lily
10-31-2007, 10:15 PM
I was kind of shocked when I clicked on MSNBC and there was Ron Paul.........lead story. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21521415/)
The people powering the Paul phenomenon
College students, old-line conservatives, anti-globalists back contender
By Tom Curry
National affairs writer
MSNBC
updated 10:00 a.m. ET, Wed., Oct. 31, 2007
DES MOINES, Iowa - Four college pals, John Lindley, Jeff Shipley, Brad
Jahner, and Daniel Krauss, got a chance to whoop, holler and raise the roof
Saturday. The four boisterous Iowan guys cheered on their hero, Republican
presidential contender Ron Paul, as he addressed a rally in Des Moines.
“I think he’s probably the only candidate who can make big enough changes in
our government to save us from economic breakdown,” said Lindley after
hearing Paul.
Lindley is a sophomore at the University of Iowa, studying history and
English.
“I was looking at Obama as somebody I was thinking about supporting,”
Lindley recalled. Then his friend and roommate Krauss told him to look into
Paul’s views.
“I looked at his policies and they made a lot more sense than anybody else’s.”
Lindley decided that Paul, who voted against the Iraq war in 2002, had more
credibility on ending the war than any of the other presidential contenders,
Democratic or Republican.
Convinced that he'll pull troops out of Iraq
“He’s obviously going to do something about it if he gets elected — whereas
with these other candidates, there’s no proof that they will,” Lindley said.
He also agrees with Paul’s limited government views. “The states should have
more power and I think we should have a smaller (federal) government because
I think that’s what the Constitution originally intended.”
“The problem with the big candidates — Hillary, Bush, Obama — is they don’t
stand on anything. You ask them a direct question, they circle around it,”
said Jahner, a student at Des Moines Area Community College.
Like Paul, he sees the end of welfare state as inevitable.
“It is hard to say to a crowd that we’re going to take away your crutch,”
said Jahner. "But, the fact of the matter is, it has to happen. In order for
the government not to go bankrupt, things have to get cut. What Ron Paul is
saying is, ‘it’s coming, you knew it was coming anyway, prepare yourself.'”
Jacob Bofferding, a student at Iowa State University, said he decided to
work for Paul after seeing him on a televised debate.
“For Ron Paul to stand up there and say, ‘people hate us because we
intervene in their lives’ and for (Rudy) Giuliani to say ‘that’s ridiculous,’
that blew my mind,” said
'Stop subsidizing oppressive regimes'
“Our imperialistic foreign policy is the biggest threat to this country, not
groups of terrorists that have no state sponsor,” Bofferding said. “The
first thing you have to do is stop subsidizing oppressive regimes in the
Middle East.”
Bofferding calls himself “an extreme fiscal conservative." He adds, "I don’t
think that the federal government has much responsibility in the way of our
lives.”
He hands out flyers at football games and otherwise drums up support for
Paul, spending about five hours a week on the campaign.
He had the honor of introducing Paul when he spoke to a crowd of 700
supporters at Iowa State on Friday night.
A small sample of Ron Paul’s supporters in Iowa in recent days found them to
be a mix of young and old, mostly male, but some women.
They include traditional Christian social conservatives and homeschoolers,
and fresh-faced fervent college students such as Bofferding, who embrace his
free market ideas and an anti-interventionist foreign policy.
Veronica Czastkiewicz, a student at Cornell College in Iowa, showed up at
Paul’s Ames speech Friday night.
“I’m a constitutionalist like Ron Paul; his back-to-the-basics approach is
very refreshing and inspiring,” she said. “So many politicians have gone off
track.”
She wasn’t old enough to vote in 2004, but supported Democrat John Kerry. “I
was very socially liberal when I was younger,” she said.
The people powering the Paul phenomenon
College students, old-line conservatives, anti-globalists back contender
By Tom Curry
National affairs writer
MSNBC
updated 10:00 a.m. ET, Wed., Oct. 31, 2007
DES MOINES, Iowa - Four college pals, John Lindley, Jeff Shipley, Brad
Jahner, and Daniel Krauss, got a chance to whoop, holler and raise the roof
Saturday. The four boisterous Iowan guys cheered on their hero, Republican
presidential contender Ron Paul, as he addressed a rally in Des Moines.
“I think he’s probably the only candidate who can make big enough changes in
our government to save us from economic breakdown,” said Lindley after
hearing Paul.
Lindley is a sophomore at the University of Iowa, studying history and
English.
“I was looking at Obama as somebody I was thinking about supporting,”
Lindley recalled. Then his friend and roommate Krauss told him to look into
Paul’s views.
“I looked at his policies and they made a lot more sense than anybody else’s.”
Lindley decided that Paul, who voted against the Iraq war in 2002, had more
credibility on ending the war than any of the other presidential contenders,
Democratic or Republican.
Convinced that he'll pull troops out of Iraq
“He’s obviously going to do something about it if he gets elected — whereas
with these other candidates, there’s no proof that they will,” Lindley said.
He also agrees with Paul’s limited government views. “The states should have
more power and I think we should have a smaller (federal) government because
I think that’s what the Constitution originally intended.”
“The problem with the big candidates — Hillary, Bush, Obama — is they don’t
stand on anything. You ask them a direct question, they circle around it,”
said Jahner, a student at Des Moines Area Community College.
Like Paul, he sees the end of welfare state as inevitable.
“It is hard to say to a crowd that we’re going to take away your crutch,”
said Jahner. "But, the fact of the matter is, it has to happen. In order for
the government not to go bankrupt, things have to get cut. What Ron Paul is
saying is, ‘it’s coming, you knew it was coming anyway, prepare yourself.'”
Jacob Bofferding, a student at Iowa State University, said he decided to
work for Paul after seeing him on a televised debate.
“For Ron Paul to stand up there and say, ‘people hate us because we
intervene in their lives’ and for (Rudy) Giuliani to say ‘that’s ridiculous,’
that blew my mind,” said
'Stop subsidizing oppressive regimes'
“Our imperialistic foreign policy is the biggest threat to this country, not
groups of terrorists that have no state sponsor,” Bofferding said. “The
first thing you have to do is stop subsidizing oppressive regimes in the
Middle East.”
Bofferding calls himself “an extreme fiscal conservative." He adds, "I don’t
think that the federal government has much responsibility in the way of our
lives.”
He hands out flyers at football games and otherwise drums up support for
Paul, spending about five hours a week on the campaign.
He had the honor of introducing Paul when he spoke to a crowd of 700
supporters at Iowa State on Friday night.
A small sample of Ron Paul’s supporters in Iowa in recent days found them to
be a mix of young and old, mostly male, but some women.
They include traditional Christian social conservatives and homeschoolers,
and fresh-faced fervent college students such as Bofferding, who embrace his
free market ideas and an anti-interventionist foreign policy.
Veronica Czastkiewicz, a student at Cornell College in Iowa, showed up at
Paul’s Ames speech Friday night.
“I’m a constitutionalist like Ron Paul; his back-to-the-basics approach is
very refreshing and inspiring,” she said. “So many politicians have gone off
track.”
She wasn’t old enough to vote in 2004, but supported Democrat John Kerry. “I
was very socially liberal when I was younger,” she said.