Hear Robert A. Taft's Ron Paul Moment

As media and political elites continue to demonize Ron Paul for his comments in the debates, it is remembering that another candidate, who said much the same thing, once came within a hair of winning the Republican presidential nomination.

In 1950, Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio firmly explained to dumbfounded interviewers on “Meet the Press” why he opposed sending more U.S. troops to Europe. He condemned the deployment as encirclement and warned that it needlessly provoked the Soviet Union. To hear the entire audio of the interview, go here.

Taken as a whole, Taft was generally less thoroughgoing than Ron Paul in his defense of non-interventionism overseas and smaller government at home. Even on this show, he backtracks a bit toward the end from his earlier statements and has some unfortunate things to say about Joe McCarthy. But for the first fifteen minutes or so, he sounds as radical and confident as Ron Paul ever did.

Be patient, the audio might be slow in loading and you'll have to listen a couple of vintage 1950 commercials but it is well worth the wait.

Kudos to Scott Horton at Stress for putting up the audio link.