NAACP President: Ron Paul Is Not A Racist
Austin NAACP President Nelson Linder, who has known Ron Paul for 20 years,unequivocally dismissed charges that the Congressman was a racist in light of recent smear attempts, and said the reason for him being attacked was that he was a threat to the establishment.
Read full article at: http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/january2008/011308_not_racist.htm

Throughout the early 1990s the "Ron Paul Political Report," a small, almost unknown newsletter, published several racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, and paranoid articles without any kind of reference to the writer of those words, though the top of the letter contains the words "RON PAUL" in huge block letters. The implication was obvious: that Ron Paul either wrote or supported the views of the articles. But did he? There is a mountain of evidence to the contrary, but countering that is a not so small army of political enemies, mainstream pundits, and several extremely bigoted, angry, and inflammatory letters. My goal is not necessarily to convince to support Ron Paul's views, (in my opinion its the issues that matter) but convince you that he, at very least is the kind, gentle, Christian man that he is. I simply do not want to take one look at the name "RON PAUL" above the racist articles and instantly and permanently believe, "My God, Ron Paul is a bigot!" In that them, here are several responses to these charges.

1. These articles were first made an issue in Ron Paul's 1996 campaign for Representative. His response then, and now, is that these letters were written by a ghostwriter and that he did not edit or publish the letter. He took responsibility for not monitoring and censoring things that went out in his name more carefully. However, this explanation was weakened in some eyes when he refused to release the name or whereabouts of the ghostwriter. Texas Monthly, a Texas magazine, defended his decision to not leak the name of the staffer. More recently, the New York Times Magazine apparently cleared him of involvement when their staff concluded, quote, "He later explained that he had not written the passages himself - quite believably, since the style diverges widely from his own. But his response to the accusations was not transparent. When ...called [upon] to release the rest of his newsletters, he would not." Some argue that he is protecting a confidence and that throwing someone to the media hounds is unproductive and unnecessary.
2. In Texas Monthly's words, "In four terms as a U.S. congressman and one presidential race, Paul had never uttered anything remotely like this." This is perhaps the best argument there is. Never, in any public appearance, in any news conference, in any speech, in anything ever stated publicly anywhere, has he ever said anything so nasty, so unprovoked, so racist, or even anything that might hint that he leaned that way. To date, there is no evidence of any racism of any kind on his part, apart from these letters.
3. The gays. Yes, it turns out that Ron Paul is a Christian. Gasp! even a BAPTIST. But, no, he isn't a gay-hater. He has consistently argued that government has no place in making the people moral. He has defended the civil rights of all groups for twenty years in Congress. He voted against banning gay marriage, although he did vote for a measure to prevent the federal government from interfering with the states' definitions of marriage. He believes that government has no place in the marriage business, and marriage pre-dates government anyway. He thinks that it is a moral decision, and that is not something that he talks about or preaches about.
4. The Jews. This is perhaps the oddest idea ever propagated about Ron Paul. Several of his close associates and mentors are Jewish. Many of his economist friends are Jews. He defends Israel's right to determine their own policies, even when the rest of Congress does not. After being accused several times of being anti-Israel, the NYT Magazine said, "He remains touchy about it. "Even the fact that you're asking this question infers, 'Oh, you're an anti-Semite,'" he told me in June. Actually, it doesn’t. Paul was in Congress when Israel bombed Iraq's Osirak nuclear plant in 1981 and — unlike the United Nations and the Reagan administration — defended its right to do so. He says Saudi Arabia has an influence on Washington equal to Israel's. His votes against support for Israel follow quite naturally from his opposition to all foreign aid. There is no sign that they reflect any special animus against the Jewish state." He advocates leaving Israel to its own devices, but if you think that is anti-Semitic then you are nuts.
5. The blacks and Martin Luther King. There is no chance that Ron Paul is racist. I just don't buy it. He has consistently advocated total economic and political freedom for all people, not based on gender, race, religion, or sexual preference. -Yes, he has publicly opposed interfering with private businesses to make them sell to black people, but let's not forget that the US Government was the number one discriminator against blacks in history. Public busses, publics schools, bureaucracies, and all public facilities were what propagated segregation, and he was a forceful opponent of that. The free market could have worked out the private sector discrimination if the government hadn't encouraged it to begin with. Next, Martin Luther King. Dr. Paul praises King for his stance against violence, his civil rights message, and for "peaceful civil disobedience to effect necessary changes." Next, the Drug War. This idiotic, self-defeating, tyrannical, racist, and utterly despicable movement unfairly and disproportionately targets blacks and other minorities. He favors ending this war to bring peace to these people's lives by respecting them as adults. This, more than anything else being talked about today, will benefit the black communities. Next, his supporters. He has a long history of friendship with many black people personally, and many ardent black supporters today. Polls also show him leading the Republican field in terms of black support. The leader of the Austin, Texas, NAACP recently defended Paul from these attacks, claiming that they are bad attempts to defend the establishment from the "Ron Paul Revolution".
6. My sixth and final argument against these claims is Ron Paul's message on racism, which has been a stated issue on his website from the beginning. He says, "The true antidote to racism is liberty. Liberty means having a limited, constitutional government devoted to the protection of individual rights." The full article is available on his website, and other responses to these claims are available in back-issues of magazines, the internet, and his website.
Look, I don't agree with Paul on everything, but it's like I've been saying for years after this "scandal" errupted: no one who is in the least familiar with the man could think that he would say such things. Please, if you feel the need to attack Paul, at least make honest arguments about policy, not rehash already rehashed scandals in an attempt to make a quick buck and sully the reputation of a good guy.