It looks obvious

Ron Paul’s appearance on yesterday Presidential debate was extremely harmful. It wasn’t only his poorly build argument about the cause of the 9/11 terror attack, it was the entire premise of what his message.

Obviously Dr. Paul failure attempt to explain that the American interventionist foreign policy has a cost and risks, and sometimes the results of such policy can and up with terror attacks. I hope that Dr. Paul didn’t mean that the 9/11 terror attacks are justified as a retaliation for the American foreign policy, but it surly came across as the intention - and this is not only harmful but also extremely offensive.

But that was only the nail in the coffin. Dr. Paul failed to use the little time given to him to deliver a message that is more than simple opposition to the war. If in the first debate he manage to explain that canceling the IRS is part of entire concept of Government that doesn’t try to run one’s life, it didn’t happened in this debate. It seems like the debate strategy was to focus everything, including the budget, to the war and to foreign policy. As a result Ron Paul bid seems to be focused presenting him as a one issue candidate, an issue that doesn’t appeal to the republican voter.

Ron Paul was never a front runner, and I doubt if anything that he will do in this campaign will change this fact. However the hope that Libertarian ideas will be part of the mainstream debate suffered yesterday. Can Dr. Paul’s campaign recover after yesterday? I can only hope. However he will need to do two major changes: Firstly he will need to clarify that the terror attack, in 9/11 and other, are not justified and had to be fought against. It has to be clearer and lauder than it was yesterday, and it has to unambiguous. And secondly Paul’s campaign has to work on the message that his presidential bid is about freedom and individual rights. He should make clear talking points, slogans and all other marketing tools to deliver the message that he is the true conservative and that his message is the message of the Republican party.

And he must work on the delivery - It is hard to deliver a complicated argument in 60 seconds. But it is part of the game, and he have to learn how to play it.

Tags: Ron Paul Libertarianism Presidential Debate 2008 Campaign conservatism