Unfortunately, politics has always been about perception more than reality.

Years ago (50’s), in a famous Florida race between Claude Pepper and George Smathers, Smathers gave the following as part of his stump speech:

Are you aware that Claude Pepper is known all over Washington as a shameless EXTROVERT?

Not only that, but this man is reliably reported to practice NEPOTISM with his sister-in-law, and he has a sister who was once a THESPIAN in wicked New York.

Worst of all, it is an established fact that Mr. Pepper, before his marriage, he habitually practiced CELIBACY.

Naturally, Smathers won by a landslide.

And this is the man who is leading the polls for Republican Nominee for president.

Davebo may have stepped over the line in regards to his comment “honesty never plays well with the GOP”, but the manner in which Rudi Giuliani and GOP partisans have distorted the remarks made by Ron Paul in his exchange with Rudy Giuliani are truly pathetic. Giuliani’s remarks represents just the latest incident in a long list of incident in which a pro-war Republican has distorted the truth and appealed to emotion in order to rile up the Republican base and further a pro-war, pro-interventionist position.

Here’s what happened:

The Fox News moderators asked Ron Paul questions during the first and second rounds of the debate and then proceeded to ignore him for the remainder of the debate until the exchange between Ron Paul and Rudi Giuliani.

When asked a question with regards to his views on foreign policy, Ron Paul answered truthfully and forthrightly. He criticized our foreign policy as being wrong and argued that it contributed toward the hatred that many in the Middle East have towards the United States. To back up his argument, he even cited evidence from the 9/11 commission:

No. Non-intervention was a major contributing factor. Have you ever read the reasons they attacked us? They attack us because we’ve been over there; we’ve been bombing Iraq for 10 years. We’ve been in the Middle East — I think Reagan was right.

We don’t understand the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics. So right now we’re building an embassy in Iraq that’s bigger than the Vatican. We’re building 14 permanent bases. What would we say here if China was doing this in our country or in the Gulf of Mexico? We would be objecting. We need to look at what we do from the perspective of what would happen if somebody else did it to us.

In response, Fox News moderator Wendell Goler asked, “Are you suggesting we invited the 9-11 attack, sir?”, implying that Ron Paul had indeed made such a suggestion.

In response, Ron Paul further elucidated on his argument, pointing out that Bin Laden had specifically named our interventions in the Middle East as being a prime motivation for attacking the U.S. on 9/11.

Not once did Ron Paul at any time during the debate accuse the U.S. of “inviting” 9/11.

But this didn’t stop Giuliani from distorting Ron Paul’s remarks mere seconds after Ron Paul had made them. Giuliani said:

Wendell, may I comment on that? That’s really an extraordinary statement. That’s an extraordinary statement, as someone who lived through the attack of September 11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don’t think I’ve heard that before, and I’ve heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11th.

Giuliani’s response to Ron Paul earned him loud applause from the audience despite the fact the Giuliani a) distorted Ron Paul’s remarks, and b) chose to appeal to emotion rather than actually offering evidence to make the case Ron Paul was factually incorrect.

This was an absolutely incredibly point during the course of the presidential campaign. A number of pro-war Republicans have distorted the truth on Iraq as well as the positions of several anti-war Democrats for the last four years. But for one Republican to distort the remarks of a fellow Republican on national television the way Giuliani did was a new low for the Giuliani campaign.

And during the last twenty-four hours, numerous pro-war Republican bloggers have repeated Giuliani’s distortion of Ron Paul’s comments. A number of thse pro-war Republicans are bloggers whom TMV regular links to (i.e. Michelle Malkin, Captain Ed, and Instapundit).

What Giuliani did last night was dishonest and indefensible. Distorting the positions of those who criticize the war has become all too common in the Republican Party, and some of us are getting sick and tired of it.

The thing is, those are precisely the qualities that should make him appealing to intelligent, informed voters. Ron Paul is only really a long shot if voters give up on him as a lost cause, ironically because he’s too good, too smart, and too honest. If – god forbid – we actually voted for the candidate we wanted , rather than the candidate we thought had a better chance of winning, we might get somewhere. We might have more real alternatives in this election than Clinton, Obama, McCain or Giuliani.

I know that Dr. Paul is a very very long shot in this election. But I like his judgment and his track record enough that I’m registering for the GOP just so I can vote for him. If/when he doesn’t win the primary – after all, the only people left in the Republican party are the warmongering, Giuliani/McCain types – then I’ll look at alternatives. But as long as he’s in the running, long shot or no, Ron Paul will get my vote.

If having a macho swagger and talking tough about bad guys were enough to make a good commander in chief, we wouldn’t have the worst foreign policy disaster in U.S. history on our hands right now in Iraq.

Speaking of use of the internet, be sure to check out Thompson’s video reply to Michael Moore.

As to Jason’s second “catch”.

Let’s review Rudy’s qualifications.

……..

Well, that was quick.

But don’t worry, he has Bolton (of all people) advising him on Foreign Policy so things should go just swell.

Keep in mind this is the party that, for some reason, believes Guilliani is some kind of foreign policy guru.

What he didn’t realize is that he didn’t stand a chance of pushing the GOP into reality either.

honestly never plays well with the GOP

Took me all of two seconds to find. :+)

Where’s the partisan attack??