Thoughts on the New Hampshire debates
Photo by Gage Skidmore
At yesterday’s Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire, America got to see Ron Paul more assertive than ever before. He was asked almost all negative questions – asked to justify his previous criticism of Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, questioned on 20-year-old newsletters that he did not write, challenged on his comments about running as a third-party candidate, and attacked on his foreign policy. And that was just by the moderators. He started out a little shaky but got better as the debate went on.
My favorite moments from last night’s and this morning’s debates:
During an exchange over Paul’s comments that Newt Gingrich was a “chickenhawk” for advocating war while never having served in the military himself, Gingrich said that he did not go to war because he was married with a child. (As a single person I found this remark slightly offensive. Are single people’s lives less valuable than married people’s, so it’s not as objectionable for them to be sent off to war?) ”When I was drafted, I was married and had two kids and I went,” Paul retorted.
When challenged about some allegedly racist newsletters bearing his name, he gave a perfect response. “One of my heroes is Martin Luther King because he practiced the libertarian principle of peaceful resistance and peaceful civil disobedience, as did Rosa Parks… I’m the only one up here… who understands true racism in this country is in the judicial system, and it has to do with enforcing the drug laws. Look at the percentages. The percentage of people who use drugs are about the same with blacks and whites. And yet the blacks are arrested way disproportionately. They’re prosecuted and imprisoned way disproportionately. They get the death penalty way disproportionately. How many times have you seen a white rich person get the electric chair or get, you know, execution?”
After being interrupted during his first couple of questions, Paul said sternly, “Do not interrupt me.”
At one point, Paul cheerfully and charmingly proclaimed, “I’m doing pretty well. Catching up to Mitt every single day.”
In this morning’s debate, when asked about the fact that only one of his bills has passed during his 20 years in Congress, Paul replied, “That demonstrates how out of touch the U.S. government and U.S. Congress is with the American people.” Right on. Candidates should be judged on the quality of their ideas, not the ideas of the people they happen to work with. If the other people in Congress don’t agree with Paul’s ideas of liberty, that reflects badly on them, not Paul.
When speaking about entitlements, Paul also gave a fantastic defense of his supposed opposition to minority rights: “Entitlements are not rights. Rights mean you have a right to your life, you have a right to your liberty, and you should have a right to keep the fruits of your labor. And this is quite a big difference, but earlier on there was a little discussion here about gay rights. I, in a way, don’t like to use those terms, gay rights, women’s rights, minority rights, religious rights. There’s only one type of right. It’s your right to your liberty. And I think it does cause divisiveness when we see people in groups, because for too long we punish groups, so the answer then was let’s relieve them by giving them affirmative action. So I think both are wrong. If you think in terms of individuals, to protect every single individual, no they’re not entitled. One group isn’t entitled to take something from somebody else.”
Check out some more highlights from the International Business Times. Also, Andrew Sullivan at the Daily Beast live-blogged the debate, and even though he comes off as a bit left-wing on some issues, he even said, ”I find the notion that Ron Paul is a racist to be preposterous.”

