Ron Paul supporters “meet up” to watch Republican presidential debate

BY DENNIS GEISINGER
About 30 people met at Stub and Herbs bar near the East Bank of the University of Minnesota last night to watch the televised Republican presidential debate and mark the first gathering of a local network group to support the candidacy of Republican Congressman Ron Paul.

Corey Stern, an art director for a local e-learning company and Eden Prairie resident, organized the event through meetup.com, an online social networking website that joins together people with common interests, primarily in localized groups, worldwide. Paul’s campaign website contains links to Meetup and other networking sites like YouTube and MySpace. As of last night, The Minnesota Ron Paul 2008 Meetup Group reported 77 members.

Meetup.com also lists three Democratic presidential candidate groups in Minnesota, two DFL Links Saint Paul groups with a total of 406 members and a Minnesota for Edwards in 2008 group with nine members.

“I first started hearing about Ron Paul on Libertarian radio talk shows,” said Stern. “I consider myself an independent Libertarian and I support Paul’s opposition to the war in Iraq,” he said.

Paul is one of the few Republican presidential candidates who is successfully using the organizing power of the internet, at least so far, according to Stern. Paul’s campaign site claims 8,223 Meetup members with 224 groups in 206 cities in five countries that have put together 184 “events.”

Last night’s event at Stub and Herbs hosted a group that had varied interests in Paul’s run for the White House. Of the at least 28 people who filled half of the bar’s pool room, four identified themselves as conservative Republicans, four as Libertarians, and another three as independents. Others chose to remain unaffiliated. At least six affirmed that Paul’s opposition to the Iraq War was their primary reason for supporting him.

“When you’re talking about the candidates for president, Ron Paul is the only one who is running on principles,” said Gilbert Higuera, a commercial loan officer who works in St. Paul. Higuera said he learned of the get-together for Paul supporters after visiting Paul’s website.

The most positive response to Paul’s remarks during the debate came when several candidates were asked the question, “What do you think is America’s greatest moral issue?”

“The greatest moral issue in the country today is that we promote pre-emptive war,” said Paul. “We have accepted the morality of pre-emptive war against those who have not threatened our national security,” he said.

Many of the group also applauded when Paul said of the Iraq War, “The sooner we come home the better,” and of global terrorism, “We are more threatened now by staying.”

Yet the issue of the war also divided the mood of the group and a few barbs were traded. Reactions to comments by Paul and other candidates concerning the issue of immigration also landed in separate camps.

Nods and an echo of applause greeted Paul’s assertion that immigration problems are the result of America’s lack of a true free market economy, and that “because of our economic inefficiency, immigrants have become the scapegoat.”

But the most enthusiastic responses came from two other candidates’ anti-immigration invectives.

Some clapping was loud and assertive over Congressman Tom Tancredo’s wish for a day when “Americans don’t have to push one for English and two for Spanish.”

And most seemed to get a good laugh at Congressman Duncan Hunter’s shot at fellow candidates Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney’s past bipartisanship, saying, “The one who seems to hold the most influence over you is Ted Kennedy.”

The remark came on the heels of Romney’s sharp criticism of the new Kennedy/McCain immigration bill.

Corey Stern can be reached at corey@coreystern.com and Ron Paul’s website is ronpaul2008.com.