After the CNN debate last night, the Ron Paul echo chamber was, no doubt, full of Pauliens telling each other how great their candidate was. The reality is that, once again, when it comes to Paul's wiring relative to understanding the threats to the United States it is, in a word, defective. Newt Gingrich masterfully demonstrated it.
The former speaker indicated that the Patriot Act might need strengthening and Ron Paul responded by calling the Patriot Act unpatriotic. Gingrich also drew a clear line of distinction between criminal law and national security with the former being a matter of innocent until proven guilty and defensive in nature while the latter is something that requires a proactive approach.
Predictably, Paul went back to the same, tired example that liberals always do when the subject of Islamic terrorism comes up; he whipped out the Timothy McVeigh card, to which Newt responded with three words and could have stopped right there.
To further underscore the success of Newt's response to Paul's insanity, the Truther candidate had absolutely no response to the smack down; he didn't even try.
To illustrate this dynamic using an extreme metaphor (I'm sorry, Paul is nuts on foreign policy), have a look at this scene in the movie Backdraft. Donald Sutherland is a jailed pyromaniac who is putting on his best face for the parole board, which appears ready to release him. Robert DeNiro is the Fire Marshall who knows how to get Sutherland to reveal his true self - and does so.
In this example, Sutherland represents Paul (minus the convicted criminal / pyromania), DeNiro represents Gingrich, and the parole board represents the Ron Pauliens.
h/t Hapblog
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