Ron Paul stole the debate again in the second Republican debate and the mainstream media are in a completely tailspin over Ron Paul’s success.
After the huge interest he created during the first debate, Fox News made no attempt to hide their brazen efforts to smear him. In spite of a shamelessly orchestrated display worthy of the Soviet Union propaganda machine, the Texas Congressman still beat Rudy Giuliani in Fox’s own poll, and others.
The highlight of the evening was when Giuliani spat the dummy over the suggestion that US foreign policy may have contributed to the 9/11 attacks. Rudi, who considers anything 9/11 to be his turf simply because he stood in front of the cameras during the 9/11 attacks, not only assumes that his opinion on the attack is irrefutable, but that the experience alone endows him with expertise on foreign policy and Middle Eastern politics. When Giuliani patronizingly insisted that Paul take back his words, Paul replied smacked him down:
I’m suggesting we listen to the people who attacked us and the reason they did it. And they are delighted that we’re over there because Osama bin Laden has said: I am glad you’re over on our sand because we can target you so much easier.
Funny how Giuliani and McCain love to quote Bin laden when it suits them, then dismiss those very statements as unpatriotic when it doesn’t?
When the results started to show Paul as a front runner even of Fox’s own polls, the spin went into high gear. Cameron and others at Faux started concocting some conspiracy theory that Paul’s success was due to the efforts of office flooding voting lines – ignoring the fact that McCain had openly told his supporters to spam the polls on his own website.
Mike Gravel and Ron Paul are owning the online polls and surveys after the debates, yet Gallup claims they have ZERO support. Statistical error does not account for such a discrepancy. What clearer example can there be that the media apparatus like Gallup, are trying to “pre-sell” the acceptable candidates?
Pretty amazing, isn’t it, that Ron Paul nearly won (and probably did) a FOX NEWS poll? Think about that!! He wasn’t supposed to even be in the running on Fox News.
The rest of the debate was pretty much a case of the poseurs vying to become the scariest candidate and pose the biggest threat to the continued existence of the world.
The final tally had Paul comming a close second to Romney, an intellectual giant who thinks Hamas, Helbollah, Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood and JI are all the same thing, and that Guntanamo needs to be doubled in size. What is clear is that Ron Paul’s traditional and principled approach is resonating with an American public that is sick of stench in Washington. This makes him a major threat to the establishment. It will be interesting to watch the media continuing to support and sell the occupation, while at the same time convincing the public that anti-war candidates such as Paul and Gravel aren’t really Presidential material.
UPDATE 1:
I can’t make up my mind whether that foul stench is the fairness or the balance, but Fox is piling it on. Listen to Gibson and Malkin accusing Paul of being a 911 Conspiracy theorist for bothering to read the 911 Commission Report and the The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States report.
The Nation summed it up perfectly.
Rudy Giuliani made clear in Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate that he is not ready to let the facts get in the way of his approach to foreign policy.
snip
But congressman did not back down, and for good reason. Unlike Giuliani, the Texan has actually read the record.
and…
Giuliani led the crowd of contenders on attacking Texas Congressman Ron Paul (news, bio, voting record) after the anti-war Republican restated facts that are outlined in the report of the The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.
Then again, maybe Giuliani had read the reports and was protecting his own interests.
Rudy Giuliani’s much-publicized but misleading put-down of Ron Paul during Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate should have been tempered by a report that Saudi Arabia, the country that spawned most of the 9/11 hijackers, has been one of Giuliani’s lucrative foreign clients. However, Fox News questioners Chris Wallace and Wendell Goler did not bring it up.
Giuliani: Thanks Rupert. I owe you one.
UPDATE 2:
Andrew Sullivan admits he doesn’t agree with entirely with Paul but admits he’s the only candidate willing to address the crucial issues:
I may not agree with him on everything and he is far from a smooth operator. But he has more balls than most of them put together.
and….
They’re scared, aren’t they? The Internet polls show real support for him. Fox News’ own internet poll placed him a close second, with 25 percent of the votes from Fox News viewers. We have a real phenomenon here – because someone has to stand up for what conservatism once stood for.
UPDATE 3:
Rudy reveals he depth of his profound knowledge on terrorism:
… Giuliani said, “These people do want to follow us here and they have followed us here. Fort Dix happened a week ago.”
Giuliani’s claim that the Fort Dix terrorists are an example of why we need to stay in Iraq is extremely flawed. As TalkLeft noted, the individuals arrested at Fort Dix had been in the United States well before the Iraq war, some of them for more than 23 years.
No wonder he was so shocked at Paul’s revelations.