Ron Paul Pings John McCain in Last Night’s Debate
During a portion of last night’s Republican presidential debates, each candidate was allowed to ask another candidate one question any question of his choosing. Ron Paul chose to target John McCain on fiscal policy, forcing McCain to obfuscate in his response. I’m not sure if there is now a new campaign strategy to target McCain in order to pick up the greatest amount of independent votes, but this would certainly make sense. Here’s the transcribed version of this portion of the debate:
REP. PAUL: My—my question is for Senator McCain.This is an economic question that I wanted to ask. It has to do with the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets.
I’d like to know what your opinion is of this and whether you would keep it in place, what their role would be, or you would get rid of this group. And if you kept the group, would you make sure we would see some sunlight and know what they’re doing and how they’re being involved in our markets?
SEN. MCCAIN: Well, obviously we’d like to see more sunshine.
But I as president, as every other president, rely primarily on my secretary of the Treasury, on my Council of Economic Advisers, on the head of that. I would rely on the circle that I have developed over many years of people like Jack Kemp, Phil Gramm, Warren Rudman, Pete Peterson and the Concord group. I have a process of leadership, Ron, that is sort of an inclusive one that I have developed, a circle of acquaintances and people that are supporters and friends of mine who I have worked with for many, many years.
REP. PAUL: So you’d get rid of the group?
SEN. MCCAIN: You remember back in 1982 when Phil Gramm—Phil Gramm and Warren Rudman and Gramm-Latta and all of those people got the first real tax cuts done, the real—first real restraints in taxes. I was there. You were there. And I rely on those people to a much larger degree than any, quote, “formal” organization, although the secretary of Treasury is obviously one of the key and important posts that I would have.
Here’s a humorous remix of the encounter which likens McCain to the South Carolina Miss Teen USA who seriously fumbled the question about why one out of five Americans can’t locate their own country on a world map.
H/T to Rolf.
January 25th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Indeed ,I was watching the debate yesterday and I knew Ron Paul would ask McCain an economical question too bad they did not let him ask a second question.
Mccain had no idea what the heck he was talking about, further more he kept on repeating the same thing. Funny Thing !! he mentioned those names earlier in the debate , when he was praising his economics knowledge looooooooool
Ron Paul Rocks the house , no one knows economics as much as he does.
Romey Is probably good at making money , which makes him a micro economist expert
but when it comes to Macro economy ,Ron Paul knows it in and out.
January 25th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
The question was undoubtedly obscure for most watchers. However, perhaps Dr. Paul was signaling to the investment community that McCain is either ignorant or willing to manipulate the markets. From Wikipedia:
“Plunge Protection Team
One theory regarding the Working Group refers to it as the Plunge Protection Team. This theory claims that the Working Group is a scheme to manipulate U.S. stock markets in the event of a market crash by using government funds to buy stocks, or other instruments such as stock index futures.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plunge_Protection_Team
January 25th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
McCain’s answer to a tough question: “I’m just a puppet, here are the smart people who will be pulling my strings.”
January 25th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Deepak is right on, but I do think Romney understands the macro side as well, he just won’t ever admit that he can’t really fix the situation in the long run without dealing with the financial bleeding in our overseas spending. Ron Paul is in a class of his own with the integrity to stand behind his sound solutions.
January 25th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
What question did Ron Paul receive from the other candidates?
oh…that’s right. You have to actually be a front runner to get questions shot at you.
sorry…uh, nevermind…
January 25th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
GoS, Giuliani got one, so I guess that’s not the case.
January 25th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
I would agree with Craig on the fact that Paul’s question was obscure. The majority of people watching would have no idea of what Paul was asking about and therefore have no idea if McCain’s response was good or bad.
If people don’t understand your quesiton you can’t score points with it. So not a good choice on Paul’s part
January 25th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Oh crap is right. McCain looked like he crapped his pants a minute earlier and was just noticing it. That look on his face as RP was addressing him was golden.
January 25th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Obviously the only reason none of the candidates asked Dr. Paul a question was because they don’t want his ideas to get out to the general public who relies on MSM for their information. But thanks for playing “Ghost of Stalin”..
January 25th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
This reminds me of when George Bush was asked a question about tribal sovereignty and he had no clue what it was.
So if you want to see more of George Bush, vote for McCain.
January 25th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
My estimate is that the fiat money poured into the markets over the last year by the Plunge Working Group, is just about $150B. The admin costs of 25% on that amount are in keeping of the elites’ business model.
A net gain of -$30B for the US economy. I think Dr. Paul hit the target, but the audience missed the point.
Tom,
A retired navy pilot of the Vietnam war who dodged the bullets successfully.
