David McElroy

In an effort to cut costs, the U.S. Air Force reportedly plans to move eight giant C-130 cargo planes from their current base in Texas. During hurricane evacuations in the U.S. Gulf Coast states, those eight planes are used to ferry people out and bring supplies in — and the governors of those five states are complaining about the potential loss of the planes to the area.

The governors of the five Gulf Coast states sent a letter to Barack Obama opposing the plan to pull the planes out of Texas and move them to Montana. (The entire Texas congressional delegation signed the letter, too.) They say that the planes would be too far away in the future to provide quick and effective help in case of hurricane disasters, so they want to planes to keep sitting there — waiting for the next time they need them. Without paying for them, of course.

And here’s the key. All five of those governors are Republicans. All five claim to be conservatives at election time. They speak of cutting taxes and slashing budgets. When it’s not election time, though, they’re more interested in what goodies they can get that are funded by national taxpayers. They’re opposed to any cuts that might affect their states. Why is there such a disconnect between their campaign rhetoric and what they work for once they’re in office?

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It’s time for this week’s random musings that don’t fit anywhere else….

When other people are confused and frustrated about things that seem perfectly obvious to me, it makes me really frustrated, too. I felt that way Wednesday when I saw this article about Ron Paul’s strategists being confused about losing elections despite generating enthusiastic crowds at events.

If these guys are honestly confused, I wonder how experienced or competent they are. I knew months and months ago how this was going to play out for Paul. If anything, it’s gone even worse than I expected. I figured he’d slip up and win some small state or two, but that hasn’t even happened.

Here’s the truth. Ron Paul has the most enthusiastic core of supporters of any campaign today, bar none. If elections were won because of whose biggest supporters were most passionate, Paul would be elected. But that’s not how politics works. Most people aren’t going to go to anybody’s campaign event. They have busy lives and they honestly don’t care enough about the candidates. But when it’s time to vote, most of them are going to vote for a candidate whose ideas are mainstream and familiar to them.

Whether we like it or not, we are far outside the mainstream. The passion of a tiny group isn’t enough to change the fact that the masses recoil at our ideas. That’s just reality. Any political strategist should know this.

Remember the “corruption” trial that I told you about last week? I didn’t think there was any way these people should have been convicted, because what they were proven to be doing was just as legal as what anybody else in politics does. Well, the jury found all defendants not guilty on all charges Wednesday. I don’t necessarily support the people on trial — or vouch for their character — but the verdict was the right one. It’s a big blow to the out-of-control federal prosecutors who brought the case. They proved the old legal aphorism that a good prosecutor can successfully indict a ham sandwich.

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Going into Super Tuesday, Ron Paul hadn’t won a state yet, and his big hope was that he might win North Dakota. That’s right. North Dakota was his best shot.

Super Tuesday has come and gone. The other three GOP candidates all won at least a state. Even Newt Gingrich took a state, with a win in his home state of Georgia. But Paul is still waiting for a win, because Santorum took North Dakota. Is there anybody sane left who honestly thinks Paul has any chance?

For months, I’ve been hearing from my Ron Paul-supporting friends that he was “our last hope” and that if he didn’t win this year, we were doomed as a nation. Although that naive belief that Paul can win has died gradually among many of the people I know, they’re still left to face the reality of their own dire predictions. If you meant what you said — that Ron Paul was really your last hope for change through the electoral system — are you ready to join me in giving up on that system? Are you ready to start lookin at alternatives?

As some people have realized that Paul can’t win, their story has started changing a bit. Now they tell me the objective isn’t necessarily to win, but to win enough delegates to influence the Republican platform for the fall. Really? You’re telling me that you’ve poured all this money, time and work into an effort to influence a document that will promptly be forgotten — by the nominee and everyone else? Really?

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