Thank you, Jim. I respect many of Paul’s positions, but his glib insistence that eliminating nearly all government agencies will solve our problems is naive at best. The American public may be skeptical (rightfully so) of those agencies’ effectiveness, but I think the majority of people realize that simply shutting those down will cause more problems than it solves.

Hagel has to get into this race.

And there’s this bit to which I have one answer

and that answer is the Supreme Court.

The small independent minority of the electorate that is not “Independent in Name Only” and actually will change their vote between parties based on what is good for the country cannot have an effect unless the PDW is roughly balanced and the independent sliver in the middle votes more or less in concert. That is what happened in the 2006 mid-terms. For those Independents I offer this argument:

1) Our “Checks and Balances” actually check and balance better when there is divided government. Not so much with single party control of all three branches.

2)The Dems are a lock to hold Congress in 2008. Single party Dem control of all branches will be as bad as single party Rep control. R or D, they are still politicians and still face the same big money lobbyist temptations in Washington. Just different lobbyists are favored.

3) Therefore, If you want to maintain the benefits of divided government in 2009, you will have to vote for the Republican presidential candidate regardless of who it is.

4) If you want to have something to say about who that Republican candidate will be, then you will need to register Republican and vote in the Republican primaries.

That is what I think the real moderate independents should do. I am not asking it of partisan dead weight.

I do think there is or should be a significant overlap between Hagel and Paul supporters. My observation is that both constituencies tend to be more issue/objective oriented rather than personalty driven. For either, the most important tactic right now is to get Independents, Libertarians, and even Democrats to register Republican for the primaries. I explored this meme in an earlier post which I’ll just quote here:

Tactically this is it how it can play out: Ron Paul and Chuck Hagel are my top Republican presidential hopefuls. I’d have added Bloomberg to that list if he had stayed with the GOP. Hagel remains undeclared, but is clearly a stronger national candidate than either Paul or Bloomberg. Interestingly, while sitting on the sidelines, he may find the path for a Republican run cleared by the surprising support garnered by Ron Paul, and the foundation for a potential Independent run built by the Bloomberg announcement. Unity08 is building the infrastructure and raising funds for a “Unity ticket”, but requires the ticket to be a mix of Republican, Democratic, and/or Independent candidates. Bloomberg’s quick-change artistry opens the door for a Hagel/Bloomberg Unity08 ticket. By waiting to declare, Chuck may have some pretty good choices.

My first choice is to save the GOP. To do that, real conservatives and libertarians need to take back the Republican party from the Bushists. Michael Nystrom and Verbatim at the Daily Paul are promoting the right idea with this call to action “Change Party Affiliation to Republican to Participate in Primaries”:

This is an effort I can get behind. It is worth noting, that should the Paul candidacy falter, the base of enthusiastic Ron Paul supporters are a natural constituency for a Chuck Hagel run. In support of their efforts, I’ll be posting the Daily Paul “Call to Action” badge in the sidebar of my blog, and encourage any other bloggers interested in saving the GOP to do the same.

He is a duplicitous politician with a messianic complex who talks about himself in the third person. Weird.

Dr. Paul was one of Ronald Reagan’s earliest supporters in Congress. He is is a true Republican (which also happens to be a classical liberal ala Adam Smith).

As I said, I respect you contention that Hagel has a better chance to lead American closer to how it needs to be (and I would, indeed, support Mr. Hagel is he got the nomination). But I also think that in addition to having more support in the Republican Party, you would find that Dr. Paul would have more support in the Democratic Party, the Libertarian Party, and other third parties. I am just really unclear as to why you truly think Hagel has a better shot than Ron Paul.

Glad to see you are supporting Dr. Paul, though. As I said, though, if Dr. Paul is out, and Hagel is still in, Hagel will receive my support. I just think that any of Hagel’s supporters will do the same for Ron Paul, something I don’t believe you think.

That said, I support Paul’s campaign, and in fact I am going to make a contribution to his campaign and would encourage others to do likewise. I think he is doing great work communicating libertarian ideas to the electorate. He just cannot be elected. His success in motivating and inspiring passion in his supporters may be the only thing that saves the Republican party in 2008 – if that support can be transferred to the eventual nominee. Hagel is the only Republican that has any chance of retaining some of that Paul support in the Republican party.

Let me be clear. I don’t think Hagel has much of chance of getting the Republican nomination either. But if he does get it, he will be elected. I just think he is the Republicans only hope.

Stand up for liberty — join us in supporting Ron Paul.