I don’t watch Jay Leno so I had to hear about this after the fact. Jay Leno had Congressman Ron Paul on his show last Friday night. I find it fascinating that Paul who recently told Bill O’Reilly he doesn’t like demagogues directed some demagoguery toward Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum. Listen below:
I find it interesting that here we have a Republican candidate who identifies himself as a conservative using a tactic utilized by the left. Namely demonize your opponents, drop the racist/classist/bigot card instead of engaging the issue.
He said that Bachmann hates Muslims and wants to “go get them.” Leno said that that for Santorum with gay people, “it’s the end of the world for him.” Paul replied, “gays and Muslims.” Bachmann has never said she hates Muslims. Also disagreeing with gay marriage it doesn’t mean that it is “the end of the world” for that person.
Congressman Paul could have taken the high-road and talked about policy differences, but instead demeaned his opponents for some cheap laughs. Really classy.
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It’s the Jay Leno show – It’s a jib and wasn’t meant to be taken seriously. I’m sure as a writer you can recognize these things, so I’m wondering why I’m taking this article seriously.
Shane Vander Hart
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Sure, defend the indefensible… If the roles were reversed I’d be criticizing Santorum or Bachmann, but hey stay true to your candidate.
Please! Hilarious!
Point is that Sanctorum and Bachmann are cowards on homosexuality in light of their views. If they are against gay-marriage, then they should be against the act of homosexuality, and if they are not against the act, why be against the marriage of them ?
Sounds kind of politically motivated to not come out and say your true view, don’t you think Shane ?
Shane, the Ron Paul minions are about to flame you…
So what else is new? They can bad mouth any candidate they want, but oh don’t say anything negative about Dr. Paul. At least the other candidates have criticized him it has been about his positions, not him personally.
More counter-factual hilarity! Thanks!
And you are making your case how? Please show me how Bachmann and Santorum have personally attacked Paul. Say something substantive or I’ll block you.
For starters:
“Rick Santorum called Ron Paul’s view on September 11 ‘belittling to victims of the tragedy’…” Right. Paul belittles the men, women, and children who were victims of this great tragedy. Sounds a wee bit personal to me.
Michele Bachmann said “Ron Paul would be a dangerous president.” Paul would be a danger in office. Sounds a wee bit personal to me.
Actually, it’s not personal; it’s just “unfortunate demagoguery.”
Recall also that the moderator, George Stephanopoulos, gave Ron Paul a golden opportunity during one of the last debates to criticize Newt Gingrich about his profligate adultery. Paul declined, and focused on the sanctity of the oath of office. Did you criticize Rick Perry when he got personal about Gingrich’s faithlessness to his past wives?
Also, take hard look at Paul’s TV ads. Do they discuss Gingrich’s personal life? No, just Gingrich’s horrible statist record, using Gingrich’s own words, and media accounts of both.
Finally, you are again missing the point. Your comments fixate on Paul hurting Bachmann’s and Santorum’s feelings while on the Jay Leno Show, during a political campaign. Is that worse than the outcome of Santorum’s and Bachmann’s policies of warmongering with Iran, and torturing captives? Surely that might deserve some of your indignation.
” Please show me how Bachmann and Santorum have personally attacked Paul. Say something substantive or I’ll block you.”
This reminds me of something Ron Paul said yesterday in Mount Pleasant. RP: “I find it interesting that the same people who accuse me of being an isolationist are the ones who insist on economic sanctions and other threatening behavior against countries like Cuba”
The other GOP candidates resort to use of threats and people are tired of it. Thats why Ron Paul attracted over 1,550 people to four separate small town meetings in Iowa yesterday. Bachmann was in Fairfield yesterday and got 40 to attend!
We need to stop threatening violence or sanctions on people (and countries) we don’t agree with. Diplomacy and trade is a better way. End the blockade on Cuba would be a great place to start.
Bachmann loves Muslims so much that she wants to invade their countries and bomb them into submission.
Yes because she has said that. He’s lying and you are defending an indefensible position.
What part of bombing Iran don’t you understand? Before that, she was talking about the need to torture captives. To the Persian guy on the receiving end of those bombs and that torture, it is precisely “hate”.
You and Bachmann are the ones with indefensible positions.
“Even if it were desirable, America is not strong enough to police the world by military force. If that attempt is made, the blessings of liberty will be replaced by coercion and tyranny at home. Our Christian ideals cannot be exported to other lands by dollars and guns.
“Persuasion and example are the methods taught by the Carpenter of Nazareth, and if we believe in Christianity we should try to advance our ideals by his methods. We cannot practice might and force abroad and retain freedom at home. We cannot talk world cooperation and practice power politics.” – U.S. Senator Howard Buffett
Bachmann thinks torture is ok …….. That’s an indefensible position.
Disappointing. Sounds like he’s playing to the moderate/liberal by reinforcing popular misconceptions of conservative positions. The more I hear Paul the less I believe he’s all that different from other long-term politicians.
How abut looking at his policies and record and the way he is being viciously attacked and blacked out by the media. Make a right judgement. When he does right,he is ignored. any opportunity to attack (though baseless) is pounced upon and they don’t let go! Meanwhile, Gingrich is defended shortly after briefly mentioning the points against him.
