Ron Paul announces 3d run for president

May 14, 2011|By Holly Ramer, Associated Press

Ron Paul officially kicked off his presidential campaign yesterday in… (Jim Cole/Associated Press )

EXETER, N.H. — After a low-key announcement on television, Republican congressman Ron Paul of Texas was drowned out by cheers and applause as he kicked off his third presidential campaign yesterday in the state with the earliest primary.

“It’s great that I’m able to announce in this state — a very special state — because there’s such a high respect for the spirit of liberty here,’’ Paul said at a rally at the Exeter Town Hall. “I’m very pleased to say that once again, I am a candidate for the presidency of the United States.’’

As soon as he said “candidate,’’ Paul was cut off by several hundred cheering fans, who filled both the main hall and the balconies above. When the noise died down, Paul said much has changed since he last sought the GOP nomination in 2008.

“So many people in this country have come to understand that government, with its pretense that it can take care of us from cradle to grave and police the world … is not the solution,’’ Paul said. “Government is the problem.’’

A former flight surgeon who first ran for president as a Libertarian in 1988, Paul became an Internet sensation and prodigious fund-raiser when he ran for the 2008 Republican nomination. He finished fifth in the 2008 New Hampshire GOP primary won by John McCain.

Paul, who was first elected to Congress in 1976, has made a career out of opposing runaway spending and government overreach. He believes states, not the federal government, should regulate vices like drugs and pornography, and he wants to abolish the Federal Reserve and get the United States out of Iraq and Afghanistan.