Who says Ron Paul can’t beat Barack Obama? The Texas Congressman’s threat to prevent the President’s upcoming speech to Congress from occurring the same night as a Republican presidential candidates’ debate — a debate in which Paul will participate — may very well have been the deciding factor in forcing Obama to postpone his appearance.

Across the fruited plain, the average price of a gallon of gasoline is $3.62, a full dollar higher than it was just one year ago. Of that $3.62, 18.4 cents go directly to the federal government, which then disburses most of it to states for road construction and repair.

Observers note that President Barack Obama seems to enjoy comparing himself to former President Dwight Eisenhower, having repeatedly claimed that he was reducing federal spending to Eisenhower-era levels. Although his assertion that the recent debt-ceiling deal would produce “the lowest level of annual domestic spending since Dwight Eisenhower was President” proved to be false, it is easy to understand why Obama wants to be like Ike: Today the 1950s are often viewed, rightly or wrongly, as an era of stability and prosperity in America, with Eisenhower the reassuring, moderate presence guiding it all.

Announcing his entry into the 2012 presidential race, Gary Johnson rattled off a list of crises besetting the United States, from “record unemployment” to “loss of our nation’s industrial might.” “Why am I telling you this?” he asked, then answered: “Because America is better than this. And because I can help fix it.”

Ron Paul has some good news and some bad news. According to the Texas Congressman and 2012 Republican presidential contender, the good news is that people are beginning to take his proposals — less federal spending, more oversight of the Federal Reserve, and nonintervention in foreign countries — seriously. The bad news is that the political class may come around too late to prevent the destruction of the dollar and the havoc that will wreak on our government and our economy.

Does the federal government have the authority to tell a business where it may or may not open a new facility? According to the National Labor Relations Board, the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers (IAM), and many Democratic politicians, the answer is yes.

Crises, real or perceived, often give rise to horrendous laws. The Great Depression led to the New Deal. The 9/11 attacks gave us the Patriot Act. Today a single incident of disputed significance may result in a ban on practically all photographing and videotaping of public events in New Jersey.

Don’t count Ron Paul out yet. The Texas Congressman may not have secured any headline-grabbing victories in state primaries and caucuses. He may be trailing in the unofficial delegate counts based on these contests. But he is cheerfully pressing onward, confident that he can keep right on going all the way to the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Tampa and possibly even come out of the convention the GOP’s nominee for President.

Throughout the race for the Republican presidential nomination, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum has attempted to portray himself as the conservative alternative to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. For example, campaigning in Alabama last week, he told supporters that if he could come in first or second in their state and neighboring Mississippi during this week’s primaries, “then we can, again, make the case that there’s one conservative who can win in every other place in this country, that has earned the right to take on Gov. Romney, one-on-one, and give conservatives a chance to coalesce around one person able to win this nomination for the conservative cause.”

As part of the 2009 federal “stimulus” law, the Detroit Department of Human Services (DHS) received an $11 million grant courtesy of U.S. taxpayers. Of that money, $148,000 was spent on providing business attire for low-income job seekers — all two of them.