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Paul Rejects Gramm's Pro-McCain Pitch
September 10, 2008 3:14 PM
ABC News' Hope Ditto and Teddy Davis report: Former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul said Wednesday that former Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, called him on Tuesday urging him to endorse Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., sparking charges from Democrats that the former McCain adviser is still active on behalf of the Republican presidential nominee.
"I got a phone call yesterday and it was a bit of a surprise to me because their request was that I endorse John McCain. The argument was, 'he would do a little less harm than the other candidate,'" said Paul.
Despite Gramm's effort to convince the Texas congressman that McCain would keep taxes lower than Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., Paul turned down the offer to get on board.
"How could I support a candidate that doesn't support the positions that I've supported for 30 years?" asked Paul. "I would have to reject everything I believed in and worked for and voted for, and I said, 'it might diminish my credibility.'"
Jesse Benton, a Paul spokesman, elaborated on the decision not to endorse, telling ABC News, "It's all well and good to cut taxes and to keep taxes low. But if you don't address the spending -- and that includes the overseas spending on troops in 130 countries -- the tax issue is almost irrelevant."
Though Paul's refusal to endorse McCain is nothing new, the Democratic National Committee pounced on his remarks, which they saw as a sign that Gramm is continuing to help McCain after publicly disassociating himself.
Gramm, who advised McCain on economic issues, left the campaign on July 18 after telling The Washington Times that the United States had "become a nation of whiners." Democrats used the Gramm interview, in which he pointed out that the United States was not technically in a recession, to portray McCain as out of touch with economic anxiety.
"Who did John McCain task with securing Ron Paul's endorsement?" asked the DNC's Damien LaVera in a Wednesday e-mail to reporters. "Phil 'Nation of Whiners' Gramm."
Asked why Gramm called Paul if he is no longer supposed to be playing a role in the McCain campaign, Benton said, "Ron and Sen. Gramm have known each other for 20 years. He said, 'Ron, this is Phil. I'd like you to consider endorsing McCain. Here's why ... '
"It was Phil Gramm calling on behalf of Phil Gramm. He was not making an official call on behalf of McCain," said Benton in an explanation that is not likely to satisfy Democrats intent on reviving stories about the McCain-Gramm connection.
Beyond discussing the pro-McCain pitch he received from Gramm, Paul told reporters at the National Press Club on Wednesday that Americans should consider supporting a third-party candidate in the 2008 campaign. He did not, however, endorse a particular candidate.
Paul also said that he is not considering a presidential bid as the candidate of the Reform Party. Though the Reform Party selected Paul as their candidate in Virginia, Paul said he is taking steps to remove his name from the ballot.
The Reform Party is planning to make a national presidential endorsement on Oct. 11 when it holds its national convention in New York, N.Y.
September 10, 2008 in McCain, John, Obama, Barack, Paul, Ron | Permalink | User Comments (74)
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Congratulations and thanks to Ron Paul for having the cajones to tell the corporate-backed candidates to go to hel1.
The elites who think they are better than everyone else need to be humbled more often.
In fact, that's how America can determine who is a real hero these days, versus a fake hero fabricated by the mainstream media.
Posted by: Deb | Sep 10, 2008 3:52:38 PM
Palin watch day 13
Has the queen spoken to the press or one American citizen or is she still above us?
Posted by: asking | Sep 10, 2008 3:54:13 PM
Can anybody stop that interview with O'Riley? I looked like a bloody fool!
Posted by: dl | Sep 10, 2008 3:54:25 PM
ANY DAY NOW: Why don't you read up on qualifications for being a US citizen..can you google? Thats G..o..o..g...l...e. now hit search,see you can do it. There's of wealth of TRUE information out there if you bother to look.
Posted by: linda n carolina | Sep 10, 2008 3:54:59 PM
Say NO to McBama!
Say NO to Republicrats!
Say NO to Establishment media outlets!
Say NO to bipartisan trashing of the Constitution!
Cast a protest vote for a 3rd party presidential candidate of your choice.
Tell everyone why you will vote against the lesser of two evils.
Tell everyone who you will vote for.
Tell everyone what you think.
