[NYTr] AP covers Ron Paul collecting fans and campaign money

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AP via Yahoo - Nov 15, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071115/ap_po/ron_paul


Ron Paul collecting fans and campaign money

By Charles Babington

WASHINGTON -- Those who dismissed Rep. Ron Paul as a joke in the
Republican presidential primary campaign aren't laughing so hard
these days.

The Texas libertarian's rise in the polls and in fundraising proves
that a small but passionate number of Americans can be drawn to an
advocate of unorthodox proposals such as returning to the gold
standard and abolishing the income tax, CIA and Federal Reserve.

Paul, 72, recently set a one-day, online GOP presidential fundraising
record, and pulled slightly ahead of Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee
in a New Hampshire poll, where he had 8 percent of the Republicans'
support. In Iowa, he tied John McCain for fifth place, with 4 percent
each.

Paul remains a very long shot for the nomination. But as the only
Republican candidate backing a prompt troop withdrawal from Iraq b
and an airing of possible impeachment charges against Vice President
Dick Cheney b he appeals to a mix of liberals and conservatives who
feel alienated and deeply distrustful of the government.

"Where the extreme left and the extreme right meet, you'll find Ron
Paul," said Merle Black, an Emory University political scientist
and co-author of the book "Divided America."

"He strikes a chord with some segments of the population," especially
with his quixotic, uncompromising style, Black said. "But there's
a pretty low ceiling in terms of his actual vote."

Paul, who earned a medical degree from Duke University and embraces
the nickname "Dr. No," often casts the only House vote against
proposals he sees as too meddlesome or unworthy of taxpayers' money.

In recent months he was the only House member to oppose an expression
of support for Northern Ireland's new power-sharing government, a
condemnation of "the persecution of labor rights advocates in Iran"
and a statement citing the importance of "providing a voice" for
relatives of Americans who have vanished.

He was one of two Republicans to vote against funding the Defense
Department in 2008, and against urging the release of Burmese
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Paul is Congress' most prominent advocate of returning to the gold
standard, which the country abandoned in the 1930s. In its purest
form it would mean that all paper currency in circulation could be
redeemed for gold.

Supporters say the gold standard would curb inflation and boost
confidence in the economy. But others say it would trigger severe
recessions because the Federal Reserve could no longer manage the
money supply in times of economic weakness.

For that matter, Paul would eliminate the Fed altogether as an
impediment to free markets.

Paul breezily talks of eliminating the personal income tax, saying
it provides about 40 percent of federal revenues, which spending
cuts could absorb. The government's funding level would approximate
that of 2000, he says, although government statistics put the figure
closer to 1995.

In a phone interview Wednesday, Paul said he is inching up in the
polls "because more people have heard the message."

He said he was stunned when supporters raised $4.2 million for him
on Nov. 5, mostly through the Internet. It broke Mitt Romney's
one-day fundraising record, $3.1 million, for Republican presidential
candidates.

"Something is going on," Paul said. "It's all spontaneous," he said,
and reflects a hunger for smaller government, greater adherence to
the Constitution and "a pro-American foreign policy."

Paul said the United States should leave the United Nations. "I
don't like giving up our national sovereignty," he said.

The government should gather intelligence, he said, but dismantle
the CIA, which he accused of blunders and abuses of power.

Democratic-drafted charges that could lead to a House impeachment
vote against Cheney, Paul said, deserve careful deliberations by
congressional committees.

Presidential debate moderators typically pay scant attention to
Paul and two other House members seen as fringe candidates. But he
has triggered some crackling exchanges on the Iraq war, unusual for
primary campaign debates in which most candidates hold similar
views.

At a mid-May debate in South Carolina, Paul infuriated Rudy Giuliani
and others by saying U.S. troops' presence in Saudi Arabia contributed
to al-Qaida's decision to attack the United States on Sept. 11,
2001.

"If we think that we can do what we want around the world and not
incite hatred, then we have a problem," Paul said. "They don't come
here to attack us because we're rich and we're free. They come and
they attack us because we're over there."

Many Republicans condemned the remarks. But Paul's supporters
rhapsodize about his candor and integrity on Web sites and at "meet
ups."

"We didn't really believe we could find an honest politician," said
Cecelia Poole of Elkton, Md., describing how she and her husband
intensely researched Paul's record. First drawn to Paul's hardline
stance against illegal immigration, Poole said she found herself
agreeing with him on monetary policy, the war and other issues.

"He would turn this country around in the way that it needs to go,"
said Poole, a semiretired mortgage broker. She and her husband now
travel to several states, she said, "promoting him everywhere we
go."