Ron Paul's Iowa dreams becoming more real

The only place where Paul got a less than friendly reception this past weekend in Iowa was the Iowa Republican Party’s Reagan Dinner Saturday night.

The members of the GOP establishment sat on their hands through most of Paul’s address. Not until he’d spoken for nine minutes did he get any applause, a tepid round of clapping when he called for abolishing the income tax.

Meanwhile, Paul is drawing a mixture of curiosity and respect from Democrats.

Doug Bishop, the treasurer of Jasper County in central Iowa and a staunch supporter of Democrat John Edwards for president, said, “There are a lot of people (in Iowa) looking at Ron Paul because he knows he’s not going to win, so he’s not scared to tell the truth."

Bishop added, "He’s throwing it right out there: get us out of Iraq, take care of America first, let’s take care of home before worrying about spending billions and billions of dollars overseas. And that message is resonating throughout the Midwest.”

Praise from the left
Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., the left-of-center antiwar leader from Marin County, said, “Ron Paul appeals to people who are hungry for politicians who will speak their minds, not parsing, weighing, measuring. He knows what he believes, he’s not afraid to say it.”

Web extra video Ron Paul on Iraq July 13: Presidential contender Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas gives his analysis of the war in Iraq. NBC News Web Extra

She added, “People are loving it.”

Joe Trippi, a 25-year veteran of Iowa caucus politics who served as Howard Dean’s campaign manager in 2003 and who’s now a top aide to Edwards, said, “From what I see, Ron Paul is doing much better than his better-known opponents think he is doing. He is at that stage of the Dean campaign when all the other campaigns are laughing at him and have no idea of how strong he really is.”

Trippi added, “This kind of candidacy can be surprisingly strong in a caucus state particularly if it stays just below the radar.”

Drew Ivers, Paul’s Iowa campaign chairman, used that same phrase in addressing the Paul rally in Des Moines Saturday.

Ivers asked for show of hands on how many members of the audience were registered Republicans. Seeing that about half weren’t, Ivers told them they were “under the radar — which is exactly where I want to be.”

A repeat of the 1988 Robertson surprise?
In 1988, Ivers headed Pat Robertson’s campaign in Iowa, recruiting thousands of Christian conservatives.

Robertson shocked the GOP establishment by placing second in Iowa to Sen. Bob Dole, and ahead of eventual GOP nominee George H.W. Bush.

To some degree Paul is drawing on the same conservative Christian voters that Robertson did, although he must vie for their affections with GOP rivals Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney.

Paul told the pastors’ meeting Saturday that, as an obstetrician, he had delivered approximately 4,000 babies. “The right to life issue is a very important issue to me,” he told them.

He told them that during his medical school training he’d entered an operating room without knowing an abortion was being performed. “At the time they weren’t sophisticated in how to kill the unborn before it was delivered. They delivered the baby and put it in a bucket and put in the corner of the room. It tried to cry, tried to breathe. Everybody was pretending it wasn’t there.”

He also explained to the pastors that he voted against the constitutional amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage. “It’s a state issue,” he said, “I think it should be a religious ceremony; I don’t even like the idea that it’s a state licensing process.”

Paul seems astonished by what has happened to him: “I never would have dreamed that I would have a campaign going that would have big rallies in the center of San Francisco and New York City. There’s something very strange going on. I don’t think anyone has fully comprehended how big it is.”

Paul and his fans will get a first measurement of how big it is on Jan. 3, the night of the Iowa caucuses.

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