printA miserable Norah O’Donnell of MSNBC just broke the splendid news that Ron Paul has raised over $5 million. She repeatedly tagged him an “isolationist,” which we know is a pejorative intended to discredit individuals who do not support recreational, unprovoked wars. Yet more nonsense on stilts from the malpractitioners in mainstream media; Paul is no isolationist; an advocate of free, unfettered trade is never an isolationist.
O’Donnell had Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter on to confirm that, having surpassed the mummified McCain, Paul was now officially a player. You don’t say, toots.
Update: on his show, Tucker Carlson mentioned Ron Paul’s high-water mark fund raising. The ubiquitous empty dress, A.B. Stoddard of The Hill, called Paul a “spoiler.” That kind of comment, meant to indicate Paul was taking votes from a bigger ticket, is the standard shallow, smart-alecky quip one has come to expect from the commentariat. Meaningless fluff.
Bill Press, to his great credit, put her in her place perfectly. Press said Paul was the real deal; that he was raising money because he had a message people craved. It took Press, a left-liberal, to galvanize the smart but smarmy Tucker (a conservative), who then vaporized a bit about how he liked Paul, but how Paul hadn’t a chance, “Given we are all socialists now, believing government should do most things for us.” Then he muttered incongruently how he still liked Paul.
Once again, if Tucker wants to see freedom prevail and socialism defeated, why not muster some courage and stand by the man who promulgates this? That is, if you really like what you hear. Why keep up this, “I’m so witty and cynical” façade—one moment mocking the man and his chances, the next, conceding Paul’s principles are the better ones.
I can’t respect such dissembling. These commentators have no yen for freedom. I guess, feeding so close to the trough as they do, they are free. Being part of what I call the Military-Media-Industrial-Congressional-Complex, they are free. It’s you and I who lack freedom, not the connected punditocracy. They benefit from power; we don’t.