VOTERS WANT RESULTS, NOT JUST IDLE PROMISES

During a recent editorial board meeting Congressman and presidential
candidate Ron Paul said his election prospects have improved because
more of the American electorate has come around to his way of thinking.

In this and prior runs for the Oval Office, Paul has advocated
disengagement from foreign entanglements like those in Iraq,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya and elsewhere. He has called for the
money to be spent back home.

Domestically he has called for the legalization and regulation of
drugs. In addition, he has lobbied for a much smaller federal
government, more aligned -- he argues -- with the U.S.
Constitution.

As it turns out Paul is to some extent correct about public opinion on
these issues, while the jury is still out on his presidential election
prospects.

With regards to the war on drugs, more states are beginning to
consider lesser punishments for drug violations. Massachusetts has
decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana, making
possession akin to receiving a parking ticket.

In California, medical marijuana is commonplace, and a referendum vote
to legalize the drug narrowly failed to pass muster.

Even in more conservative New Hampshire, medical marijuana has come
within inches of becoming law.

Adding ammunition to Paul's cause is a report by the Global Commission
on Drug Policy that concludes the drug war has failed.

"Political leaders and public figures should have the courage to
articulate publicly what many of them acknowledge privately: that the
evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that repressive strategies will
not solve the drug problem, and that the war on drugs has not, and
cannot, be won," the report said.

Even U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske seemed to agree when he recent
told The Associated Press that "In the grand scheme, it (War on Drugs)
has not been successful. Forty years later, the concern about drugs
and drug problems is, if anything, magnified, intensified."

As for U.S. involvement overseas, Paul again appears to be in tune
with the electorate. A Pew Research Poll now shows a majority of
Americans think the U.S. should now pull out of Afghanistan. It is a
position echoed by polls done for Bloomberg, CBS, Fox and others.

Americans also seem fed up with the level of foreign aid doled out
while the unemployment rate here on U.S. soil remains stuck above 9
percent.

A recent Gallup Poll showed that 59 percent of respondents favored
cuts to foreign aid. A CNN poll put the number at 81 percent.

Whether all this will lead to a Ron Paul presidency is certainly open
to debate. But what is not open to debate is the unrest the next
president will be asked to address.

Asking for patience by the electorate -- as President Obama has
counseled -- will not be enough. The next election will be about
producing results.