Ron Paul Enters the 2008 Presidential Race

A man for whom I have tremendous respect yesterday announced the first step toward seeking the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. He is Ron Paul, a medical doctor and nine-term congressman from southeast Texas.

In 1988, I supported Dr. Paul, who was the Libertarian Party's candidate for president. When he appeared on C-SPAN a few days before the election, I phoned in a question to him. I've still got a videotape of that appearance somewhere.

Today I asked a friend of mine who is a Libertarian Party insider if the LP would nominate Ron Paul in the event that he fails to win the Republican nomination. His answer: "In a heartbeat."

It's getting interesting, folks.

Below is a January 11 post by Justin Raimondo on the Antiwar.com blog:

The news is good — for once. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), the libertarian congressman whose dedication to principle is one of the wonders of the world, is running for the GOP presidential nomination (hat tip: blog.lewrockwell.com).

At last — a Republican who opposes our interventionist foreign policy (consistently and articulately) and who has this to say about the Iraq war. Rep. Paul opposed this rotten war from the very beginning — and, what’s going to be delightful, is that he is not going to be outdone by any Democrat regarding the Iraq issue.

Better yet, this will exacerbate the split in the GOP over the war and give antiwar activists a banner around which to repair during an election season that would otherwise feature the same rogues gallery of warmongers, fence-straddlers, and all-too-familiar faces.