January 25th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
“I would agree with Craig on the fact that Paul’s question was obscure. The majority of people watching would have no idea of what Paul was asking about and therefore have no idea if McCain’s response was good or bad.”
I certainly know what the president’s working group is.
Incidentally, I am discovering that the more ignorant I realize that the average American is about investing in the stock market, the more easily I’m able to make money there. Maybe I should be gateful. I can say a lot of people are going to get crushed by their own ignorance, financially.
January 25th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
If we don’t elect Ron Paul the dollar will continue to die, along with baby boomers ability to retire – because inflation will kill us all. If someone else gets elected I suggest we all start bartering because the federal government cannot tax unregulated trade! Ron Paul, baby! Before him I thought all Republicans were evil. Now I have seen the light!
January 25th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Ron Paul knew exactly what he was doing when he asked that question. Anyone who thinks otherwise is too uneducated or naive to realize how calculated that was.
January 25th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
I would definitely vote for McCain if I wanted to extend this war into an unending tax burden for the American people. Fortunately, I do not. So, I’m voting for Ron Paul. Hey, how about that First Place finish in Louisiana … when all the votes are counted! Great Win!
January 25th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
In short: McCain’s answer shows that he plans to do nothing about the economy. He will run the war and let other people continue to run this economy into the ground. McCain is a VERY BAD choice for America. As is Romney. I don’t know that anyone could afford Huckabee’s tax hikes.
January 25th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Absolutely Heath… I may not know what he was trying to accomplish, but I know Ron Paul is smart enough to ask a question that will set up the next move. I think even a clueless person would notice that McCain just kept listing his friends that would tell him what to do—-is that an answer? Well yes! Not a good answer for McCain though.
January 25th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
It’s hard to ask a question that you don’t know or are unable to understand the answer to. No wonder the condidates opted out of directing questions to Dr. Paul. Also, there is no reason to question him because, in contrast with the rest of the field, everyone knows where Dr. Paul stands on the issues. He is the only one who answers the questions with the same answers each and every time, and has been for decades. It’s not “well, what did my advisors have me memorize today to please the people in…where are we? Oh yeah…Florida.”
January 25th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
I totally agree with my fellow “critical Thinking Americans” – and how few of us there really are!
Ron Paul motivated me to switch parties, vote early, and watch the process like a hawk – Mitt Romney, on the other hand, wants to “save” the social security system by doing a series of 4 things: one of them being “adjusting the retirement age”?
from 65 to 68 to 72?
Is there anyone else out there as furious as I am that anyone could even suggest this? What’s next – filing taxes from the after-life?
January 25th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Sh! Don’t give em any ideas!
January 25th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Thanks for this article. Nobody even addressed this in the post debate show. McCain did look clueless – which is definitely presidential considering who we elected for the office, not just once, but twice for the oval office this decade.
January 25th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
I didn’t understand the question Paul addressed to McCain, but I did understand why he asked it by the look of total bafflement that swept over McCain’s otherwise know-it-all look. What a desperate confusion! Good for Paul—you know, he is quite an intelligent fellow! I’ll vote for him.
January 25th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Kyle, YOU ARE THE REASON THIS COUNTRY IS GOING NOWHERE. Instead of sitting around scratching your head about what Ron was talking about, go research it. And the fact that you watched a debate about the economy yet you don’t know much about it says a lot. Ron Paul supporters know what they’re talking about, and Ron Paul totally stumped him here. How can a guy sit there and say he understands the economy well, and yet he couldn’t answer a simple question. If he wanted to sound anywhere near intelligent, all he had to do was say yes or no to whether he would remove it or not. he’s an idiot.
January 25th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Ron, I didn’t say I didn’t know what he was talking about. I said the majority of people watching didn’t know what he was talking about. In the future you might want to more closely read someone’s comment before attacking it and implying that person is not to smart. Not the best way in the world for you to win support for Paul
January 25th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Jesus H
WALNUTS! McCain sure does have a talent for talking yet saying absolutely nothing!
January 25th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
“one of them being “adjusting the retirement age”?
from 65 to 68 to 72?”
Yes, I caught that. Basically, you have to die before you get SS.
It’s the perfect case for the failure of government. They forced the citizenry to “save” for retirement, but no one forced the government to save.
January 25th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Kyle – I think what Ron was trying to say is that the problem exactly what you are saying. The big problem is that the mahority of people watching this economic debate really don’t know what Dr. Paul was addressing. People need to get out there and research what is going on and not depend on what the major media outlets spoon feed you. One of Dr. Paul’s concerns is with this group that meets and decides for the country what to do to change the direction of the economy, but they do not allow anyone access to how they come to this decision. Dr. Paul wants to provide the people with access to these meetings so they are not so clandestine and surrounded by wonder. That way if the president identifies a problem in the decision process, it can be addressed and an economic problem such as the one today can be avoided in the future.
