January 4, 2012
Ron Paul nearly tied the two winners in the Iowa caucus last night, which probably comes as a shock to the Grand Old Party. But his popularity in Iowa tells a very big story: A large group of Iowans want honesty in their candidate.
You may not agree with or like Paul’s politically ideology. But the one thing he is, is consistent.
What Paul says today is pretty much what he said yesterday and the day before, and is the same thing he will say tomorrow and the day after. In case you’re not acquainted with this tactic, it’s called “honesty”. He does not “change his tune” when the wind changes directions. Neither of these things can be correctly said about the other major GOP contenders, including withdrawn Michele Bachmann; although Jon Huntsman does comes close. (For the record, it can’t be said about Barack Obama either).
Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum each received 25% of the votes. That’s a 3:1 vote, meaning “not Romney, not Santorum”. And I suspect that had either of these boys been as honest as Paul has been during their campaigning over the past few months, he would have received an overwhelming majority of votes. But they weren’t.
If the rest of the country intends to vote the way Iowa did, I’m afraid the remaining candidates are SOL. Because if tacking to honesty is what it takes to get the vote, that ain’t gonna happen; they’re simply not interested in honesty.
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