Umm, earth to dumb blonde, most Republicans are also socialist, they just pretend not to be. Bush approved a bill from congress that expanded Medicare to include prescription drugs, $8 trillion ontop of what was already a $20 trillion underfunding. The GAO comptroller general at the time called it the most fiscally irresponsible bill since the 1960s. Bush also refused to let banks fail, expanded the department of education, had a couple of unnecessary war adventures. Definitely a social conservative, but hardly a capitalist.

I love the related videos I'm seeing on this: "Slippery Slope of the US Economy", "US Economy unsustainable; former Comptroller General talk", "McCain: US Economy is Fundamentally Strong".

One of these duckies is not like the others, one of these duckies is not the same...

>> ^NetRunner:
While Ron Paul has a leg to stand on by calling out Obama on change, since RP represents more change than Obama, calling Obama "status quo" and "no substance" just makes it sound like Ron Paul got a letter from the RNC saying "repeat our talking points about Obama or else".
Obama has talked specifics about what change means. Just because you haven't listened, haven't liked it, or wanted more change, doesn't make Obama status quo.


Well, not quite. He's right that Obama speaks very little about economic policy and seems pretty deadset on the welfare state, which our own comptroller general thinks is coming to a slow and cancerous end. Obama's supporters seem more hopeful than anything, and that, I think, has always been our problem. We try to guess who is going to be a good president based on how charismatic they are on the campaign trail instead of looking at voting records, if there are lobbyists surrounding them, and challenging ourselves to do hard research on libertarian positions like Paul's that often get mocked by people who don't. But I did my research and I agree with Paul on just about everything, and I am convinced from his voting record that he is one of the most trustworthy politicians in existence today. We need a drastic reduction in government spending and a government that obeys its own supreme law. Either competing currencies need to be legalized or the Federal Reserve needs abolished, because the issue of inflation enablement needs addressed. If the enablement is there, it will get abused. And it did. It's that simple. And if you don't want a gold standard restrainment, fine, amend the constitution. But don't ignore it.

I actually thought that Kucinich was a stronger candidate than Obama, but he didn't have that motivational slickness in his speaking that Obama had. Kucinich really laid the wood when they asked him why he was the only Democratic contender to vote against the Patriot Act: "Because I read it," he said. So here you have a guy who voted against the war and the patriot act, and he gains no traction against Clinton who voted for both but claimed she was fooled. It's just really telling of how dumbed down we've become as a nation if something like that doesn't matter to people. This is why I don't think much hope is left. For those of us who know the future repercussions and how to best judge integrity, we are in the minority and the herd won't wake up until pain is knocking on their door. Sad, but true.

By the way, anyone reading this thread would do well to watch the entire speech on youtube. He goes into great detail on the run-up to the war and all he did to stop it. Quite elucidating.

quantumushroom: watch http://www.videosift.com/video/A-wake-up-call-from-the-US-Government-Accountability-Office

This clip was produced by David Walker, US Comptroller General (a position most people don't even know exists), head of the US Government Accountability Office. He has an outstanding professional record, and honorary doctorates from several universities. Here's his Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_M._Walker_(U.S._Comptroller_General)

He has given multiple interviews explaining how the US is bankrupt, and how agencies and politicians neglect to mention this fact. International bankers are also aware of this, and a lot of people outside the US don't doubt this fact, but Americans typically acquire a very distorted picture of how their economy actually runs.

Unless there's a radical policy change like the one Ron Paul advocates, it's a matter of time until the US economy collapses. It may take a month, a year or even more. The longer it takes, the worse the crash will be. It won't be a correction or a mild recession. It will be the crash that destroys American purchasing power as we know it.

I agree with you that people don't tolerate rapid change. Most don't understand what's at stake, and also want submit to a welfare state. Ron Paul understands this, and for the last 30 years he's worked to educate people and talk about this message of financial discipline, civil liberties and upholding the constitution. He was reluctant to run again for president, because he was afraid that the nation wasn't ready.

Ron Paul's supporters are fervorous because they're desperately trying to change the United States' course before it's too late. I applaud their efforts, and I hope they succeed to get him elected. But even if they don't, they will have educated millions of people in the process, and this gives me hope that Americans will be able to pull themselves up from financial disaster, and resist the fascist ideologies that will undoubtly flourish.