Posted by
Reeson on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 8:41:21 AM
Ron Paul's biggest problem with GOP voters is that he is more Libertarian than Republican. His last campaign for President was as a Libertarian. While conservatives will love his limited government philosophy, libertarians by definition are socially liberal. Unless he distances himself from that view, he will have trouble. Excerpts from
Yahoo News:
By JOE STINEBAKER, Associated Press WriterThu Jan 11, 6:28 PM ET
Rep. Ron Paul (news, bio, voting record), the iconoclastic, nine-term lawmaker from southeast Texas, took the first step Thursday toward a second, quixotic presidential bid — this time as a Republican.
Kent Snyder, the chairman of Paul's exploratory committee and a former staffer on Paul's Libertarian campaign, said the congressman knows he's a long shot.
Paul limits his view of the role of the federal government to those duties laid out in the Constitution. As a result, he sometimes casts votes at odds with his constituents and other Republicans.
He was one of a handful of Republicans to vote in 2002 against giving President Bush the authority to use military force in Iraq, contending that only Congress had the power to declare war. At times, he has voted against funds for the military.
Paul bills himself as "The Taxpayers' Best Friend," and is routinely ranked either first or second in the House by the National Taxpayers Union, a national group advocating low taxes and limited government.