Ron Paul’s Secret Weapon

Editorial of The New York Sun | September 9, 2011

The question after the latest Republican presidential debate is why Ron Paul keeps winning them. MSNBC has been widening the margin by which its own survey is showing that the congressman from Texas did the best job; it’s now up to 57%. One can imagine there might be non-substantive explanations; Dr. Paul, say, has so many followers on the Web, who may be primed to respond to these polls. Our guess, though, is that more than the other candidates Ron Paul gives the impression that he is animated by a clear and coherent set of principles in which he deeply believes. His sense of principle is his source of power, his secret weapon.

This was evident in the way he eclipsed the others, starting with Michele Bachamann, in respect of gasoline prices. Mrs. Bachmann was right to bring up the price of gas; it’s a bitter symptom of . . . of what? Not only our policy of restricting the development of our own energy resources, as Mrs. Bachmann argued, but more fundamentally of our system of fiat money. Dr. Paul jumped in after Mrs. Bachman to point out that gasoline hasn’t become more valuable. One can still get a gallon for a silver dime. It’s the dollar that has collapsed. Governor Perry has warned darkly of how Texans would deal with Ben Bernanke. But neither he nor any of the others at the Reagan Library approaches the issue in the principled way that Ron Paul does.

Dr. Paul was the only candidate who kept referring to the Constitution, the principles behind which he has clearly thought about for a long time.

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