Be heard: http://SayNO2008.com
"The strongest message can be sent by rejecting the two party system... This can be accomplished by voting for one of the non-establishment, principled candidates." - Ron Paul
Posted by: SayNO2008.com | Sep 10, 2008 3:55:42 PM
A 3rd party win would be the healthiest thing for this country. We are definetly going bankrupt. All one has to do is visit the website for the GAO and the treasury department to see the numbers. Ron Paul was correct in his assertions. I see the usual partisan spinmeisters at work on this blog focused on lipstick and other stupid things, instead of the issues that really matter. I guess you guys won't be voting for 3rd party candidates. Too bad really for all of us.
Posted by: Ben Straub | Sep 10, 2008 3:55:44 PM
A CNN reporter this week didn’t seem to know or care that a fake photo showing a bikini-clad, rifle-toting Sarah Palin had been widely debunked days earlier as a fraud, the latest in series of incidents involving apparent misstatements or inaccurate reporting by the news network.
“(John) McCain has been really good about painting (Barack) Obama as this lightweight … They don’t want that to come back on Sarah Palin, and people say, yes, she looks good in a bikini clutching an AK-47, but is she equipped to run the country?” CNN’s Lola Ogunnaike said in response to a question on the network’s “Reliable Sources” show, which aired Sunday.
Ogunnaike’s remarks, which came in response to a question by host Howard Kurtz about whether Palin’s status as a political celebrity might undercut Republican efforts to portray the vice presidential nominee as a serious, reform-minded governor, were posted on CNN’s Web site and have since been reported and discussed on numerous other independent sites.
CNN correspondents and analysts have also recently misrepresented Palin’s stance on incorporating creationism into Alaska’s school curriculum and falsely reported that she cut funds for people with special needs in the state budget.
Regarding the doctored “bikini” photo, neither Kurtz, a “Washington Post” columnist, nor anyone else on the “Sources” discussion panel ever corrected Ogunnaike by pointing out that the picture was a fake.
Speaking about Ogunnaike and the doctored photo, Kurtz told FOXNews.com on Wednesday that he figured everyone knew the photo was a fake.
“I thought that Lola was joking around since the bikini was so obviously fake,” Kurtz said. “I thought she was making a lighthearted reference to it.
“Lola is a very sharp former New York Times reporter so I seriously doubt that she bought into the notion that the governor of Alaska had in fact posed in a bathing suit carrying an assault rifle,” he added.
“Lola’s comments were made in the context of the tabloid rumors that have emerged since Sarah Palin’s nomination to the ticket,” a CNN spokeswoman said. “She regrets that she didn’t make it more clear that the photo was not only a rumor but a hoax.”
The infamous fake bikini shot first appeared during the early days of the Republican convention. But it was widely debunked within 24 hours, with bloggers and others quickly exposing the fraud by finding the original shot, reportedly taken in 2004 in Athens, Ga., by an amateur photographer of his then-girlfriend.
FOXNews.com was among the news outlets to report the fake.
During the show, Ogunnaike went on to compliment Us Weekly’s coverage of Palin, which has been widely attacked as unfair by critics and reportedly thousands of Us Weekly readers.
“I have to say,” Ogunnaike said, “I read the ‘Us Weekly’ story, and they were actually pretty good. They actually did some pretty good journalism there. … And this is a bigger story here. … They can’t afford to ignore this story because this story drives magazine sales. And that’s the bottom line, that’s what they care about. So if you throw Palin on the cover and you have the words ‘Baby Scandal,’ they know that’s going to sell magazines.”
Ogunnaike’s remarks are among several apparent misstatements made recently by CNN reporters.
On Monday night, senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said Palin wants “to have creationism taught in public schools.” But numerous stories –- including CNN’s own reporting from last week — have noted that Palin has made no effort to try and include creationism in the state school curriculum.
“I don’t think there should be a prohibition against debate if it comes up in class,” Palin has said. “It doesn’t have to be part of the curriculum.”
The morning after Toobin’s remarks on creationism, CNN correspondent Jessica Yellin reported that Palin vetoed funds not only for so-called “earmarks,” but “even for people with disabilities.” This was an apparent reference to a charge discussed during a Sept. 4 interview, in which CNN’s Soledad O’Brien pressed a McCain spokeswoman on another accusation brought by Palin critics.
O’Brien twice referred to the charge that while governor, Palin cut the state’s special needs budget by 62 percent.
“Those advocates have said, as a woman who is now a mother of a special-needs child, she’s not fighting — she’s cut the budget by 62 percent since she came into office, and doesn’t that show a contradiction?” O’Brien asked McCain spokeswoman Nicolle Wallace, according to transcript available on CNN’s Web site.
