Liberty Maven

Interesting video of some behind the scenes footage at the recent Simi Valley, CA Republican debate from the Ron Paul campaign.

According to the MTV/MySpace forum site both Ron Paul and Barack Obama are now confirmed for participation. Apparently, the format of the forum allows for floor time alone for each candidate for 15-20 minutes. The forum begins at 6pm Eastern time on Saturday. Interestingly the two GOP front runners McCain and Romney have yet to confirm participation. As it stands now Obama, Clinton, Huckabee, and Paul are the only confirmed participants.

It will be broadcast live on MTV as well as online.

According to a story at MTV Ron Paul is expected to participate in the “Closing Arguments” forum sponsored by MTV and MySpace this Saturday.

Three days before Super Tuesday, when 23 states hold their presidential-nomination primaries or caucuses, MTV and MySpace will host some of the remaining Democratic and Republican candidates in a “Super” edition of the ongoing MTV/MySpace Presidential Dialogue series.

At 6 p.m. ET on Saturday, “Closing Arguments: A Presidential Super Dialogue” will be broadcast live from the MTV studios in New York. Senator Hillary Clinton, one of the two Democratic front-runners, and former Governor Mike Huckabee, a Republican candidate, have already been confirmed for the forum, the latest in a collaborative series between MTV and MySpace that has so far hosted events with Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, as well as former Senator John Edwards.

Obama and Congressman Ron Paul, a Republican candidate, are expected to announce their participation in the event on Thursday.

Ron Paul’s invitation can be attributed to the work of his grassroots supporters after they emailed and called MTV execs about including him.

Read the rest of the article at MTV.com.

Here is a rather inspiring albeit poor quality set of videos (3 parts) of Ron Paul’s post-debate rally speech.

Part 2 | Part 3

Ron Paul was interviewed immediately following the debate tonight. It was captured here and uploaded to YouTube by user ‘luis9343′. Good interview. The video comes on at about 38 seconds in.

The debate tonight was unfair as usual. It was pretty unfair to Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee. At one point Ron Paul requested more time to answer a previous question on liberalism vs. conservatism. The moderator, Anderson Cooper, promised he would get a chance to address that in 2 questions. That chance never came as they went on other topics. As usual, Ron Paul had some glowing moments though he still was the teacher, not the sound bite man. That is good for those of us who already support him, but to gain new votes he needs to show this other side, in my opinion. Below are the 7 questions Ron Paul received during the debate.

Q1 - Are we better off now?

Q2 - States Rights

Q3 - Will Huckabee’s Highway idea stimulate the economy?

Q4 - Would you have appointed Justice O’Conner?

Q5 - Do you agree with McCain’s 100 years war strategy?

Q6 - Leadership Capacity

Q7 - Would Reagan endorse you?

CNN and Politico are sponsoring a GOP debate tonight from the Reagan Library in Simi Valley California. All four remaining GOP candidates are participating. The debate begins at 8pm on CNN.

Many have been calling for Ron Paul to be more aggressive during this debate. It’s hard for me to argue against that, but Ron Paul being aggressive could alienate people. The counter argument is that he has nothing to lose anymore and so much to gain.

There are so many people telling Ron Paul what to say tonight. I guess I might as well give it a shot as well. At some point I want him to say the following.

I am a true conservative. I’ve never voted for a tax increase. I’m advocating cutting spending as well. Our country’s economic struggles can be solved. I’ve studied economics for over 35 years. My stimulus plan has been endorsed by leading economists and it would not recycle money from your pocket back into your pocket. That is lunacy and won’t work. If you are concerned about the rising costs of health care I can help. I’ve been an OB/GYN doctor my whole life. There’s nothing more precious than looking into the eyes of a child and seeing that hope. Hope for something better. Hope for a better life. Judging from the election results thus far my candidacy is all about hope. I’m not doing this for political gain or power. I’m doing this because I have hope for America. I am pro-life, pro-family, pro-jobs, and pro-freedom. America today seems to be going down the road of socialism. This has to stop. I love the America that our founders created: The America of freedom, prosperity, and peace. Vote for me and help us make America stronger, safer, more free, and more prosperous than ever before.

Or something like that. Somehow I’m asking Ron Paul to step outside of his lecturing teacher mode and go more into a Mike Huckabee soundbite mode. Not likely I know. In any case, Ron Paul should get more time tonight because there are only four candidates left. Even if it is still relatively the least time of those on the stage.

ConnieTalk.com has a pretty good article discussing the various inequities of last night’s debate in Florida. Here’s an excerpt:

It was 16 minutes into the debate before Congressman Ron Paul was even addressed with a question.

In fact, here are the final speaking times for what each candidate was given tonight:

Romney: 21 minutes, 11 seconds (12 answers and asked 1 question)
McCain: 16 minutes even (12 answers and asked 1 question)
Giuliani: 13 minutes and 50 seconds (10 answers and asked 1 question)
Huckabee: 12 minutes and 11 seconds (8 answers and asked 1 question)
Paul: 6 minutes and 31 seconds (5 answers and asked 1 question)

Read the article here.

Looking through neo-conservative colored glasses I’d say Romney did pretty well. But I feel a bit sick to my stomach doing that so I’m going to look through my regular eyes and say Ron Paul deserved more time.

He got less than half of the time Huckabee received.  The national poll numbers almost coincide with the amount of time each candidate received. So apparently, the polls do mean something to those moderating these debates.

Ron Paul had 5 questions and a single question he asked to McCain. Ron Paul’s last 2 answers: His answer on Social Security and on a potential third party run were his best answers of the evening. He also gets extra points for making McCain look like a fool for not knowing anything about the Working Group on Financial Markets.

I’ve been praying for Ron Paul to get a direct Social Security question in a debate like this and he got it. He nailed the answer as he framed it around how his plan would be a benefit to the elderly.

I don’t think his question to McCain was intended to make McCain look bad, but it did. I think it was more about educating the public that there is a secretive organization that may or may not prop up financial markets in the face of economic uncertainty. Many, including John McCain, apparently didn’t know this organization even exists. McCain said he’d talk to his “circle” of friends including the Treasury Secretary, not knowing that the Treasury Secretary is the Chairman of the group.

I don’t think the debate will swing voters over to any particular candidate. In the end I think it’s a Romney vs. McCain race in Florida for number 1. I almost hope Romney wins, just to quiet the media’s love for McCain for a few days. However, Romney has the most delegates right now so it’s hard for me to hope for either one of them.

I just hope Ron Paul gets a good percentage of the Florida vote. Anything above 8-10% would be good in my eyes.

I threw together the following video emphasizing McCain really isn’t a “straight talker”.