January 25th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
> L. Step Says:
> January 25th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
>
> I didn’t understand the question Paul addressed to McCain,
Let me explain it.
The Presidential Working Group is commonly referred to as the “Plunge Protection Team”. Nobody really knows what they do, officially, but they appear to intervene in the markets to keep them from doing corrections. It was created by Reagan during the crash in 1987.
Sound too conspiratorial? Well, we know for a fact that the Presidential Working Group does indeed exist, but we don’t know what it does, and nobody in government has explained exactly what it does. Also, the markets are acting very strange lately. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are just now experiencing corrections they should have (logically) experienced years ago. Fannie Mae didn’t report earnings for 3 years and still their stock did relatively well. They control about a trillion dollars of mortgages and have a market cap below 100 billion. Basically, Fannie Mae is bankrupt.
What we do know about the Presidential Working group is that it does exist, and it does something with the markets, and those are the only facts we know. It’s widely suspected they are interventionists in the market. If they are that, when the crash does happen, it will be very very severe because the market fundamentals will be totally divorced from the price of the market and the PWG seems to be inflating the price of the market, not depressing it.
January 25th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
McCain: – Known in Congress as abusive and “famous for his temper and expletive-laden tirades” against fellow Congressmen and Congresswomen. – Stated that he is OK with keeping troops in Iraq “for 100 years, or even 1,000 years”. – McCain was still married and living with his wife in 1979 while, according to The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof, “aggressively courting a 25-year-old woman who was as beautiful as she was rich.” McCain divorced his wife, who had raised their three children while he was imprisoned in Vietnam, then launched his political career with his new wife’s family money. – States that he is against illegal immigration – He is Chief sponsor of Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation that would give millions of illegal immigrants a path toward citizenship. While defending his Amnesty bill, McCain lost is temper and screamed “F* You!” at Texas Senator John Cornyn. (Charles Hurt, “Raising McCain,” New York Post, 5/19/07). – States that he would “veto every pork barrel” bill if he were elected. In 2004, introduced a pork-barrel, special interest bill to create a Federal boxing commission. – McCain was an author of the campaign finance reforms bill commonly known as McCain-Feingold, which includes an infringement on free speech. – “In January 1995, McCain was midway through an opening statement at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing when chairman Strom Thurmond asked, ‘Is the senator about through?’ McCain glared at Thurmond, .... and continued on. McCain later confronted Thurmond on the Senate floor. A scuffle ensued, and the two didn’t part friends.” (Harry Jaffe, “Senator Hothead,” The Washingtonian, 2/97). Strom Thurmond was 92 years old. – States that he will reduce taxes. He voted in 2001 against Bush’s first major tax cut, then against the second on in 2003, and has publicly snubbed & dismissed the Conservative Political Action Conference, sponsored by the highly recognized Americans for Tax Reform commission. – Claims to uphold the Second Amendment Right to Bear Arms, but starred in advertisements on behalf of mandatory gun-trigger locks and has widely snubbed the influential Gun Owners of America group. – “It was election night 1986, and John McCain had just been elected to the U.S. Senate for the first time….McCain was yelling at the top of his lungs and poking the chest of a young Republican volunteer who had set up a lectern that was too tall for the 5-foot-9 politician to be seen to advantage, according to a witness to the outburst.” (Kris Mayes and Charles Kelly, “Stories Surface On Senator’s Demeanor,” The Arizona Republic, 11/5/99). – Receives the second most campaign contributions from lobbyists (after Clinton).
January 25th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Our friends across the pond knew exactly what the question meant. Perhaps the voters of America need to pick up recent foreign newspapers.
January 25th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Bwahahahhahhahahahahha, that was too funny. Excellent job editing in the miss teen video to show the likeness of two ultra-do-do-brains answering a question in a stammering round about sort of way.
I don’t think the question is over the had of the average person. His question was clearly about an economic advisory group working for the President. Even if one is unfamiliar with the particular group or issues surrounding it, it was clear from McCain’s answer that he was evading the question and has a sketchy understanding of economic issues. While viewers have an excuse not to know the details, McCain as a Senator has no excuse!
For more laughs watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqKaU2fZkAc
Make sure to watch this to the end for a good laugh!
January 25th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
This should be televised!! Spend the fiat money Ron Paul.
January 25th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
John McCain is crazy. I’m not voting for him.
