I will make this brief since the clip will be up on YouTube by morning. I was a bit ticked off at first because I thought RP would be on for the full hour of the show. They didn't bring him on until about 40 minutes into the show, and he was only interviewed for about 5-10 minutes. The response from Maher's audience was tumultuous as Ron Paul was introduced, and as he left the stage. The audience was chanting "vote for Ron Paul, vote for Ron Paul!!!!" Even after he left the stage and the discussion between the two guests (neocon PJ O'Rourke and liberal phony Ben Affleck) and Maher continued, people were still shouting out RP's name. Maher said he had never seen the audience so "riled up." The interview itself was brief and centered around the exchange between Paul and the Mafia-like criminal Giuliani at the debates last week. They talked about how RP is now trying to educate Ghouliani by citing the 9/11 Commission, which was commissioned by the same establishment that Ghouliani is a shill for, which said themselves that the terrorism we saw on 9/11 was the result of our foreign policy -- not simply "they hate us because of our freedom". RP talked about how the neocons exploit patriotism by marginalizing anyone who disagrees with their empty rhetoric. Maher mentioned how RP has the most conservative voting record in Congress, and asked RP what happened to the Republican Party, to which RP responded by saying how they've "lost their way" because of their abandonment of the conservative principles of limited government.
I like a lot of what Ron Paul stands for. My objections: 1. The gold standard is stupid, there is a reason everyone has abandoned it. Anyone who reads economic history will realise that is was not part of a golden era, it was associated with all kinds of problems and crises. There is no logic making the US dollar exchangeable for a fixed size lump of metal. It presumes that the value of gold is stable, which it is clearly not. I can guarantee the odds of him dropping this position increase the more his popularity rises. The gold standard is an argument came back to life in the 1970s, when inflation was a real problem. Inflation has been well controlled for more than two decades now in the major economies, which pretty much killed of the logic behind the return to the gold standard - to end inflation. 2. Opposing income tax is the kind of thing fringe candidates can get away with. Who likes taxes? Nobody. Where are we going to find $1.1 trillion of expenses to cut when the country is already running a $248 billion deficit? Good luck. That's double the defence budget plus most of Medicaid. Presidents aren't dictators, why would anyone believe Ron Paul would make the same Congress that passed the Farm Bill and other horrors go along with a 50% cut in the Federal Budget? 3. He's free trade but opposed every free trade agreement. What does that mean? Is he trying to have it both ways? It he a unilateral free trader - i.e. unilaterally eliminating all tariffs, quotas, subsidies, and so on, regardless of what are trading partners do? Could be, but more likely he wants to be evasive. It would be nice to see someone press him on this so we can see whether he is a right wing isolationist protectionist or a true libertarian free trader. 4. Being Dr No is just being a celebrity crank. He's eventually going to find out that doing nothing doesn't solve everything.
