To one Iowan who favors Arizona Governor Bill Richardson, it looks like Barack Obama or John Edwards may be the lesser of three evils (Hillary Clinton being the third). The excerpt below comes from a piece on NPR this morning, Iowa Caucuses Do or Die for Some Democrats, by David Greene:

As one of the candidates with lower poll numbers, Richardson’s best hope for doing well in the caucuses may be winning over people like Tony Ross. [...] Ross tells Richardson he’s worried about Hillary Clinton getting the nomination because he thinks she may lose to a Republican.

“So my biggest fear going to caucus for Richardson is that I would drain support from someone else,” Ross says.

Richardson has no easy answer. He says that if he gets the nomination, he could beat a Republican.

Afterwards, when asked if he plans to caucus for Richardson, Ross says he is unsure. Richardson is hands down his favorite, he says. Still, Ross does not know if Richardson will have the resources to stay in the race in the long term.

“I’m afraid if I throw my support to him and he does not get enough bounce out of Iowa, it drains support from Edwards and Obama, and Mrs. Clinton comes out as the eventual nominee. That just worries me,” Ross says.

This just kills me. Seriously. You should have seen heard me screaming in the shower. This mindset would be easier to stomach were it not for the fact that I have listened to this same “wasted vote myth” be repeated over and over again this election season. If ever there were a time to cast a vote for the person you really wanted to support, would it not be now when the major parties have yet to select their candidate? Wake up America! Stop listening to the pundits, the pollsters and playing into the self-fulfilling prophecies and simply vote your conscience!

Actually, the results came out pretty much like I thought they would, except for one notable difference: the gap between how my political preferences match up with Ron Paul versus the rest of the presidential field. I really should have expected this, especially since I think that the main difference between Republicans and Democrats these days is their highly polarized rhetoric and not how they actually vote. I see Ron Paul as the only candidate who will bring any real change to the White House. Play the match game for yourself to see where the candidates stack up to your political viewpoints.

I am a technology junkie, a natural introvert and an internet addict. Sitting in front of a computer and cranking out carefully crafted blog posts is easy; I am in my element. Surprisingly (especially to those who truly know me), I have been called to a position which reveals my pastoral ignorance. But by God’s grace in Christ working in me by the power of the Spirit I love people and long for them to know the reality of the gospel.

In my stumbling, bumbling efforts I have been intrigued by how far “old world” technology goes: a hand-written note here, a personal email there, a direct look in the eye there. What is happening at our church is nothing more than God’s simple, original design for the Body of Christ: “behold, how they love one another.”

All of that to say, I suspect that the Ron Paul R[3VOL]UTION is tapping that very thing: people are longing for a simple, original straight-shooter. Someone who wants to be in Washington not for any reason but that which motivated the legendary (though fictitious) Mr. Smith: to simply serve by leading with integrity and vision. In reading Dr. Paul’s note regarding this past Sunday’s outpouring of support, I find his humility and astonishment and consequent enthusiasm refreshing.

December 17, 2007

What a day! I am humbled and inspired, grateful and thrilled for this vast outpouring of support.

On just one day, in honor of the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, the new American revolutionaries brought in $6.04 million, another one-day record. The average donation was $102; we had 58,407 individual contributors, of whom an astounding 24,915 were first-time donors. And it was an entirely voluntary, self-organized, decentralized, independent effort on the internet. Must be the “spammers” I keep hearing about!

The establishment is baffled and worried, and well they should be. They keep asking me who runs our internet fundraising and controls our volunteers. To these top-down central planners, a spontaneous order like our movement is science-fiction. But you and I know it’s real: as real as the American people’s yearning for freedom, peace, and prosperity, as real as all the men and women who have sacrificed for our ideals, in the past and today.

And how neat to see celebrations all across the world, with Tea Parties from France to New Zealand. This is how we can spread the ideals of our country, through voluntary emulation, not bombs and bribes. Of course, there were hundreds in America.

As I dropped in on a cheering, laughing crowd of about 600 near my home in Freeport, Texas, I noted that they call us “angry.” Well, we are the happiest, most optimistic “angry” movement ever, and the most diverse. What unites us is a love of liberty, and a determination to fix what is wrong with our country, from the Fed to the IRS, from warfare to welfare. But otherwise we are a big tent.

Said the local newspaper (http://www.thefacts.com/story.lasso?ewcd=36475b4d132fc0a1): “The elderly sat with teens barely old enough to vote. The faces were black, Hispanic, Asian and white. There was no fear in their voices as they spoke boldly with each other about the way the country should be. Held close like a deeply held secret, Paul has brought them out of the disconnect they feel between what they know to be true and where the country has been led.”

Thanks also to the 500 or so who braved the blizzard in Boston to go to Faneuil Hall. My son Rand told me what a great time he had with you.

A few mornings ago on LewRockwell.com, I saw a YouTube of a 14-year-old boy that summed up our whole movement for me. This well-spoken young man, who could have passed in knowledge for a college graduate, told how he heard our ideas being denounced. So he decided to Google. He read some of my speeches, and thought, these make sense. Then he studied US foreign policy of recent years, and came to the conclusion that we are right. So he persuaded his father to drop Rudy Giuliani and join our movement.

All over America, all over the world, we are inspiring real change. With the wars and the spying, the spending and the taxing, the inflation and the credit crisis, our ideas have never been more needed. Please help me spread them https://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate in all 50 states. Victory for liberty! That is our goal, and nothing less.

Sincerely,

Ron

1 of 29,840: Half of the 60,000 contributors in yesterday’s $6M “tea party” were first-time Ron Paul donors, proving that grassroots politics is alive and well.