McLaughlin Group this evening
I haven't had a chance for many weeks to watch the McLaughlin Group live on a Friday night. I did tonight, and I really enjoyed it. And while one of the major reasons that I like McLaughlin is that he veers from the mainstream media train of thought, I am always pleased when he surprises me. And he did again tonight when his lead story was about how well Ron Paul was doing in Iowa.
You can't follow politics and not know that Ron Paul is a sleeper in the republican presidential nomination race. His libertarian and isolationist views are attractive to many people. Well, maybe I am wrong in characterizing them as "isolationist," but he does advocate for a much less aggressive foreign policy for the U.S. And I have to admit that I have a lot of similar feelings.
And while "smaller government" also has a ring of universal appeal, Paul's view of "smaller government" seems to be radically smaller than most of us are used to. And the other day on CNN I heard him basically accuse people on unemployment did want to work if they could make as much on unemployment. That is an oversimplistic view of the world, and I don't respect him for that. And if it came down strictly to Ron Paul vs. Obama, I'd have to vote for Obama. But the fact that Paul is getting so much traction says a lot about the republicans.
While the republicans on the panel did not think that Gingrich would win the Iowa caucuses, they wouldn't predict that Paul would win. What they did predict is that if Romney did win, that it was likely that he would waltz to the nomination, and that a Gingrich win in Iowa was the one thing that could stop him.
To tell you the truth, at this point, I don't think it matters who the republicans nominate. Their field is so relatively weak against a sitting president that hasn't made any huge mistakes that it is looking more and more like a blow out. The mainstream media is still calling it close, but I think they are doing that to sell ads. We will see.