“Keep Ron Paul in!” is the initiative of conservative bigwig Richard A. Viguerie who created a special website with a petition to demand that Ron Paul not be excluded from the Presidential debates. While this initiative originates from conservatives, the petition itself has options for being a concervative, liberal, moderate, libertarian or “other” and for various motives – including keeping a real, pluralistic, debate to sign the petition.
Thus, this is not a matter of endorsing Ron Paul’s views, as it is a matter of trying to keep a real debate going. This is the letter explaining the petition:
Keep Ron Paul in the June 5 New Hampshire debate!
Dear Fellow Conservative:
The next Republican presidential debate is just days away. It will be held at 7:00 pm Eastern Time on Tuesday, June 5 in New Hampshire. Its sponsors are CNN, the Manchester (NH) Union Leader, and WMUR-TV. CNN will televise the debate, which is being hosted by Wolf Blitzer.
It’s up to you and I and all our conservative friends to make sure this is a real debate—with real conservative views allowed—and not a sham Soviet-style “debate” with just one Establishment-approved viewpoint expressed.
You know what happened during and after the last debate in South Carolina. Rep. Ron Paul was the only debater who took the traditional Republican foreign policy positions of Robert A. Taft (“Mr. Republican”). And Ron Paul was the only debater who called for the elimination of entire Cabinet departments that are not authorized by the Constitution—which had been the position taken in recent Republican platforms.
So what happened? A movement began to oust Ron Paul from future debates, led by Saul Anuzis, chairman of the Michigan Republican Party. He found Ron Paul’s conservative positions “off the wall and out of whack” (even though Paul was the debate winner in viewer responses to Fox News and MSNBC after the debate).
Anuzis has since flip-flopped on his demand to ban Ron Paul (he heard from We the People), but I don’t trust the Big Government Republicans one bit. If they can’t get their way publicly, they’ll try to get their way behind closed doors.
I expect intense behind-the-scenes pressure to be placed on the three debate sponsors to get Rep. Ron Paul off the panel on June 5. And WE have to counteract with pressure to keep this a true debate. That’s why I have launched a petition on www.KeepRonIn.com.
The title says it all. And we will be keeping the three debate sponsors—as well as the rest of the media—fully informed of your desire to see a real debate.
SIGN THE PETITION HERE
I encourage every visitor to visit www.KeepRonIn.com and sign the petition!
The Saker
