Ron Paul - one more time

I don’t like writing about Paul because, frankly, he creeps me out. But he did appear on the Republican debate tonight, rising again like some nightmarish deluded phoenix, so I feel constrained to comment briefly on his interview with Wolf Blitzer, linked earlier by Glenn Reynolds.

I was fascinated that, under questioning by Blitzer, Paul could not remember the names of any of the people who might have composed the many egregious racist and sexist (and wretchedly written) statements on his Ron Paul newsletter during the nineties, which Paul claims not to have written himself. To be blunt, I think he was lying, trying to cover something or someone up, unless he is suffering Alzeheimer’s or some other form of dementia. Even in my most senior moments, I remember perfectly well the people I worked with in the nineties for any significant period of time and I was a busy fellow, if not completely as busy as the Congressman. If anyone does something that might reflect on me (for instance, these days publishing, on Pajamas) I pay special attention.

Now if…. by some remote chance…. I mean very remote… Paul paid no attention to these people actually writing and publishing under his name for years, he is a remarkably slapdash leader. The idea someone like that would be President of the United States is ludicrous.

If I were a libertarian, I would stay as far from him as possible. In fact, I’d do my best to excommunicate him from the movement. And yet, on Fox News tonight, there they were again, the Ronulans, text messaging their post-debate votes for Ron Paul and thrusting their Dear Leader once again to victory. It’s at once absurdly comic and frightening.