January 25th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
McCain’s answer: “Well, I do like it when the sun shines. That means it’s day time. Is your question about economics? Well, since I’m a complete dunce when it comes to anything pertaining to economic matters, here’s a list of all my rich and powerful cronies that will advise me if and when an economic problem arises when I’m sitting on the Throne in the White House deciding which country to bomb next as President of the World—er, I mean the United States of America…blah blah blah”
January 25th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Isn’t it a shame that because the Old Media disses Paul, leaves him out, discounts him because he’s anti-war, that people think McCain and Kemp have the answers on the economy as one misguided person told me?
They have shut their minds to listening to the other expertise of Ron Paul…
Now having said that, I don’t see any of the Democrats being marginalized for being anti-war—could it be that it is known they are not serious!?
McCain is certifiably NUTS.
January 25th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
“NH Says:
January 25th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
...Now having said that, I don’t see any of the Democrats being marginalized for being anti-war—could it be that it is known they are not serious!?”
All of the democrats are pro-war except Kucinich and Gravel according to voting record (from what I know), and they are and were always marginalized…the rest are bought and sold CFR members.
Go Ron Paul!
January 25th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
January 25th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
McCain’s answer to a tough question: “I’m just a puppet, here are the smart people who will be pulling my strings.”
BAAHAAAAA! HAAAA! HAAAA! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
I have snot on my screen and keyboard from the initial snort. Tears are running down my cheeks from laughing so hard. I think I even peed a little.
Go Ron! Go! Ron Paul ‘08
January 25th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
I understood the question, and I’m just a twuck dwiver…........I thought McCains answer was similiar to Romney’s “I would consort with my attorneys to find out what we could do if we were being attacked.” One has to realize, Ron Paul has military, economics, foreign policy, stock market, and a truck load of other experience. And just because John McCain was a POW, doesn’t give him a free ride on the military. He “SHOULD” by all means be well respected for his service. But giving him a free pass to the White House is equal to “affirmative action”.
January 25th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Rowned!
Someone up there said it best, he doesn;t know jack squat about fiscal policy and would be a puppet to the same people that pull the strings now, and nothing would change.
Dr. Paul never ceases to amaze me!
January 25th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Rassmussan Florida Poll
1-23-08
1. Romney 27
2. McCain 23
3. Giulian 20
4. Huckabee 15
5. Paul 4
6. Other/Undecided 6
January 25th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
I at first thought it was a poor question based on the assumption that Paul’s intended audience was the average viewer. After giving it some thought I realized the financial community might be his actual intended audience, specifically financial/market commentators.
I concluded a month ago that Paul’s best ticket to the Whitehouse would present itself if the dollar and markets go into freefall during the primaries. As panic set in, the most-watched media would then be the financial/market analysis shows on TV and Paul would naturally be acknowledged and demonstrated to be the only candidate who understands the nature of the problem and the path to recovery. Paul no doubt realizes this as well, so his intent may have been to simply underscore this logical conclusion for the financial media.
January 25th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
I am so happy that other people saw this last night and didn’t miss that real moment in the debate like the media did or did they, just hope that people realize who’s a real candidate up there is. I swear I feel like I’m in the matrix, I just want to take a blue pill! Cannot believe how stupid people are? And how easily swayed they are with all BS.
January 25th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
I think Ron was sending John a message: I can do this to you all year buddy.
January 25th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
I think Ron Paul hit the issue on the head when he assocated currency deprecation with a tax. Bush and the other neo nothings can keep the “conservative republicans” focused on taxes while they remove 20% or more of our wealth via currency deprecation in one year. Outside of Ron Paul the next pres. won’t help. I guess we can convert whatever money we have left to euros.
January 25th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Like many people, I thought it was an odd question for Ron to ask at first. And that’s exactly because I know that the average American has no idea what the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets is. But reading some of these comments has enlightened me. Yes, McCain did visibly bluff his way through with a bogus answer, and yes that would have been obvious even if you didn’t really understand the question. But what I really find interesting is the suggestion that the target of the question was the big-shot financial people, and not the Average American. If so, that could have been a nice tactical move by Ron to win support from the big money movers and shakers.
Let’s just hope it works out…
January 25th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Ron Paul is very intelligent. In naval speak, he “bracketed” McCain, to let him know he has him cleanly in his sights, and can take him down. This was not to impress the average TV viewer, rather to let the investor class know that McCain is another economic dud like Bush, and of course, to let McCain know that he “has his number”.
“Rudy McRomney” is playing a slick game of “go fish”, and Ron Paul just showed that he is playing multi-level chess, way over their heads.
I love it!