Bachmann and Santorum are the demagogues. They both try to lie about some great “Islamic caliphate” being created if the US doesn’t continue to invade the Middle East. They both try to say that “the gays” are going to destroy America if government doesn’t regulate bedroom activity. Paul is merely pointing out their record. Pointing out that Bachmann and Santorum continue to lie about the Middle East and homosexuality doesn’t make him the demagogue.
They were jokes and they were funny.
Lighten up Francis.
(they were also true)
Bachman and Santorum don’t hate muslims. They just want to drop bombs on them. I’m sure most muslims would rather just be hated.
Can you believe the double-speak that passes as reality these days? She doesn’t hate Muslims, she just likens them to Nazis and wants to drop bombs on them and invade their country, WTF? These people (establishment neo-cons) are LUNATICS and the Media has vast majority of brain-dead Americans buying this horse crap for 12 years running. ENOUGH! There is no imediate threat in IRAN any¤ore than there was WMD in Iraq. Remeber when they told us we would be in Iraq for like 2-weeks? Guess what? That was, what? Ten years and 14-Trillion Dollars ago? Hello???? Whiie Americans cheer; “Kill the Brown People”! Guess what, now WE are the “brown people”. Read the NDAA lately? Idiots! BTW Paul rvcs more Military donations than all other GOP candidates combined TIMES 3!!! Support the TROOPS do ya? Quit sending them to freakin die for JP MORGAN and Halliburton can get rich(er). Idiots!
They do hate Muslims. To them, 1,000,000 dead Iraqis is just collateral damage. If that’s not hate, what is it?
I agree. That is never mentioned, and it’s huge news.
Bachmann the next day in an interview with Fox News vehemently denies that she hates Muslims and loves America, but likens Islam to the Rise of the Nazis. Do you know anyone who loves or even likes the Nazis?
Do you know anyone who loves or even likes the Nazis?
If we’re talking about years ago, my dislike would be directed far more to the leadership (Hitler et al.) than to the rank-and-file Nazis, who were basically brainwashed. If we lived in Germany during those years, you or I could have well ended up becoming a Nazi more or less against our will. It is possible to dislike what a movement stands for while not hating the individual members.
Way to not even remotely address the question.
Should this even be a surprise? I mean, after all, hasn’t Paul said that he won’t support the eventual Republican nominee if he’s not it? Why should he treat any of the other candidates with respect if he’s already dissing the whole party?
Are you serious right now?? Have you never seen the Jay Leno show? It doesn’t quite have the same premise as a major news program. You probably also believed that Ron Paul will be staring in the upcoming movie with Sylvester Stallone.
It was the Jay Leno show, not a formal debate; in his serious speeches and debate responses, he argues from principal and from evidence, not from assertions that someone “hates Muslims.” If he’s asked by a comedian on a late-night talk show to give soundbite thoughts on other candidates, however, the suggestion that certain candidates who are constantly using bellicose rhetoric toward and advocating police profiling, brutal sanctions, bombing and torture of Muslims might not feel warm and fuzzy about Muslims certainly does not seem off limits.
Well put Jay. I agree Bachman’s jab was vicious and came the day before Paul’s remark.
You’re right Brian.
Bachmann went on the attack against Paul personally because she is so low in the polls.
Right. Bachmann and Santorum both adhere to the redneck “all ragheads are the same” mentality, that Islam is one homogeneous belief system and that all Muslims want to do is die for Allah. This is factually untrue and as such is more dangerous than what the militant fundamentalists are doing. Islam has as many nuances and sects as does Christianity or even Judaism and until we stop treating them like the Borg collective our problems with Islam will persist. Kudos to Paul for having the guts to say it.
One can logically infer Bachmann’s hatred of Muslims from her ardent embrace of policies that result in the deaths of so many of them.
Got a dictionary? Look up the meaning of demagogue. Tiresome, desperate smear piece on Ron Paul. Nice try, but another media failure. Ron Paul 2012.
Nice try dude, but maybe you should watch Leno before you comment on what happened there.
Bachmann and Santorum and Perry, and Romney and Gingrich all sing the same racist mantra that I heard over and over as I grew up.
They don’t think ALL muslims are bad, just the bad ones.
So substitute the N word into what they are saying. It goes something like this: All N aren’t lazy or stupid… Some of my best friends are N.
I’ll bet some of Michele’s best friends are N.
I agree with every word he said ..He’s got my vote
Seems like I remember Herman Cain doing something similar on Leno calling Ron Paul a “Grumpy Old Man”. Don’t remember you calling him out back then but maybe you did?
Since I don’t watch Leno I missed it, and I don’t remember a lot of hoopla over it. If I had caught it I would have.
My point is that Cain spoke of several candidates on Leno but no one seemed to care. Surprised you didn’t hear that Cain called Santorum “Stressed!”
Well, he DID engage the issue with Bachmann the night before the Leno appearance at the Fox GOP Debate. He concluded from the engagement that Bachmann’s stance is anti-muslim. So he points it out to Jay.
