Ron Paul, Age 76.I know. Yesterday, I promised you something aside from politics the next time we got together, but what follows is just too good to pass up. Stick around. Believe me, you'll get a kick out of it.
First, though, a small bit of got-to-get-it-off-my-chest.
(If you really can't stand any political talk, scroll down until you see the next photo. I'll understand.)
(I won't like it, but I'll understand.)
I was quite disappointed last night. I truly thought that Ron Paul might win a state or two - North Dakota, especially, and then possibly Alaska. It didn't happen. He finished second in four states of the ten up for grabs (which is almost more maddening than if he had finished last, since there were brief glimmers of hope that got shot down as the night wore on.)
I'm still proud to have cast my vote for him in Massachusetts. He is, in my estimation, the most honest and the most consistent of the four remaining Republican candidates. He is the only candidate, Republican or Democrat, whose budget plan will actually cut the national debt. He is the leading proponent for individual liberty and a restoration of true Constitutional government. He is the only candidate espousing a policy of bringing our troops home from overseas (immediately) and using monies currently spent overseas to get things done at home instead. He is the only candidate calling for an end to the ridiculous, wasteful, and entirely unconstitutional "War" on drugs. No other candidate is addressing the true root cause of so many of our financial woes - The Federal Reserve - and calling for a return to currency with true value, based upon the gold standard, as opposed to paper money printed at whim by government (no matter how much inflation it may cause down the road.) He is...
Unelectable.
I say that with a proviso. He is unelectable THIS TIME AROUND. And, since he is 76-years-old, I don't think we'll see him making another run at it when he's 80. However, he has repeatedly said that, unlike the other candidates, his campaign is not about he specifically being elected to any office. It is, rather, about the promulgation and proliferation of ideas, of values, of things which, until he brought them up, were not being discussed by anyone else. He has brought those ideas to the table, they are now at least being discussed, and the hope is that other good men and women will step forward during future campaigns, champion those causes, and become the candidates who will be electable.
I rarely become as emotionally attached to a candidate as I have to Doctor Paul. That's mainly because I rarely find a candidate who not only espouses so many of my own ideals, but who also speaks his honest mind and let the chips fall where they may. He is the most amazingly unscripted, unpolished, unapologetic, and REAL person, running for president, I have ever seen in my lifetime. Even those who disagree with his proposals tend toward an admiration of those qualities.
OK, enough hero worship. I have something concerning Ron Paul that should tickle the fancy of most, no matter if you agree with him or not politically. Look at this:
Know who that is? It's Ron Paul, back in the late 1970's, taking part in the annual Republican vs. Democrat congressional baseball game. Look at that swing! It is classic. If I hadn't told you it was Dr. Paul, a congressman, you might have bought it had I said it was a professional, perhaps a Double A second baseman.
Here are another couple of shots of Ron Paul sporting the classic Houston Astros uniform of the day (his congressional district is in the Houston area.)
Can you imagine Newt Gingrich in a baseball uniform? It would look like five pounds of sausage in a four-pound sack. Rick Santorum? Maybe, but I get the impression that Rick was probably stuck out in right field if he played Little League. Maybe I'm wrong. And Mitt Romney? He looks utterly awkward and poseur-like wearing jeans. I can't imagine him in any athletic uniform other than, possibly, polo.
Ron Paul is the only player from either side to ever have hit a fences clearing home run in the annual congressional game.
Even if he wasn't such a magnificent candidate, as a long-time player of baseball and fast-pitch softball I'd still have to admire him just for that.
(Now, if anyone knows who he hit that home run OFF OF, I'd love to know.)
Soon, with more better stuff.
