Christopher Caldwell wrote a very interesting article about Rep. Ron Paul's (R-TX) candidacy for president (“The Antiwar, Anti-Abortion, Anti-Drug-Enforcement-Administration, Anti-Medicare Candidacy of Dr. Ron Paul”, New York Times, July 22, 2007). In it he asserts that "Ron Paul will not be the next president of the United States". I sent a letter to the New York Times that this is making news rather than reporting news.
Such writing tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. People decide not to "throw their vote away" for "somebody who can't win" and throw it away anyway by voting for somebody whom they don't agree with as much.
On many issues Ron Paul is an appealing candidate to me; on many other issues I would rather not see him as president. But his great strength is he votes and speaks what he believes in, not what he thinks voters want to hear. When one votes for such a candidate, you know what you're going to get.
I didn't like Barry Goldwater's bellicosity in 1964 and voted for Lyndon Johnson. Johnson won and we got Vietnam.
See also my article “Making news or reporting news”.
