The previous post was written before the May 15 Fox debates. Ron Paul, who was hardly allowed to speak, also provided the highlight of that debate by invading Rudy Giuliani’s fact-free fantasies about the causes of 9/11.

Dr. Paul’s well-informed observations that the Twin Tower attacks did not occur in a political vacuum didn’t sit well with Rudy the Thug, who when confronted by Paul’s factual observations that we have been killing Arabs and supporting the killing of Arabs for many years essentially hollered like a schoolyard bully, “Take that back!” 

Dr. Paul didn’t back down. He said this:

I believe the CIA is correct when it warns us about blowback. We overthrew the Iranian government in 1953 and their taking the hostages was the reaction. This dynamic persists and we ignore it at our risk. They’re not attacking us because we’re rich and free, they’re attacking us because we’re over there.

Paul isn’t making this stuff up. Bin Laden himself told us why he hates us in a fatwa (a Muslim declaration of war) he wrote in the late 90s. He said it’s because we’re over there killing Arabs and trampling sacred ground.

Despite the hostility of the hand picked studio audience and the least amount of speaking time of all ten candidates, Paul still finished second in Fox’s tamper proof poll with 25% picking him as the winner, four points behind Romney and six ahead of Rudy. Don’t expect Fox to emphasize Paul’s strength in the polls, or even to mention it.