Big Dogs Weblog

Politico Misrepresents Ron Paul Statement

by Big Dog on Dec 24, 2007 at 10:44 Political

Maybe it is the political season that forces writers to inflate headlines in order to get readers and maybe it is just a desire to get them to click on the link. In the case of Matt Drudge it is neither because he generally misrepresents the character of a story in order to get people to click on the link. The Politico (more specifically, Daniel Riley of The Politico), on the other hand, usually has an accurate depiction so I was a bit surprised to see a headline that read “Ron Paul won’t rule out a third party run.”

Ron Paul has made it clear a number of times that he does not intend to run as a third party candidate and he did so again on Meet the Press. Ron Paul, when asked about running as a third party candidate, stated that he was 99.9% sure that would not happen. I imagine that in the overall scheme of things that 0.1% technically means he will not rule it out but since it is such a little number perhaps a more accurate headline would have been; “Ron Paul unlikely to run as third party candidate.”

I know politicians like to engage in double talk and to say all the things that everyone wants to hear. Hillary did that with her sandbagging in New York and her run for the presidency. She told people she was not thinking about it and she was only concerned about winning the Senate seat. She would never say that she would serve her term if elected which means she was, in fact, thinking about it. Ron Paul, on the other hand, has been pretty straight forward and I think he will probably not run as a third party candidate.

Anything is possible though and I am sure if enough Ron Paul supporters pressed him he might just go for it. However, until that time, a 0.1% chance makes it an unlikely event and it should be reported that way.

Tags: misrepresent, politico, ron paul, third party