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Ron Paul's campaign slogan, "Hope for America"

Main article: Ron Paul presidential campaign, 2008

On February 19, 2007, Paul formed an exploratory committee to gauge support for a run in the 2008 United States presidential election. Saying that he had been "pleasantly surprised" by the findings of the committee, Paul formally declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination on March 12, 2007, as a guest on C-SPAN's Washington Journal.

As of July 6, Ron Paul had the third most cash on hand of the Republican candidates with $2.4 million, putting him ahead of John McCain. Greater than 99 percent of Paul's funds have come from individuals, with almost half (47%) raised from small contributions ($200 or less).

Prior to the campaign, in a CNN telephone poll conducted in February 2007, he was the candidate with the least name recognition besides John H. Cox. In a Zogby telephone poll released on May 17, Paul drew three percent of the respondents that the pollster determined were "likely New Hampshire Republican primary voters," fifth place among Republican contenders. Paul also came in second in fundraising in Montana and at the head of the pack of "second-tier" candidates in 14 other states. In polling conducted at the Utah GOP convention on June 9, Paul placed second behind Mitt Romney, and according to his blog, placed second only to undeclared candidate Fred Thompson in a Georgetown County, South Carolina, Republican Party straw poll conducted on July 28. In the Iowa straw poll on August 11, Paul got more than 9% of the vote, coming in 5th place among the candidates. In the Illinois Republican Straw Poll held in Springfield Illinois August 16th, Ron Paul won 18.87% of the vote, in third place behind Romney (40.35%) and undeclared candidate Fred Thompson (19.96%).

FEC finance reports for the 2007 July quarterly indicate that Ron Paul has topped all other presidential candidates in campaign contributions from employees of the armed services, at 26.2 percent. Among Republican contenders Paul has at least 49.5 percent of polled military support or nearly as much as all others combined.

On August 18, 2007, Paul placed 1st in the New Hampshire Straw Poll with 72.7% of the vote. His closest rival in the straw poll, Mitt Romney, received 12.5% of the total vote. On that same day, he also placed 1st in the Alabama Straw Poll with 81.2% of the vote. Again, his closest rival in the straw poll was Mitt Romney, who received 5.2% of the total vote. On September, 1, placed third in the Texas Straw Poll with 17% of the vote.

The newest Gallup poll, conducted in September 2007, polled Paul at 4% among likely Republican voters.

Internet popularity

Paul has participated in five Republican presidential debates, four of which he won according to the sponsors' online polls. After the first debate, ABC News noted that Paul has a robust online presence and that "his supporters have mastered the art of 'viral marketing,' using Internet savvy and blog postings to create at least the perception of momentum for his long-shot presidential bid." U.S. News has reported him to have an increasing on-line popularity, saying "his supporters have flocked to the Internet with such enthusiasm that Paul is now showing up among the much richer candidates in various measures of Internet traffic." According to USA Today, Ron Paul is an "online natural."

Paul's Internet presence has been measured as a top Internet search term by Technorati and Hitwise, which rank popularity in the blogosphere. Some have claimed that these rankings are skewed by a small number of supporters who are intentionally inflating search counts. However, Aaron Krane, a spokesman for Technorati, has stated his company's position that Ron Paul's search popularity is genuine to the best of their knowledge.

On YouTube, Paul ranks in first place among all presidential candidates, as measured by total number of viewership. Ron Paul can also claim the most YouTube subscriptions out of all presidential candidates, after having surpassed Barack Obama on May 20, 2007. As of August 13th, Ron Paul's YouTube channel was one of the top 40 most subscribed of all time, with over 28,000 subscribers.

Political positions

Paul at the 2007 National Right to Life Convention in Kansas City, MO; June 15, 2007.

Main article: Political positions of Ron Paul

Ron Paul supports free trade, tighter border security, gun ownership, a Constitutional amendment allowing voluntary and unofficial school prayer, hard money such as the silver or gold standard, and allowing workers to opt out of Social Security. He is also an advocate of private property rights for pollution prevention, habeas corpus for political detainees, and greater ballot access, He supports revising enforcement of the military "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which he calls "decent," to focus on behavior and include members with heterosexual as well as homosexual behavior issues.

