Ron Paul rocks Michigan State...

Ron Paul speech draws thousands at MSU

It seemed like a fair trade for an 11th-hour campaign stop in another state where polls indicate Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul likely will finish out of the money in today’s Michigan primary.

For almost an hour Monday afternoon, the Texas congressman showed the people his familiar, libertarian-flavored way of the wilderness. In exchange, the overflow crowd at the 3,700-seat Michigan State University Auditorium showed him the love.

Paul walked onto the stage to a 40-second standing ovation. His standard-stump-speech call for dismantling federal government as it has been known for at least two generations drew applause, cheers and chants — “President Paul, President Paul” primarily.

References to government programs and policies in disfavor with Paul and with the crowd — the Patriot Act, for example — generated rounds of on-cue booing.

“Enough is enough,” Paul said about the loss of civil liberties, drawing another prolonged standing ovation.

Throughout the afternoon, Paul emphasized:
Federal government has grown too large to work.

The principles of the nation’s founders have been ignored or trampled.
Personal freedoms are under siege.

Federal economic and monetary policies and foreign wars are ruinous.
The remedies lie in citizen involvement, Paul said. Congress will listen when the people speak — especially when they utilize the Internet to express themselves.

“Those in charge are afraid of the Internet,” Paul said in a broad reference to Congress and successive presidential administrations.
Paul characterized the War on Drugs as more dangerous and costly than the drugs themselves.

Paul described the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as having been used by government “to do the things they wanted to do all along” — a reference to the war launched by the Bush administration against Iraq.

“The Taliban just want to be left alone,” he said of the Islamic fundamentalists fighting the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.

“I believe in a lot of the things he’s for, including getting our soldiers out of other countries,” said Mary Champagne, 44, of Williamston, who attended the rally with her husband and son.

Link:
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20120228/ELECTIONS01/302280036/1002/NEWS01