Rand, Your Father Would Like a Word with You

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul stopped by for an editorial board meeting Monday afternoon. I tried to blog about it after it ended, but technical problems cropped up. So you get the pony express-speed version.

Paul is fun to listen to, because he's unabashed and genuine. Am I on board with the gold standard? Uh, not really. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy listening to Paul explaining his views. Welfare and warfare, the Texas Republican said more than once, are bankrupting the country. We'll be hearing that line a lot around these parts if he decides to seek the Republican nomination for president again.

I asked Ron Paul what he thought of Rep. Paul Ryan's controverisal budget proposal. He was politely dismissive.

“I think he's very serious. He's a good spokesman and I think most Republicans like what he's doing," Paul said. "But I don't think he has an answer. I don't think he deals with militarism and foreign policy. Nor does he deal with the whole fact that some of these programs that we always support we shouldn't even have. We haven't authority in the constitution to do what we do."

He spoke later in the day at Kirkwood Community College

I asked Paul what it's like to be in the unusual situation of preparing for a possible presidential run amid reports that his son., U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, would make a White House run if dad doesn't.

“I'm gonna have a talk with him,” Ron Paul said, chuckling. “It is interesting.”

“I'm not even sure how all of that got started. I can't imagine that he said ‘Hey, I might run for president.' Somebody must have asked the question and it's been sort of perpetuated. I don't really know what he's thinking about.”

“I think it's the best of both worlds,” Ron Paul's wife Carol, Rand's mother, interjected. She sat beside her husband during the meeting.

“You're prejudiced. She thinks I can do no wrong, nor can her son do any wrong," Paul said.

“You haven't yet, but I'm waiting,” Carol said.

Rep. Paul has also been mentioned around the Internets as a replacement for Glenn Beck on Fox News. Paul laughed that one off also.

“I did have a dream one time many years ago that I'd like to be a radio talk show host,” Paul said. “But never got around to doing that.

“No, I don't think anybody's serious about that. I don't think I'd be all that good at it, to tell you the truth. I think I'm better at being interviewed than being a talk show host on a TV station.

“I don't think that's going to happen. Maybe Donald Trump will take that program,” Paul said.

So what about Trump, I asked.

“I've never met him, and I haven't paid a lot of attention to his beliefs, but he seems to be getting more conservative all the time," Paul said.

More laughter.  “He said Ron Paul can't win,” Carol Paul said.

“He's a 60-40 Democrat donor,” added Drew Ivers, one of three Iowa GOP central committee members who accompanied Paul on Monday, along with David Fischer and A.J. Spiker.

Tough room for The Donald. Wonder when he'll stop by?