Elko, Nev. – Ron Paul delivered his typical stump
speech during his only northern Nevada appearance last night before
a crowd of over 300 inside the
Elko Indian Colony Gymnasium. While touching on subjects like
the Federal Reserve, eliminating the income tax, slashing the
federal budget, restoring civil liberties, and scaling back
America’s intervention in foreign affairs, Paul often sounded, and
appeared, like a professor giving a Libertarianism 101 lecture. The
crowd did not treat it as a lecture, though, and frequently cheered
and applauded. At one point late in the speech the crowd even broke
into a “President Paul!” chant.

“Believe me, if you defer to the government and think that they
should tell you how to run your life and how you should spend your
money, then, I’ll tell you what, we’re not going to get over this.
It should be in a free society, it should be the people’s decision
on how they run their life and how they spend their money,” said
Paul.

“Yeaaah!”

The crowd was very favorable to Paul but a series of interviews
conducted before the speech indicated that there were several
undecided voters in the gymnasium.

“I am not sure about Ron Paul and some of his stances.
Particularly the border, how he would deal with illegal aliens,”
said William Graunke, 66, a retired civil engineer who is leaning
towards Romney, but appreciates the fact that Paul served in the
military. 

Paul did not touch on any local issues during his speech here,
instead focusing on larger national issues. This played well with
Tyler Cummings, a local gold miner. “The Federal Resreve is able to
print money without any accountability to anyone, [that] is kind of
disturbing to me,” said Cummings, 24. “I’d like to see the Federal
Reserve audited.” 

After Paul finished speaking he signed some autographs and spoke
to the handful of reporters there. The press gaggle was local
except for me and former Reason writer Dave Weigel. A boisterous
group of Idaho voters that traveled here to see Paul shouted to him
frequently while he answered questions.

I asked Paul two questions, both local. One was based on a
subject that came up frequently during interviews with Paul
supporters here, and the other was about the
Cowboy Poetry Gathering, an annual event in Elko that became a
national story after Harry Reid referenced it on the floor of the
Senate early last year. The event recieves a very
small amount of federal funding but its supporters contend it
never would have got off the ground almost 30 years ago without
federal start up cash.