One of the top stories on the national front was something that this paper did not cover at all. True it may not be newsworthy to the common person of this area, but it's something that it vital to those who may be voting in January as well as a year from now.

On Nov. 5, Ron Paul, a Republican in name only, raised more than $4 million for his presidential bid. For the past year, Ron Paul is the Internet favorite running for president. His base of disgruntled younger Americans may not send him to the White House, but the amount of money he has raised shouldn't go unnoticed.

Every frontrunner for the Democrats and the Republicans is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Ron Paul is not. Despite what the cookie-cutter politicians who are running for office say, they are not saying anything close to the ideas that Ron Paul has not only said, but has stuck with since his emergence into politics. If there is one thing this man has, it is consistency. Never has he voted to give himself a raise while he has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Never has he voted for anything unconstitutional. He voted against the unmerited war in Iraq. If voting yay or nay on a bill based on its constitutionality and holding your own, what is against the grain in this instance? The mainstream media seem to think his ideas are just that.

He is a libertarian by definition and the last great hope for those of us who long to see a day that the United States can restore dignity to our government's tarnished reputation.

For those who were duped and still are blinded by the hypocritical actions of our current commander-in-chief, Ron Paul is a man of his word, Bush is not. As Paul has said in the debates, he sees this country as one that should be leading by example and not by force. Nation building and policing the world is not what we as taxpayers want to see happening to our money. Ron Paul sees the same. If history has taught us one thing, it's that it repeats itself. All of the great democracies have failed because of economic ruin.

This country is on that path. If a stock market that appears to bursting at its seams should happen to fall, so does the economy. The housing market is waning, and our dependency on fossil fuels is hurting everyone. Our currency is losing its value every day largely because its not backed by anything. Ron Paul would like to see the demise of the Federal Reserve, the IRS and income tax. The very same ideas that the common folks of this country want. So why isn't he receiving the larger portion of the votes in the polls? Largely due to the fact he is not given enough air time or print space. This paper's lack of covering the story of Ron Paul on Nov. 6 shows the media has their darlings and obviously Ron Paul is not one of the chosen.

-- Jason Etheredge, Springfield

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