Ron Paul wins Western Republican Leadership Conference Debate

You would not know it based on the news coverage of the event, but Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) won the October 18, 2011 Republican presidential debate in Las Vegas, Nevada and probably gave his best debate performance of the campaign to date.

Congressman Paul was forthright in his answers and statements and laid forth his plans and opinions with no reservations. Plus, unlike his earlier debate performances, Paul more carefully explained his positions in such a way so as to make it more comprehensible to the general audience. He also clearly laid forth why the opposing positions of his fellow candidates were not such good ideas in his opinion.

Paul’s biggest moment of the night, however, came when a member of the audience asked the candidates about re-opening the national nuclear waste repository project which had been planned for Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Paul responded “I approach it from a States Rights position: What right does forty-nine states have to punish one state and say ‘We are going to put our garbage in your state!’ I mean thats wrong!” The audience roared its approval of Paul’s answer and also applauded his stance that government had no place handing out money to energy companies and that the free market was the best place for thinkers to solve the problem of nuclear waste.

Paul’s triumph became apparent after his comment on the issue. Governor Romney’s response to the same question about Yucca Mountain was simply: “Congressman Paul is right on that” followed closely by Governor Perry’s response of “Congressman Paul, you are correct when it comes to allowing the states to compete with each other, that is the answer to this!” Paul was the only candidate to receive such responses throughout a debate which saw two candidates nearly come to blows with each other and at least three more candidates lose their tempers at another candidate on the stage. Paul seemed to be an island of calm in a turbulent sea of candidates.

The voters watching the debate could not have failed to notice this. Paul’s forthrightness, calm and the stunning affirmation of his correctness from certain other candidates made the debate a fantastic performance for him. At the Voter Values Conference in Washington DC some weeks ago, Paul commented that “the polls are really not reflective of how well we are doing” and indeed he is doing very well. His money bomb, planned for after the debate, has already raised over two million dollars and is still rising and his grassroots support continues to grow. If Paul keeps up his momentum off this performance, he will be in a position to pull off a major upset in the fast approaching primaries.

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