Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. If that's true Ron Paul has been getting a lot of that lately.
Many of the Republican presidential candidates have been verbally critical of Ron Paul, but their actions tell a somewhat different story. Recently I've heard almost all of the them say something that they picked up from Ron Paul. I think they realized people like his ideas and decided to adopt his ideas to attract more votes.
Rick Perry is the worst in this area. Ron Paul released his budget plan and out of a sudden Rick Perry decides he wants to cut three departments. During the debate a couple days ago it became pretty obvious who he got the idea from when he looked over at Ron Paul for support during his "oops" mess up. He has also picked up on Ron Paul's criticism of the Federal Reserve.
Even though Romney has been pretty critical of Ron Paul, even he has pulled most of his spending cut ideas straight from the lines of Ron Paul's budget plan. Compare Romney's plan with Ron Paul's plan released about two weeks early.
Newt Gingrich joined with Ron Paul to criticize student loan programs, saying the loan program expanded the ability of students "to stay in college longer because they don't see the cost." He called it "an absurdity.""to stay in college longer because they don't see the cost." He called it "an absurdity." He also noticed Ron Paul's idea of ending the fed was popular, so next thing we know he is talking about it too.
Michele Bachmann has flip-flopped on some of her war issues, but she has said that she thinks we are doing too much nation building. Here is a clip of her sounding like Ron Paul http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUWNNfSZ-G8. This is quite different from the approach she was taking in yesterday's South Carolina debate.
I've noticed a lot of other aspects of Ron Paul's message that other candidates have picked up on, but I don't have time to find and list them all. My point is that even the status quo candidates are realizing that Ron Paul's message is resonating in our country and that they have to adopt some of his ideas or lose votes. Ron Paul stands for his beliefs even if he risks losing popularity. Most of the other candidates change their message based on what they think will get them elected.
The only republican candidate that doesn't seem to do this is Jon Huntsmann. He is also the only other candidate that isn't a warmonger. Ron Paul/Jon Huntsmann 2012?
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