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February 13, 2011

CPAC Winner of the Straw Poll

By Michael Shaw


I think it’s really unfair of the liberal media to make Ron Paul out like a crazy man, don’t you? — especially since he just won the favor of the leading conservative conference? I mean, do you think these photos are fair?

(photos: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images. caption: Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Marriott Wardman Park February 11, 2011 in Washington, DC. A dozen potential Republican presidental hopefuls are set to address CPAC, the biggest gathering of conservative activists in the country.  (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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  • Enoch Root

    ‘Crazy’ is the wrong word. These are ‘get offa my lawn!’ picures. Really I think that they reflect the fact that Paul the senior is not comfortable with the need to appear strident in public. He just wants to derail the federal government; no one told him he’d have to be slick at the podium as part of the process.

    Also, what’s up with the crap lighting at CPAC? They have video on the big screen and everything… The lighting should be better.

  • http://twitter.com/marcsobel marc sobel

    I don’t think you understand. He only has the support of the attendees and the crazy enabled voters. He doesn’t have the Support of the People. That is the People who run Fox.

  • Withnails

    Screw fairness. They did the same to Dean.

    • http://www.ronpaul2012podcast.com/ JTWilliams

      You’re right Nails, they did do the same to Dean. The question is, where did the media’s attack on Dean begin? When you think back, Dean’s scream was nothing, and quite mild compared to the sound any excited human being might make. The issue isn’t partisan, it’s about destroying any candidate who isn’t compromised- or bought and paid for. They tried to do it to Rand Paul, but they failed. They took his philosophical argument on govt and took it to the sleazy lowest common denominator: the Woolworth’s lunch counters. On Election Day, we have our right to select from THE CANDIDATES WE ARE GIVEN. Our weak minded fellow citizens hear a media pundit say a certain candidate is unelectable, and they simply believe it!

  • Vvoter

    Look, CPAC represents everything to the right of Fox. If these pictures of Ron Paul communicate ‘crazy,’ it’s because crazy is IN the pictures.

    As always, Hollywood movies put the point best. Remember the movie “Black Sheep” with Chris Farley and Dana Carvey?

    Farley: Does this suit make me look fat?

    Carvey: No, your face does.

    Does the liberal media make Ron Paul look crazy, or does he just look crazy?

  • CF2K

    The gargoyle spits water at the ground.

  • Glenn May

    Liberals sometimes get so stuck in their stereotypes that they stop listening to what people actually say. If you actually listen to Paul’s speech, he calls for eminently sane policies such as the requirement that Congress actually issue a declaration of war before the president starts a war, and an end to the president’s right to order the assassination of U.S. citizens. Considering our alleged Mr. Change has stepped up drone strikes and the war machine in general, perhaps it is time to put down stereotypes of “liberal” and “conservative” and see who actually believes in the Constitution. It’s a remarkably progressive document, if we could get a president to follow it.

  • http://www.stephenferry.com stephen ferry

    This is a good set of pictures to remind us that preference shape perception. If I didn’t have a prior opinion of the man, the second and third images would convey an appealingly ramped up cantankerousness, and (would it be the eyebrows?) independence of mind, just what his supporters often say they like about Paul, Sr.

    The first picture looks like a cartoonish version of lots of Cold War physiognomy – Alexander “Im in charge now” Haig, for example. Not to meention the Nixon-esque profile.

    I think we are on tricky ground if we try to find consensus that a picture proves someone is a jerk.

    best, Stephen

  • Marsupialas

    Yes, the problem is that Ron Paul does always say one or two reasonable things — mixed in with the crazy.

  • omen

    is this widely know? or am i late to the party again? (i’ve been consumed with egypt.) gritv with laura flanders ran a clip from cpac where dick cheney was a speaker. he was first greeted with chants of “usa, usa,” but then somebody yelled out “war criminal!”

    shocking. laura flanders attributed the heckling to a ron paul supporter.

    i saw a statement from ron paul today where he denounced the US for supporting more dictators than we do democracies.

    with his foreign policy stance, ron paul is co-opting liberal values. who knows how much support he can steal from the left or attract anti-war indies.

    don’t look at me, i abhor his libertarian outlook that gives free reign to corporate predation.

  • http://www.ronpaul2012podcast.com/ JTWilliams

    All that matters is that voters at least try to look at politics with a bit more sophistication: don’t just eat up whatever the empty suits are telling you. Like Ron Paul, there are some politicians who actually stand for something, and have a record to stand on. Ron Paul aside, decide what is most important to you, and then find out who truly represents your beliefs. The rhetoric itself means nothing. You still have idiots calling Obama a socialist! That’s absurd, he’s a corporatist through and through. He believes in nothing other than his own power base, and he became a media darling just because of aesthetics, the most superficial of all traits.

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