We finally forced our self to sit still Sunday morning for one of these weekly or daily televised presidential debates, however often they’re being conducted, and came away understanding why Ron Paul, our very own homegrown Libertarian gynecologist-congressman, has been creating such a buzz (outside the base, of course). Paul’s always seemed a bit Don Knotts-like to us---with the excitable, high-pitched tone, the unflaggingly earnest demeanor, the play in the too-large shirt collars---but compared to the other seven (or 14 or 15) on This Week with George Stephanopoulos he came across as a rock-ribbed (if slightly bug-eyed and hectoring) Old Testament prophet.Paul’s got convictions and the courage of his convictions and just by standing upright and espousing his unfashionable Taft Republicanism he played the others in the shade. Among this number we must sadly include John McCain, someone we like and admire (even though we couldn’t disagree with him more on Iraq and illegal immigration) but who’s starting to remind us too much of Droopy Dog.
The best line of the debate was not uttered by Mitt Romney---the Houston Chronicle’s Julie Mason has a precisely tart description of his freeze-dried putdown of the callow Obama (and how pathetic is it at this late date to resort to invoking Jane Fonda for a cheap laugh?)---but by the Libertarian gynecologist-congressman, who outlined his Iraq exit strategy thusly:
"Just come home. We just marched in. We can just come back."Yeah, maybe the extrication's not that simple, but he’s 100 percent correct in describing the entrance strategy. And we're pretty sure he didn't pay a consultant to come up with the line.
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