“Some in the Republican establishment and the conservative media will panic. Others will calmly move to crush him, with the full cooperation of the liberal mainstream media.” the Examiner’s Timothy P. Carney warned in a widely read column yesterday.
The Examiner’s Philip Klein responded to Carney’s column yesterday reminding Paul supporters that the days of the “Ron Paul double standard” were over and that Paul would receive the full scrutiny of a frontrunner. “Paul doesn’t get to have it both ways.” Klein wrote, “If he wins Iowa, his outrageous statements and ugly associations will be granted a lot more attention.”
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But Paul is already attracting serious attention from Republicans and conservatives just for placing first in Iowa in a PPP poll released yesterday.
“An Iowa that would select Ron Paul is an Iowa that deserves to be taken less seriously.” writes National Review editor Rich Lowry this morning, warning that Paul is a “marginal, conspiracy-minded congressman with an embarrassing catalog of racist material.”
Lowry asserts that Paul falls below the standards of the Republican party.
Lowry cites a new Weekly Standard article by James Kirchick warning of “The Company Ron Paul Keeps,” reporting his association with a number of radical fringe elements throughout the country and the racist newsletters published under his name.
“Throughout his career, Paul hasn’t been able to distinguish between fringy cranks and aboveboard purists. He has taken a principled anti-government position and associated it with loons and bigots.” Lowry added.
Ramesh Ponnuru, Senior Editor at National Review, echos his colleague in a Bloomberg News column giving readers a primer on Paul’s radical political history before concluding, “the notion that he will be the Republican nominee is too absurd to spend a moment contemplating.”
The National Review’s Jonah Goldberg, also joined his colleuges in criticinzing Paul, although admitting that he “loved” some of Paul’s proposals. Goldberg insists in a L.A. Times op-ed that Paul could never win the presidency.
“Let’s take the idea of a President Paul as seriously as his supporters say we should — though the idea he could beat Obama in the general election strikes me as crazier than Joe Biden on angel dust.” Goldberg said, who asserted that Paul’s “lone voice of dissent” would be unable to lead the country as president.
Rush Limbaugh took time yesterday to read Carney’s column on the air, and though admittedly not a Ron Paul supporter (Limbaugh routinely refers to Paul as a Tin-foil hat conservative) he concluded that “this would not even be happening if the Republican Party weren’t scared to death of nominating a real conservative.”
“Ron Paul foreign policy is out there, along with the conspiracy theories and everything else, it is out there, and it’s guaranteed defeat.” Limbaugh concluded.
Reporters in the mainstream media are picking up on the Republican skepticism surrounding Ron Paul.
A New York Times article this morning picks up on Kirchick’s Weekly Standard piece, highlighting the more controversial elements of the newsletters, and the campaign’s response.
Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns at Politico report pervasive “what-to-do-about-Paul” conversations among Iowa establishment Republicans.
Based on these early columns, Paul is likely going to receive more attention by the mainstream media than he or his supporters ever dreamed of. Paul was also seriously attacked during last week’s debate and subsequently by his opponents on the campaign trail.
The march against Ron Paul has begun.
