Ron Paul Clubbed by CNN, John McCain: Missed Opportunity

McCain also called Ron Paul an 'isolationist.' One possible response to that might have been, "John, it seems to me your life experiences the past 50 years would have made clear the differences between isolation, intervention, and non-intervention. If this nation had followed a policy of isolation, most people would never have heard of Vietnam. With a policy of non-intervention, we'd have a lively and friendly trade relationship with that nation. It is the interventionist policy that you support, Senator, that resulted in 59,000 American deaths in Vietnam, and for the fact that you spent more than five years confined in a North Vietnamese prison camp."

That would have made headlines.

Anderson Cooper wouldn't SHUT UP while Dr. paul WAS TRYING to rebutt the INSANE McCAIN..

It wasn't the Good Dr.'s Fault... It was Anderson Cooper letting McCain HIT... and STOPPING Dr. Paul when he tried to hit back..

Never the less... Paul was ABSOLUTELY right!

but i thought ron paul won that exchange. i love the shaking of the head that ron paul gives mccain. i could see it in ron's eyes, "you're not right john. you're wrong. nope, nope, nope!"

i think the media should run with the exchange, and use the following as the headline "john mccain blames united states for WW2"

some one should give john a history lesson on the treaty of versaille.

(and a lesson on the constitution... of course the line item veto was unconstitutional! congress can't expand the power of the executive w/o an amendment to the constitution! sheesh!)

i'm posting the article

By Tim Morgan
Nov 28, 2007

John McCain decided to swing for the fence on Wednesday night at the CNN YouTube debates and Ron Paul never really stood a chance. Paul, the only Republican candidate to oppose the war in Iraq got very little love from CNN, which many will find odd, and lost big in the eyes of many during an exchange with pro war candidate John McCain. Dr. Paul wants the US Troops out of Iraq and at home and touted the fact that more military veterans have donated to his campaign than any other candidate.
Ron Paul Clubbed by CNN, John McCain: Missed Opportunity

That's a great point but unfortunately, that seemed to be lost when the wrath of John McCain was aimed directly at Paul. It is a tough fight for anyone to take on McCain on military issues, let alone a non-interventionist like Dr. Paul.

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I am frankly not a fan of this entire YouTube format, it is near idiotic at times and certainly it was another debate where Paul was short changed with time. But even so, the casual viewer will come away from the exchange and side with the war veteran McCain. (One note - Paul also served in the US Military). Here's how the exchange was described at the New York Times.

"McCain Hits Paul Mr. McCain must be worried about Ron Paul taking independents away from him. He veers off-question and attacks Mr. Paul, who opposes the war in Iraq, telling him that his kind of isolationism “is what caused World War II.""

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He gets booed and applauded. He goes on: “We allowed Hitler to come to power with that kind of isolationism.” He brings up his Thanksgiving trip to Iraq and says the message to Mr. Paul from the troops is “Let us win.” Mr. Paul notes in response that he gets the most money from active duty military personnel.

He says Mr. McCain has distorted his views and that he doesn’t understand the difference between non-intervention and isolationism. Mr. Paul concludes, We don’t need to use force to tell people how to live.

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Paul is likely accurate and his views are often distorted. But this was a big opportunity for him to set the record straight and it appears he failed. Paul supporters will clearly believe he won the debate, he said all of the right things for them.

CNN was unfair to Paul as was McCain. But this was a blown opportunity. That's too bad.