Paul supports substantial reduction of the role of the federal government in the lives of individuals and in the functions of foreign and domestic states. Paul is the only 2008 Republican presidential candidate to have voted against the Iraq War Resolution in 2002. Paul voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, but suggested war alternatives including giving the president authority to grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal to target specific terrorists. Paul opposes illegal immigration, birthright citizenship and amnesty. Paul also supports ending welfare benefits for illegal immigrants and voted "yes" on the Secure Fence Act of 2006.

Paul describes himself as "an unshakable foe of abortion", and states that, for the most part, regulation must be handled at the state level until and unless the Constitution is amended.

Paul opposes governmental use of torture, membership in NAFTA and the WTO, domestic surveillance, the draft, the income tax, a national ID card, the federal War on Drugs, federal regulation of marriage, foreign interventionism, and foreign aid. He advocates withdrawal from NATO and the United Nations for reasons of maintaining strong national sovereignty. Paul votes against most federal spending, including an instance when he voted against funding same-sex adoption. Paul supports elimination of most federal government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, the IRS, NASA, DHHS and the Department of Education, calling them unnecessary bureacracies. Paul also opposes federal regulation of the Internet and education. He advocates the gradual elimination of the Federal Reserve central bank, so that interest rates and money supply can be set by a free market which he believes would lead to less economic volatility, among other reasons.

Books authored

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• Paul, Ron (1981). Gold, Peace, and Prosperity: The Birth of a New Economy (PDF). Lake Jackson, TX: Foundation for Rational Economics and Education. Retrieved 2007-07-30.
• Paul, Ron (1982). The Case for Gold: a Minority Report of the U.S. Gold Commission (PDF). Lake Jackson, TX: Reprinted by Cato Institute, 1982; Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2007. ISBN 0932790313. Retrieved 2007-07-30. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Paul, Ron (1983). Abortion and Liberty.
• Paul, Ron (1983). Ten Myths About Paper Money. Lake Jackson, TX: Foundation for Rational Economics and Education. ISBN 11765863. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help)
• Paul, Ron (1984). Mises and Austrian Economics: A Personal View (PDF). Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute. Retrieved 2007-07-30.
• Paul, Ron (1987, 2007). Freedom Under Siege: The U.S. Constitution After 200 Years (PDF). Lake Jackson, TX: Foundation for Rational Economics and Education. Retrieved 2007-07-30. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help) (Book distributed with permission from Ron Paul)
• Paul, Ron (1990). Challenge to Liberty: Coming to Grips with the Abortion Issue. Lake Jackson, TX: Foundation for Rational Economics and Education.
• Paul, Ron (1991). The Ron Paul Money Book.
• Paul, Ron (2000). A Republic, If You Can Keep It. House of Representatives Website.
• Paul, Ron (2007). A Foreign Policy of Freedom. Lake Jackson, TX: Foundation for Rational Economics and Education. ISBN 0912453001.

External links

Official sites

• 2008 Presidential Campaign Website
• U.S. House of Representatives Office of Ron Paul
• Local Meetup Groups
• YouTube channel
• MySpace
• Facebook
• Eventful

Topic pages and databases

• Template:CongBio2
• iDiggRonPaul, Social media website dedicated to Ron Paul
• Ron Paul Library, more than 800 articles and speeches by Ron Paul
• The Ron Paul File on LewRockwell.com — a collection of audio and video links and articles
• Articles written by Ron Paul on LewRockwell.com
• On the Issues — Ron Paul issue positions and quotes
• OpenSecrets.org Congress and Presidential campaign contributions (from the Center for Responsive Politics)
• SourceWatch Congresspedia — Ron Paul profile
• PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer — Vote 2008: Ron Paul
• Template:VoteSmart
• Washington Post — Presidential Candidates: Ron Paul profile, finance, events

Video

• FreeME.tv Ron Paul Internet television station providing 24/7 coverage of latest videos about Ron Paul. Updated frequently and in order as new content becomes available.