Leading in Iowa, Ron Paul says 'a message is going to be sent'

Monday, 02 January 2012 21:34

Returning to Iowa, where polls show him contending for first place in next week's caucuses, Ron Paul studiously ignored a barrage of news media questions Wednesday about fresh attacks from rivalsMitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, including over incendiary newsletters published under his name in the 1990s.

The 76-year-old candidate was trailed by a throng of reporters pressing him for a response to Gingrich's latest attack in a TV interview Tuesday, which described Paul as too extreme to merit his vote were he to become the GOPnominee, and Romney's swipe at Paul's refusal to advocate a tough policy toward Iran's nuclear program.

He got into his car without responding, except to a question about whether his vaunted Iowa organization would have precinct leaders at each of the 1,774 caucus sites across the state next Tuesday.

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For about 45 minutes, Paul addressed a receptive noontime crowd of about 100 Iowans, rivaled in size by a media horde that has expanded in response to his improved chances in the Republican presidential contest.

"It does look like there are more cameras than there used to be," the Houston-area congressman said, looking out at a bank of more than a dozen video cameras inside the Iowa Speedway infield media center.

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He drew applause for his attacks on foreign aid and overseas entanglements ("Stop the wars. Stop the spending. Bring our troops home"), a federal government assault on individual liberty ("I'd like to repeal the Patriot Act."), big banks ("The people who got bailed out, they should suffer. They should go bankrupt, not us") and federal spending (cut $1 trillion at the outset and eliminate the Education Department and other federal agencies).