This article is a slight departure from the normal use of the term demagogue. The use here can apply, but more commonly a demagogue is one who uses the PEOPLE’S bigotry and fears against themselves when presenting their positions. So in a debate you’re a demagogue for the way you use the podium. When it comes to attacking your opponents, it more commonly considered mud slinging or negative campaigning.
Get a life! Ron Paul just made an off-the-cuff remark. Later on, RP said that’s all it was, something not to be taken so seriously. Bachmann, if anybody, is the one with too big of a mouth. That’s why she has fallen in the polls, because nobody likes a lightweight intellect with a big mouth.
As a Ron Paul supporter, I agree that was pretty rude. So, as you put it, I am not going to defend the indefensible.
On another note, both Bachmann and Santorum said in the last debate that if Iran had a nuclear weapon, it would use it against Israel. Which in effect would be committing national suicide. If I am not mistaken, your view is that they would use it as a shield while spreading terror, which is also the view that Santorum seemed to have held a few debates ago. So did he change his mind?
P.S Did you ever get the message I sent you a few mouths ago on Facebook?
Yeah, I was surprised, it wasn’t like him. He looked like he was searching for words to address their difference on Iran, and came up with unfortunate ones. I don’t consider it a big deal, but it wasn’t the way he usually speaks. When asked about it apparently he said he was trying to come up with a humorous answer on a comedy show and it was ‘glib’, but I only read that in an article, I didn’t see him address it in a media clip. I think he truly doesn’t get why she sees it as she does, but he could have expressed it better.
Message body
to the author of this poorly written excuse for an editorial , Anything and everything you just said about Ron Paul is a neoconned Zionist slant of which no one will take you seriously, any and all potential credibility you may have had as a writer fails in this page , it is bad enough that you continue to write such aggressively anti american zionist hate smut , of which no one has ever and will ever take you seriously , but you continue to carry on despite your gradual divorce from reality , your delusional denialism only serves to further weaken your already rapidly fleeting joke of a resolve . Michele bachmann is an islamophobe and her and the other neocons are as cowardly as u get, like the other neoconned zionists in america . they have failed, Israel is the enemy, not iran, get it straight . . you clearly have not the slightest clue as to what you are saying or even what planet you on, you are simply divorced from reality and as such you deserve mine, as well as , americas pity. however yet , nonetheless lack of knowledge is no excuse for ignorance and delusion which you have blatantly displayed back an forth throughout your editorial, Ron Pauls non interventionism is classic conservative at best and the american people support him as such , only the hated terrorist state of israel and its neocon zionist stooges stand against him, and considering how he wishes to cut the aid that the terrorist state of israel depends on so badly from us , its easy to see why the GOP trembles in fear of him . you can write however you want of him, as an american it is your right, but do take care to remember if you ever expect anyone to take you with the slightest sense of professional acknowledgment and respect , write the facts, not the fallacies, this editorial has shown you as clownish at best , mentally deranged at worst , only you can change your outlook ,.. if you are american , only Ron Paul can save this nation .
I just learned this today, and it’s pretty shocking. Interesting that Paul would accuse Bachmann of hating Muslims, when there are some serious charges of racism in his own background. And he stormed out of a recent CNN interview when questioned about them.
To see the article published today about that, please go to a search engine and type in:
Ron Paul Dogged by Racism Charges
This matter may be worthy of its own article on CT.
Islam is a religion. Hating Muslims is not racism but bigotry.
And oh yes, Arabs are Semites, Arab-hating is anti-Semitism.
But there are many Muslims who are not Arabs. For instance Farsi (Persians) are Indo-Europeans. Hence an anti-Iranian attitude is not anti-Semitism.
Racism is connecting hate to a specific ethnic group. Anti-Semitism qualifies as racism, whether it is directed against Jews or Arabs. But the Farsi tribes stretch from Iran through Afghanistan into Pakistan and India. So anti-Iranian viewpoints do not qualify as racism.
Just to set things straight.
As far as I can see the accusations of racism against Ron Paul are about remarks on blacks. Obviously an ethnic group in the USA.
Paul’s attitude against homosexuals seems to have been driven by the AIDS epidemic, that was an unfortunate by-product of the homosexual lifestyle (bedroom behavior / cruising) that made them extra vulnerable in transmitting diseases.
The very fact that he is a doctor and in 1988 didn’t want to shake hands as Eric Dondero claims is quite problematic, albeit I know from that time of a case of a friend who suffered Anorexia Nervosa and was refused emergency treatment by a dentist, who thought she might be a junkie and feared AIDS. Unwarranted prejudices and incomplete understanding of health issues in complementary areas, causing too much precaution among Medical Doctors alas do occur.
I would not want to provide dinner to the number of reverends around the world, who at that time made remarks on the pulpit about God’s punishment for Sodomites, because I would probably go broke.
The point is that Ron Paul was easily pranked by “Bruno” a gay creation by Sacha Baron Cohen for his comedy movie. He surely doesn’t look at ease with gays. However, he doesn’t want to prohibit them to marry, instead he wants to separate the state legal contract of marriage from the religious ceremony of marriage.
I do not think that Bachmann and Santorum hold similar views on Homosexuals.
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