Is Ron Paul a martial arts master? Jay Leno clip shows his moves.
Ron Paul is not really a martial arts master. True, Congressman Paul is dedicated to getting in his exercise, even on the campaign trail: He walks or bikes almost every day. As he told Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show" Tuesday, 鈥渢hat helps relax my brain a little bit."
But that in which Paul destroys an opponent with vintage arm blocks and 360-degree flip kick to the face? Mr. Leno鈥檚 staff made that up, and showed it on air during Paul鈥檚 appearance. It is very funny, in a David Carradine-meets-the-2012-campaign kind of way 鈥� even Paul laughed. Maybe it will show up in one of his famously combative commercials.
Paul has rejected Secret Service protection, by the way. That was the genesis of the kung fu mashup 鈥� Leno was purportedly showing why Paul didn鈥檛 need other people to provide him protection.
That said, he does have a code name picked out. Romney is 鈥淛avelin," named either after a spear or .
But Paul? 鈥淏ulldog,鈥� the GOP hopeful said, to applause from the crowd.
鈥淚鈥檇 go after the Fed and all that big spending,鈥� he said, by way of explanation.
We鈥檇 like to make this observation about Paul鈥檚 appearance on the mainstream late-night show. Once again, he lived up to funnyman Jon Stewart鈥檚 observation of his effect on the race: He鈥檚 the candidate of uncomfortable silences.
The audience seemed full of Paul supporters, who cheered when talked about a brokered convention, and even gave shout-outs when he hit Rick Santorum as a fake conservative. (Mr. Santorum's code name is "Petrus," the rock.) 聽
But Leno got Paul into a long (by late-night standards) discussion on the issue of abortion, in which Paul went into depth about why he鈥檚 pro-life.
The audience was dead silent. Many young, educated voters back Paul because he is antiwar and favors drug legalization. This seemed an aspect of their candidate with which they were unfamiliar.
At the end, the audience cheered again, when Paul said, 鈥渢he solution will have to deal with the morality of the people, not just piling on more laws.鈥� But the whole thing seemed a sudden glance into the flintiness of some of the Texas libertarian鈥檚 personal beliefs.
