Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has outpaced better-known rivals like John McCain in the fundraising arena. For example on November 5th, Paul’s on-line backers donated more than $4 million to his campaign, a single-day fundraising record among the Republicans running for president.
Paul says he seems to be tapping into a reservoir of unrest among Americans. "I’m impressed with the degree of anger when on the surface things don’t seem so bad," Paul says. "Though I talk about the basic economic problems and what this could lead to, you know, on the surface we’ve had worse times in this country. There is a lot of anger out there."
Paul says he’s trying to capture that anger. "But I do give, you know, an out to this, you know, stopping the war to save money and don’t put people out in the street and people say, "Yea, you know, that makes sense’ and yea, I’m against welfare but I really emphasize corporate welfare and not welfare for the poor. As a matter of fact if I had my way I would protect those who have become dependent until we straighten out our mess domestically," Paul says. "I think that if we don’t we’re really going to hurt the poor people. We’re going to having a lot more poor people if you end up destroying the currency."
Paul contends the declining value of the U.S. dollar is at the core of economic woes in America. The British pound is currently worth twice as much as the U.S. dollar. "Ultimately the people will demand sound money," Paul said. "And it’s interesting that when I talk at the universities I get as loud of applause when I start criticizing the Federal Reserve as when I go after the tax system."
Paul says the biggest issue of the day is foreign policy "and a war we’re not winning," but he says government spending is linked to the war — and that spending is influencing the value of the dollar. "If the currency goes down, it’s an indication that there’s something very significantly wrong with the economy of that particular country and I think you’re seeing that right now," Paul says. "If you look at many great nations and great empires, when they faltered their currency faltered. That’s what they saw when the British pound lost prominence, the British Empire fell apart."
Paul made his comments during an interview with Radio Iowa. An ABC News/Washington Post poll released this week found Paul to have about six percent support among likely Iowa Caucus-goers.