Glenn Beck just announced that he will be talking tonight"one on one" with Ron Paul on CNN. Rudy Giuliani did Ron Paul's campaign a big favor by singling him out. Courtesy of Rudy, Paul is finally getting coverage and many more opportunities to explain his views at length.

In his comments, Beck also claimed that Paul"blamed America for 9-11." Of course, Paul did nothing of the sort. He simply stated that past American policies had created conditions which made an attack more likely.

Why is that such a big deal? For the past seven years, conservatives, including Beck, have also said that past American policies made the 9-11 attack more likely. Only in their case, they single out for blame the American policies of Bill Clinton. For example, they charge that Clinton's"weakness" after the attack on American soldiers in Somalia emboldened Bin Laden and encouraged him to undertake 9-11. By making these claims, these conservatives are"blaming America for 9-11" just as much, if not more so, than Ron Paul.

David T. Beito - 5/22/2007

Exactly. Blaming the policies of the American government for fueling the rise of Al Qaeda (even Wolfowitz does that) is not the same thing as "blaming America."

Otto M. Kerner - 5/22/2007

You have segued from "special causal connection" to "blame".

And even if Paul is blaming somebody, he's blaming the U.S. government, not "America".

Jason Pappas - 5/20/2007

And a lack of birth control in the bin Laden family made 9/11 more likely!

C’mon Beito, not all prior conditions that increase the probability of 9/11 warrant mention. Those singled out have a special causal connection that the speaker believes warrants our attention. It is not unreasonable for others to impute that he was blaming America given the way he made his point. Most Americans would be outraged if one said that Janet Reno made the Oklahoma City bombing more likely. You don’t get that do you?

Michael j Wagner - 5/16/2007

Of course it was the bipartisan interventionist foreign policy that created the level of hate that resulted in 9/11. All you have to do is look at bin-Laden's own statements. He declared war on America in 1996 and again in 1998. And his reasons were US foreign policy.
If we had listened to Ron Paul in 1998, there never would have been a 9/11.

Pat Davis - 5/16/2007

Kudos to Ron Paul for having the courage of his convictions. He's the kind of man the American people want for president. The rest of the world wants the USA to have an honest non-corrupt president too.

If we all work to the best of our ability to inform and educate everyone we know, Ron Paul WILL be elected. Know why he's more courageous than we even suspect yet? It's because he knows that if elected - maybe even if he's nominated - he'll be targeted for assassination by the filthy rich elite who thrive from the horrors of war and their own sick power-mongering.

Then again, they may not dare to hurt him, because the good people of the world will know. The jig is up!

The truth will set us free!