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Friday, May 25, 2012
August 12, 2011

The Picture from Iowa, 2012: Ron Paul — As Normal as Deep Fried Butter

This is the eight post in our series, The Picture from Iowa, 2012 based on photos and on-the-ground conversations with photographer Brendan Hoffman leading up to the Ames Straw Poll, combined with analysis by The Bag.

***

Brendan didn’t think the two laughing campaign operatives were interacting with Paul. Apparently, the explanation is that Paul sometimes “goes into a zone” before he speaks to an audience.  Otherwise, I’d imagine some clinician out there looking at this and thinking “Aspergers.”  On the other hand, to the extent this gives Paul a bit of a pious cast, it’s makes him as normal, right now, as deep fried butter. Paul, by the way, is predicted to show well tomorrow.

PHOTOGRAPHS by Brendan Hoffman/Prime Collective. Campaign Tumblr Site.

Follow all the posts in this series at: The Picture from Iowa, 2012.

(photo: Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul campaigns on Monday, July 25, 2011 in Cedar Rapids, IA.)

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  • bks

    Ron Paul is the only one who speaks the truth at GOP debates and so he is dismissed as a loon.

         –bks
     

  • Anonymous

    I like this Ron Paul guy!!! I voted Obama before but when he said he was going after the medical marijuana community he lost me. As he did when he voted to extend these wars we got conned into. Obama seems to be like a Republican anyway. Go Ron Paul      http://bit.ly/o1ggeV

  • http://twitter.com/SupremeLaw John Washington

    This photo is a failed attack on Ron Paul.

    It actually portrays him as spiritual, thoughtful, and humble – which he is.

  • Rjohnsonfamily

    Ron Paul is a living, breathing, reincarnation of a Founding Father.  He deserves our respect.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Andrew-Panken/537608199 Andrew Panken

    Your attack is obviously ridiculous and silly.  What’s wrong with deep thought or prayer or just standing in that position.

  • http://twitter.com/grammapecos Ronda

    First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
    ~Mohandas Gandhi ~

    ***Ron Paul 2012***

  • http://www.facebook.com/Madgunchemist David Williamson

    If more of our leaders would ask God for his help and guidance this world would be a better place.  What kind of devil would put this picture here, another attempt to humiliate Christians and marginalize the good God fearing Dr. Paul.

  • http://www.facebook.com/Madgunchemist David Williamson

    Now we know who he takes his marching orders from.

  • Anonymous

    Tacky, spiteful presentation of an awesome photograph.

  • Bryan A

    Thank you for posting this picture as the ironic counterpoint to your own comment.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mitch-Covington/1000861761 Mitch Covington

    “This is the eight post in our series, The Picture from Iowa, 2012 based on photo”.  Did you mean “eighth” post, as in the one after seventh?  It’s not certain if this was intended as a poke at Ron Paul, but who would want to be compared to deep fried butter?  But then again, when it comes to being compared to the other politicians in our country, being “normal” is an even worse insult.

    • Pastafarian

      “Deep fried butter” is a high calorie once a year treat that one guy at the Iowa State Fair sells. 

      Apart from the fact that it’s inflammation and environmental stress, not dietary fat, that causes coronary problems and obesity, this ongoing effort to vilify all white Iowans as fat and stupid is stunningly bigoted. 

      In the past 20 years, 6 of my Asian-American friends with Ph.D.s have left more “liberal” and “multicultural” places (Austin, Berkeley, Madison) for teaching posts in Iowa. They all have said they prefer to live in a place where people judge each other on effort and results. Not surfacey things like how their body appears, or who their parents were, or nano details of their ideologies. And when they take their kids to the Iowa State Fair they do so without the vicious judgmentalism of captions like this one. And they try the corn dogs and other deep fried stuff. (As a radical feminist professor friend in Iowa City said, “It’s less greasy than my mom’s pakooras!”)

      These New-American friends are among the only hope I have for this nation, because god knows those “progressive” campuses (where I too have worked and taught) are so mired in bigotry and hostility, and so horribly elitist. I despair seeing how my “left” has devolved in the past 30 years from a movement of workers to a movement of public sinecured tenured professors and media pundits.

  • Mbridges557

    Fools will continue to act as such so long as people listen. Ignore themashat who wrote this nonsense.

  • John

    Major media sure is attacking Ron Paul … (not calling this site major media … for sure)  because he threatens to pull away the knife that butters their bread.  Mainstream media has become a propaganda arm of the government … a very dangerous weapon. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jim-McClarin/600237549 Jim McClarin

    I’d say he’s meditating or praying.  I wonder how many other candidates do this?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XB7TCZUJLZLBQV6Z6UC6TLI4RE mynamehere

    Honestly, candidate Ron Paul stays on the road actively campaigning while also taking care of his duties as congressman of TX. He hardly ever stops being on the run, so he probably is trying to catch a quick nap. Who has ever taken a 5 minute energizing quick nap? I know I have. What many people do not know is that Ron Paul is an avid jogger and also enjoys bicycling 3 to 4 times a week. A man with his busy schedule deserves to try and catch 40 winks in between when able. This picture displays good time management skills to me. God Speed Dr. Ron Paul!

  • Stop_codex

    I think that is a wonderful, thoughtful photo of the good Doctor. 

  • Stop_codex

    I think that is a wonderful, thoughtful photo of the good Doctor. 

  • Susan Hall

    ‘The federal government cannot maintain a budget surplus any more than an alcoholic can leave a fresh bottle of whiskey untouched in the cupboard.’  Ron Paul
    I’d consider voting for him.

  • Susan Hall

    ‘The federal government cannot maintain a budget surplus any more than an alcoholic can leave a fresh bottle of whiskey untouched in the cupboard.’  Ron Paul
    I’d consider voting for him.

  • Anonymous

    I think if you photo-shopped the head of George W. Bush, Karl Rove, Michael Moore or Sarah Palin onto his body, you would get entirely different responses. We are all into our own stories about who is what. It prevents us from listening and questioning. Whatever Paul is doing, it seems sincere, but how would I know?

  • Pastafarian

    I get terrible stage fright before I speak to an audience of hundreds or thousands of people. I do something very like this, only far more bizarre looking, since it involves arm exercises to relax my diaphragm and shoulders. Then I make weird noises, humming to release the tension in my vocal cords.

    And I have none of the pressure Mr. Paul faces–the schedule, the threats of violence, being dismissed as a nut. My audiences are generally receptive (if not actually asleep or playing Angry Birds). This struck me as a quiet photo of a man preparing to speak from his center. Mr. Paul is not my choice of candidate, but this comment on the photo is a dreadful cheap shot at him. BagNews surely can do better. 

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