COMMENTARY | In yet another strange twist in this year's voting contests Rick Santorum won all three states Tuesday night. Unfortunately, Missouri's vote was held just for fun. All 70 delegates available were from Colorado and Minnesota. In the two states that mattered, Santorum came in first. Ron Paul came in second and fourth. Mitt Romney came in third and second. And Newt Gingrich came in fourth and third.
What does this mean? It means voters are still unsure of their Republican candidate. No one candidate has put down his footprint and cemented it. Every race is different, and every state is judging the candidates on their own merits and flaws and coming to different conclusions. On Tuesday, the conclusion was Santorum would make a good president. In the next primary, it might be Romney again or Gingrich or Paul.
The only constant in these races is Paul's momentum and message. Paul is doing what he said he was doing to do: Go through the race and build momentum and delegates, and his speech to supporters reiterated those goals.
In fact, it was the most animated I have seen Paul. I also noticed his message has not changed. He has not driven away from liberty and freedom in an effort to garner more votes. He has started elaborating on what he means by liberty and freedom. Paul stated, "The bigger a government gets, the smaller our liberty gets. We are losing our economic liberties as well as our personal liberties."
I don't have to think very long to come up with ways our personal and economic liberties have been compromised. For our personal liberties, we just have to look at the airports, the long security lines and the extensive "no fly" list that includes children, politicians and elderly individuals, and the confiscation of dangerous cupcakes. When it comes to our economic liberties, we just have to look at the unemployment rate, the number of unemployed and underemployed, and the number of people that have fallen out of the middle class.
Paul made a good point when he stated, "Foreign policy is the economic policy. We have extended ourselves too far around the world." Paul also stated at various points during his speech, "There should be no bailouts at all. You can't go to war without a declaration. You can't undermine our privacy any longer." He then referenced Russia and the Cold War by telling us the U.S. never had to fight Russia because Russia overextended itself and caused its own economic collapse. The message was clear. The U.S. is headed down the same path.
I agree. The U.S. is concentrating more efforts overseas than at home, and it needs to stop. We are going to war without declarations of war, and it needs to stop. The U.S. needs to get back on track, and if Paul can bring us back on track, then he should be president.
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