January 26th, 2008 at 3:10 am
I thought the timing of Dr Paul’s question to McCain was perfect as it wasn’t a few minutes before he asked it that McCain was trumpeting his economic prowess. The question only reenforced just how big of a lier McCain really is.
January 26th, 2008 at 3:44 am
McCain defends his voting no on Bush’s tax cuts by saying they didn’t correspond with cuts in spending. Fine, but now he wants to make them permanent. Guess those cuts aren’t so important now.
January 26th, 2008 at 11:56 am
The look on McCain’s face in response to Ron Paul’s question at Thursday’s debate was worth the price of admission alone. McCain looked as though Ron Paul had just asked him to recite Einstein’s Theory of Relativity in Mandarin Chinese. McCain did a great job of exhibiting how little he knows about national financial and economic matters.
January 26th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
The Ron Paul campaign needs to take this video and make their next 60 sec. commercial out of it!
If Ron Paul doesn’t make it, I probably won’t vote.
Ron Paul all the way
!
January 26th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Um…
... Ron Paul asking a conspiracy-theorist type question of another candidate is a major score… how?
January 26th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Except, Kris, it wasn’t a conspiracy question. The group exists and is run by the SecTreas.
It was about the answer and Insane McCain’s reaction, not the question. It was designed not to worry about confusing the viewer, but to embarass McCain without being personal or playing dirty pool. It succeeded brilliantly! It was designed to illustrate that McCain had no clue about who and what is done at 1600PA, and if he’s going to be President he needs to get a clue. Obviously Dr. Paul knew his stuff and McCain did not. McCain came across like a blabbering fool, completely off guard and in true mode instead of campaign mode, and he may have really hurt himself on this one.
It was hilarious to see McCain sputtering like Porky Pig on national TV, and to see that smirk just fall off his face like dirt off a car at the car wash.
January 27th, 2008 at 12:34 am
I wish Ron would have interrupted the next question to point out that the Secretary of the Treasury is the CHAIR of Working Group on Financial Markets. Course, that would have made Ron look like a jerk, so might be better that he did not. Too bad there are no (that I have seen) journalist in media today.
As for the Presidency, every day I become more and more convienced that either Hillary or Obama will be President, only because of their gender/skin color. I agree that as a nation we are headed for some really hard times; my only hope is that the collapse of this nation and the implosion of the GOP will lead to the message of liberty getting out to the average American. Hopefully I will be wrong.
January 27th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Working Group on Financial Markets
There really is such a group. It writes thrilling reports like
http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/reports/hedgfund.pdf
However, it is also a dog whistle question for the conspiracy people who who think it intervenes in the stock market to manipulate stock prices, namely, it advertises that you are standing with them, without having to go out in the cold and stand with people like the antiabortion extremists.
Of course, there are a huge number of these working groups wandering about. Expecting even the sitting President to remember all of them is pointless, and guaranteed that the question would be ineffective.
There were substantial numbers of questions that could have been used to damage opponents and draw votes in an effective way that would reach out to substantial numbers of Americans, but this was not one of them.
Asking this sort of a question in the indicated debate
January 27th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Just in case you don’t know who is Phil Gramm, McCain is referring to.
“Phil Gramm’s legislation, for which Enron was the primary lobbyist, allowed Enron’s unregulated energy trading subsidiary to manipulate supply in such a way as to threaten millions of California households and businesses with power outages for the sole purpose of increasing the company’s profits.”
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/electricity/Enron/articles.cfm?ID=7104
January 27th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Previous quote:
“Mitt Romney, on the other hand, wants to “save” the social security system by doing a series of 4 things: one of them being “adjusting the retirement age”?
from 65 to 68 to 72?
Is there anyone else out there as furious as I am that anyone could even suggest this? What’s next – filing taxes from the after-life?”
The government is already doing that with the Inheritance Tax (Death Tax)
McCain is a war mongering idiot.
January 27th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I seem to have clipped my end sentence.
“Asking this sort of a question in the indicated debate is certainly not the sort of feeble, self-destructive debating method that I would have followed.
January 27th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
With the endorsement by prominent Florida Republicans of McCain, it is looking like a repeat of 1996 to me. Stick a fork in ol’ Rudy; he’s done!
Just like in 1996, the GOP is intending to run an old retiring Senator that’s making his third shot at the GOP nomination when the GOP has no shot at the White House. “Why waste a good candidate?” they ask. The further irony is that the Dem opponent may be a Clinton.
January 27th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Lest I forget, both Dole and McCain campaign[ed] as “war heroes” as well. One could even argue that both became crippled due to their war activities. McCain’s disability is just not as visible as Bob Dole’s. It’s looking like 1996 all over again. We NEED a strong independent candidate in 2008.