But Factcheck.org, a non-partisan group affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, is among those that have reported that Palin “did not cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent.”
In fact, the group said in a posting published on Newsweek’s Web site, “She didn’t cut it at all. She tripled per-pupil funding over just three years.”
SOCIALIST PROPAGANDA FOR THE UNINFORMED!
Posted by: dl | Sep 10, 2008 3:55:50 PM
Its too bad McCain gave up principles for party. For a while there, I actually believed this might be an election worth getting involved in -- with two great candidates who really had the real issues in the forefront. Well, that went to hell in a palin/rove handbasket.
Posted by: hang | Sep 10, 2008 3:59:35 PM
Here you go Linda -
"John Sidney McCain, III, is a `natural born Citizen' under Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution of the United States."
--U.S. Senate Resolution, April 30, 2008.
Posted by: any day now | Sep 10, 2008 4:00:19 PM
hang
Yeah - when the shallow one falters in the polls and his funding begins to dry up, you half-wits drag Rove and Bush into the conversation. You may think it's a diversion away from the hapless leader but intelligent people can see right through your pathetic attempt to hide.
Posted by: dl | Sep 10, 2008 4:02:12 PM
Any day Now so is Obama
Posted by: linda n carolina | Sep 10, 2008 4:06:08 PM
Ron Paul is not for sell. He is quite simply the most honorable politician I have ever heard of. Nader and Kucinich are also on our side, but Paul really taps into reason.
Spending
Foreign Policy
Monetary Policy
All this guy ever focused on were the real problems. What were republicans thinking? Do they really want to kill more of our young people in more foreign wars and occupations funded by China?
Posted by: antenian | Sep 10, 2008 4:07:50 PM
Then he should provide his REAL birth certificate. Not the bogus one he posted.
Posted by: any day now | Sep 10, 2008 4:12:15 PM
Our country is 10 trillion dollars in debt, 60+ trillion if you include future entitlements owned currently. This all happened under democratic and republican leadership.
Ron Paul is right. A new direction is needed by people that have not been bought by special interest groups.
Posted by: Huh | Sep 10, 2008 4:15:26 PM
Any day now : It is a real birth certificate. But you will never believe that anyways. If if you want to imply what? that he was born in Kenya? He could have been born at the North Pole...his mother was a US citizen who was over 14 and had lived in the US at least 5 years.Read and weep.
Posted by: linda n carolina | Sep 10, 2008 4:17:30 PM
Obama took a sweetheart deal from a mortgage company and looked the other way while the industry began to collapse.
Change you can really doubt!
Posted by: dl | Sep 10, 2008 4:20:03 PM
Obviously you are clueless between the two.
Citizenship does not allow just anyone to be the President.
Fact check moron!
Posted by: any day now | Sep 10, 2008 4:21:14 PM
Hello fellow texan
"i guess Ron you were too much hat
and not enough cattle to win this time.
I told you it was political suicide to criticize us for the iraq war!"
"How about sending your cattle our way to the mccain palin ticket i know were bad but not as bad as the messiah obama.
"Stop your whining ron paul"
we didnt want you to overshadow
our RNC convention.
I couldnt believe you turned down
are 5 min speaking slot
we even prepared a wonderful hate speel
"down with obama" "drill baby drill" Palin is queen of alaska" sorry we wouldnt let any of your friends go to rnc..And sorry we wouldt let you back in the debates when you started making the others look foolish for that iraq thing.
according to ron paul he was denied access to bring anyone with him to rnc and was held to strict guidelines to only regurgitate mccain/palin talking points and wonders why a member of the same party is ttreated like a foreginer.
ron pauls 4 obama
Posted by: phil gramps | Sep 10, 2008 4:25:47 PM
Obama camp Zero Integrity. Zero Honesty.
Posted by: REALDEM4MCCAIN | Sep 10, 2008 4:25:49 PM
The biggest strain on our economy is this god forsaken war (or if you're Pailn - Goid ordained - gag). Of course half the country is too stupid to realize the good that 10 billion a month could do back home.
The second biggest strain is unregulated industry. Free trade is all fine and good, but not when the people that stand to gain (industry) writes the rules - including subsidies and tax breaks. We don't need socialism, we need social responsibility, and for the religious fanatics - pick up the bible, that's what the whole thing is all about.
Posted by: A shill, a sham, a shame | Sep 10, 2008 4:26:57 PM
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