A few days ago, some folks took exception with my last post about Ron Paul, claiming that the video wherein Paul stated that there was “glee” in the White House after 9/11 did not establish that Ron Paul was a truther. Silly me, I assumed that people remembered all the material from 2008 which had already pretty much proved the point, but it appears that some have forgotten. Let us review, then, some small portion of the evidence.

Much of the raw evidence, gleamed from raw footage/audio of Paul on certified nutjob and avowed 9/11 truther Alex Jones’ radio show (and other private meetings which were recorded) has since been pulled down, but this nugget remains:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d91a13Yr3oQ&feature=related[/youtube]

The video is too long to transcribe (although Malkin transcribed most of it at the time here), but in it Paul expressly states that he disbelieves the Government’s story about 9/11 and welcomes an investigation into 9/11 headed by Dennis Kucinich. At the end of the video, he even promises to go talk to Kucinich about starting an investigation. Oh yeah, and also? Paul thinks it’s pretty obvious that the government’s story about who shot Kennedy is crap. No, seriously, it’s in the video, watch it for yourself.

Back in 2009, the Examiner likewise chronicled some of the many, many truther statements by Ron Paul, including repeated statements that the official government story concerning 9/11 was a “cover-up” and that there needs to be an investigation. This timeline, by the way, highlights Ron Paul’s usual M.O. – when he is in front of his truther buddies and college students, he is perfectly happy to say that 9/11 was a cover up and there needs to be an investigation. When he’s being interviewed by sane people (like Reason Magazine), he says there’s “no evidence of an inside job.” As his 2008 campaign progressed along and he took interviews with more mainstream conservatives, he started changing his tune and saying he didn’t support a 9/11 investigation. In other words, he stopped doing things like this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMTyga2NvCc[/youtube]

Then, when the 2008 campaign was over, he stated that the reason he couldn’t continue to press for 9/11 investigation was that he was too busy unraveling other conspiracy theories (not that he didn’t believe it):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88x6JdfjwCY[/youtube]

The evidence at this point is pretty overwhelming to any reasonable person (which I understand does not apply to the core of Ron Paul’s support): if you are a 9/11 truther and you can catch Ron Paul in a situation where he doesn’t realize that he’s being recorded or think that his statements will get out to the press, he will wink and nod and let you know that he’s really on your side. When he’s in front of the mainstream press, however, he has to play the game and pretend like he’s not an insane conspiracy theorist (only Ron Paul is so very full of crazy conspiracy theories that sometimes he can’t help himself and they burst out on national television during a debate).

Given this, I don’t know why anyone would be so hopelessly naive as to believe that Ron Paul didn’t know about the racist and paranoid ramblings that appeared for years and years in his highly profitable newsletter. Ron Paul has built an entire political career off of pandering to the paranoid and hate filled when he thinks no one is looking, as his numerous appearances on the Alex Jones show will attest. The suggestion that he somehow broke with this tradition when it came to his own newsletter simply beggars the imagination. Ron Paul’s many fawning sycophants like to pretend that Ron Paul’s problem is that he is despised by the Establishment because he’s too pure in his love for the Constitution. The reality is that Ron Paul hasn’t been given nearly the shunning he deserves for his paranoid insanity or his coddling of racism throughout his entire career. Frankly, I think Ron Paul’s retirement at the end of this campaign will be the best thing to happen to the GOP in decades.