Reconsidering, Perhaps...

Watching '24' today, I had an epiphany of sorts. If a TV show on FOX can have two black presidents across it's six seasons on air, perhaps America is ready for a real life black president. Although, I gotta say, these guys seem to have had rather tumultuous terms. The first president was killed by homegrown terrorists, and the second suffered an attempted assassination by individuals within his own administration. I guess that's tough love? Barack - you sure you want in?

Who the heck is Ron Paul? I had never heard of him before. But he was on Bill Maher a few weeks ago and that is how I found out he was running for president. The guy is apparently a Republican from Texas and a hardcore libertarian, talk about an endangered species. I can't think of a Republican lately who advocated a smaller government. Bush, himself, expanded the federal government with the Department of Homeland Security and the Czars of Wiretapping and Torture.

But anyway back to Ron Paul. I am not sure I am with him on global warming denial, but I am with him on ending subsidies to Big Oil and ending wars over oil! I also like his skepticism of the CIA. He is probably right that the CIA's involvement in the "selection" or "deselection" of developing world leaders have fomented terrorist activities against us.

His most interesting comments were on the Civil War. He does not think the Civil War was necessary. Britain and other nations were able to end slavery without an all out war. I am not sure if the Civil War could have been averted, and I do wonder if he truly believes it could have been. But anyone who has taken AP US History knows that the Civil War was not about slavery, it was about states rights and the business interests of the North. Abraham Lincoln was no real friend of the slaves either. If he was, the Emancipation Proclamation would have been signed much earlier, not two years into the war, and not without a constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery.

Again, I have no real intention of voting for the guy. But he is a former doctor, and while some of his ideas are really kind of out there, he does strike me as a "thinking" individual. And while it does not take much to beat our current president, it is still something to find a Republican who does not always toe the party line. A new maverick?