I remember like yesterday when Dr. Paul called me into his Member office in 203 Cannon with a draft of his famous “What If” speech.
He had written it in his own hand and he asked me to go over it and clean it up a bit. Not unusual for how he writes: from the heart.
And afterward I spent a good deal of time in his office with a stopwatch making sure he could deliver it under the five minute rule. Shuffling the papers. What do we have to cut. Which paragraph could be spoken a bit faster.
I knew and understood at the time that it was a very special speech. No one as far as I know had ever done such a thing before on the Floor of the House.
It was incredibly innovative and made all the powerful points without being unnecessarily confrontational. It was meant to gain allies, not to punish adversaries.
Because that is how Ron Paul always thought when he was in Congress. The worst of them were not fools to be brought low, but potential allies awaiting the proper argumentation with the application of time.
“They’ll come around,” he said patiently.
And believe it or not, it worked more often than you might think. Being a fly on the wall as the organizer of his legendary Thursday Congressional Member lunches, I was privy to so many Members who would not dare say so in public but who dropped in for a couple of Gulf Coast shrimp and to tell Rep. Paul how right he was on the Iraq war and Afghanistan and the Fed etc.
The campaigns later on were so important and galvanized the Liberty Movement and sent it worldwide, but the kernel was planted in his unique and generous, kindly approach to even his most odious adversaries.
“What did Ron Paul ever achieve in Congress???” – they demand. Well, he changed the world. How’s that?
