2012's septuagenarian rock star

Rep. Ron Paul appears at the University of Iowa in Iowa City Friday, Oct. 21, 2011.

/ Ron Paul/Facebook

IOWA CITY, Iowa - It's homecoming night at the University of Iowa. The air is thick with excitement as students flee Friday classes and the cars of alumni returning to campus clog the streets. As night falls, a parade winds through the downtown area.

But at 8 p.m., more than 1,000 students head to the Iowa Memorial Union building for a presidential candidate's speech.

President Obama? Nope. It's Ron Paul.

The 76-year-old Texas congressman says he's seeing a difference of "night and day" between the way his run for the Republican presidential nomination is being received this year and the last time he ran, four years ago. What's particularly striking is the rock star reception he's getting among younger voters, two-thirds of whom voted for Mr. Obama in 2008.

"President Paul" - as students here greeted him with chants - is distinctly lacking in conventional sex appeal. The central tenets of his campaign revolve around wonky issues like monetary policy and a return to the gold standard.

Yet his libertarian message of smaller government and reduced federal spending appears to be resonating with the campus set.

When Paul touched on one of his signature issues, calling for a full audit of the Federal Reserve, the crowd roared its approval.

"End the Fed! End the Fed!" they chanted.

"So you knew the next step," the congressman told the students with a smile. "Very good."

Paul's only overt appeal to student voters here was his call for the abolition of any possibility of a military draft.

Requiring young men to register with the Selective Service means that "the government knows that they own you and they'll take you and put you in the military if they want to," Paul said. "So in a free society, you not only don't have registration but you never have a military draft, either."

At his speech here, he forgot to mention the other plank in his platform aimed at younger voters: His proposed Social Security reform, released as part of his economic program earlier this week. It would allow Americans younger than 25 to opt out of the retirement program.

His well-received speech here capped a day of events in the eastern part of the state where the first votes of the 2012 presidential nominating contest are scheduled to be cast on January 3. Paul's schedule Friday also included a closed-door meeting with the American Wind Energy Association and a talk to plant workers at TPI Composites, a manufacturing firm in East Newton. When one of the workers there asked Paul about the increasingly divisive nature of the GOP debates, the congressman said he was "tempted to walk off the stage" during the first half of the last one, a noisy squabble Wednesday in Las Vegas.

"I thought was disgusting," Paul said.

Although he believes "there are way too many debates," Paul also opined that he's not getting enough speaking time. Even so, he noted that he had seen an uptick in support after each face-off with his Republican rivals, including what he said was a $2.5 million haul from an Internet fundraiser timed to coincide with this week's debate in Las Vegas.

Throughout the day, Paul repeatedly criticized President Obama for celebrating the news that Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi had been killed.

"How can we be proud of that?" Paul asked his audience at the University of Iowa. "No matter how bad a guy he was, it was the responsibility of the people of Libya to make their self-determination and deal with that. But no, we ended up paying for us, it was our bombs and our weapons that did this, and believe me, it will be our burden."

[johneverymann20]

Love him or hate him, What other candidates are drawing crowds like that? 1200 delegates? No problem. Ron Paul all the way this time.

[ImaJWalker]

Now that Bush and Obama have made a whole mess of enemies in the middle east, killing innocent civilians whose numbers CBS won't mention except for what the USA has lost, I pity the next president who has to pay for all these war crimes. The USA has such a horrible reputation that it makes me nervous to think of pay-backs.

[gjdavis60]

"Wonky issues"? Really? Really?! Have you seen what's happening in Europe? Have you checked the unemployment rate or the national debt recently? Have you been watching our industries flee to foreign countries? Have you read about the impending insolvency of our entitlement programs? Are you aware that we recently gave away trillions of taxpayer dollars to prop up failing banks and financial companies? Have you been watching the Fed stuff its balance sheet with toxic assets against the "full faith and credit" of the citizens of the United States?

Is this all just hyperbole? Does it not really matter? Is Don't Ask Don't Tell and No Child Left Behind and "Who killed Gadhafi" more important? What good are any federal programs when the federal government runs out of money to pay for them?

Nobody wants to admit we're on the precipice of a crisis because nobody wants to shake up the status quo in Washington, except for one candidate. Guess who.

Wonky my a**.

[RegCliff]

Amen.

[onefaith1]

He's not radical at all and not extreme. What is wrong with getting the government out of education?? Homeschooling should be the peoples choice, the government is trying to shut that down. What is wrong to having parent and teachers decide the studies of the students? Why should children have to be forced to learn on the lifestyles of homosexuals by schools?? That should be an option of the parents.

[starspangledbanner]

hey toolmangler, please keep it decent. you're not helping your cause by being mean to others. it shows what kind of person you are...

[onefaith1]

I have to say that, I love this guy! When he is on the debates, you really don't get a clear idea on him until you see him speak in person. I did just that and WOW, is what I have to say! He's like a founding father!!! I had my doubts at first because of the media bashing, but when I heard him speak in person it was AWESOME! I'm changed!!!!! Ron Paul 2012~~~!!!

[Herne42]

Ron Paul has read and understood the constitution... he has my vote.
No more plastic presidents being paid off by cooperation s..
All I want is proper representation. Ron Paul seems to be the only candidate who understands that.
End Cooperate sponsorship for politicians, and the jobs will return.
In the mean time....shoot your t.v., and stop believing in mainstream media bs.(those who control our media, also control what limited information they give us..)
Think for yourselves! if you want facts..go to fact check dot org!...surf around..
do your research..before you blab about what little info mass media is telling us.
that's one reason I'm voting Ron Paul.
Obviously this rant is not directed at those who did their homework.

[starspangledbanner]

Ron Paul a radically simplistic truthful idealist of the people!

Obama and the rest of the rinos (except for Newt and Bachmann) are the conventionally convoluted lying ideologist of corporatism. They are pushing the New World Order and looking forward to enslaving us like the Chinese, where life is worthless. Witness, the little girl hit twice by vehicles as drivers and passerby's looked on with disregard!

[dllllllllllll]

Only overt appeal is ending the draft? How about not graduating and trying to start a career with a mountain of government debt being given to them? I honestly think the reason Paul's resonating with the youth is the same as why they were with obama...Pauls promising them a better future...a future where they are in charge of their own destiny....He brought up the great point with the income tax, when he said the government argues, you can't tax the people less...the government needs that money....it's gotten to the point where the government essentially decides how much of your earnings you get to keep...

[Jaaayyy]

I am choosing a candidate based on simple pragmatism.

Except for Ron Paul, every other GOP candidate has doubled-down on more air and land wars in Asia and Africa, they have endorsed TARP or other bail-outs, and their economic plans are simply nibbling at the edges (except for Cain, who wants to raise taxes on the poor and middle class). Please explain how any of that will be any different than Obama in November? Are those winning issues in 2012? Obama-lite will not win the general election.

No other candidate in the race motivates independents and young people like Ron Paul. No other Republican can capture so large a portion of the voters abandoned by pro-war, economy destroying Obama.

America will not settle for the Tweedle Dum, Tweedle Dee rotation this election year.

[stuwerb]

Hark! Is that a gathering of lemmings off in the distance, not too far from that cliff?