John Cox just finished up his speech, and now it’s time for Ron Paul.  Although Paul’s supporters were strongly cautioned against chanting before they were in position and Paul took the stage, they are chanting very, very loudly “REAL CHANGE! RON PAUL!”

Laura Ingraham just said “The inmates have left the asylum.”

Ingraham appears to be making fun of him a little bit.  She is talking about the bill he introduced to let pirates hunt Osama Bin Laden.

1:54PM Ron Paul takes the stage, and he has a lot of people applauding — not just in front where each candidate’s supporters get moved in and out, but also in the seating above.

“Our campaign is all about freedom, prosperity, and peace!” [Applause with a few boos mixed in]

“The one thing you have to remember is, you cannot have freedom without life.  We must preserve all life” in order to have liberty.  “And that means the unborn as well.”

Speaking as an OB doctor, he is sure “life begins at conception.”

Roe v. Wade must be reversed; public financing of abortion must end.  (Did not say he thinks it should be outlawed on federal level, but, smartly, he didn’t mention it one way or another.)

Firm believer in rule of law, he says.

1:59PM Iraq war has weakened us, but he doesn’t pause on this to get applause, he proceeds directly into gun rights, which draws applause.

He is playing the crowd very well.  He knows what points to emphasize and what points to speak about only in code.

2:01PM “Freedom of Choice” — which he says does not extend to “right to life” but does mean we have to protect private schools and home schools.  Big applause.

“The founders would be ashamed of us for what we’re putting up with.”

We need to get rid of the IRS and repeal the 16th Amendment.

“Strong national security” means strong “national sovereignty.”  Get out of UN, prevent illegal immigration.  Waiting for him to tie it to Iraq, but I’m not sure he will in front of this crowd.

Now he’s railing against welfare.

2:03PM Interesting turn of phrase:

We are taxing too much to support our “welfare state” and “warfare state.”

Gets huge applause for lines on monetary policy.  Who’d have thunk?

“The country is going bankrupt.”

2:05PM Calls for return to the gold standard, and again, a shocking amount of applause.

“We are not meant to be the policemen of the world” draws a little less applause, but still some.

We have bridges falling down here, he says, while we pay to bomb bridges in Iraq and then pay to rebuild them there.

“Tyranny is ancient, and unfortunately this country is returning to tyranny: more and more centralized government and more and more control.”

2:08PM “Most of the presidential candidates want to do things for you…I do not want to run your life, your family, or your religious beliefs [applause]. I do not want to run the economy, and I don’t want to police the world.  I don’t know how, and it doesn’t work…”

He’s done, and applause is loud but not universal.  Still, more people in the peanut gallery — non-Paul supporters, most likely — are standing than you’d expect.

As Paul’s supporters exit chanting, Laura comes out and says, “The peace train is leaving the building.”