Ron Paul: Darkness at Noon

18 October 2011 |permalink | email article

The libertarian Republican candidate unveiled his stark economic plan in Las Vegas yesterday. The plan requires a timeout just to get a breath of air. It’s brutal and involves $1 billion in spending cuts, the bulk coming from the elimination of several cabinet level departments, including Education, Energy, Housing and Urban Development. There’s more. Paul will squeeze out more savings through the elimination of all foreign aid and wars and dial back spending to 2006 levels.Only 8 percent of likely Republican voters mention his name as best equipped to handle the economy.

Obama’s Big Cash Edge

While Republicans are conserving their cash and jockeying for position in a drawn out battle for the party’s nomination Republican President Obama is constructing a huge grass-roots network across he country. Since the beginning of the year the president’s team has spent close to $87 million in operating costs, an amount about as much as all the current Republican candidates together have raised for the 2012 campaign. Campaign offices have been opened in at least 15 states and the president is paying staff employees in 38 states, including key battleground states. Obama has added a second fundraiser when he returns to L.A. next Monday to collect checks from Latino donors in the evening before an afternoon soiree with show business people and a $35,800-per-couple dinner – both events in Hancock Park.

L.A. Politics

The odds today are the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will vote to set up an independent commission to investigate the scope of brutality in the sheriff’s jails. Supervisor Michael Antonovich, even before the excepted announcement, suggested he would appoint a retired federal judge to the proposed five-member panel, initially pushed by Supervervisors Mark-Ridley Thomas and Zev Yaroslavsky to restore public confidence on how the jails are run and offer a road map for reform. Embattled Sheriff Lee Baca has designated undersheriff Paul Tanaka, who as assistant sheriff had responsibility for the jails, to head an internal investigation. But Tanaka’s 2006 messy involvement in quashing proposed personnel rotation changes is widely viewed as damaging his credibility.

Quotable

“Time and time again he shifts – and you get the feeling that there is no principle too large for him to throw over in pursuit of political office.” – Senior Obama adviser David Axelrod on Mitt Romney.

“His candidacy is in serious jeopardy, even though he can afford to pay for the best doctors and checks himself into the prestigious clinics in the country.” – GOP strategist Matthew Dowd on the health prospects of Rick Perry.

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