As Ron Paul strengthens his position in the lead up to the January 3 Iowa caucus, the media pressure continues to build. He is often depicted as an un-electable candidate because if his non-mainstream views on issues such as monetary policy, foreign wars, the second amendment, the right to privacy and personal security, and the federal government’s role in the daily lives of Americans.

Recent polls suggest Paul is either a close second in the Iowa race, or has taken the lead by a small margin.

Media arms of both, the democrat and republican parties, for their part, have been complicit thus far in orchestrating the build-up and then collapse of campaigns that have included Presidential hopefuls like Herman Cain, Rick Perry, and most recently, Newt Gingrich. Former Massachusetts governor, private sector millionaire, and architect of the Massachusetts Health Care Insurance Reform Law (a.k.a. RomneyCare) which forcibly mandates insurance coverage for every resident of the state, seems to have, once again, become the media front runner in the Republican primary. Curiously, it has been rumored that the Obama administration’s entire election strategy has been developed for and focused on the Romney campaign, which would put the President at a significant disadvantage if a dark horse candidate emerged and won the GOP nomination.

With Ron Paul’s numbers rapidly gaining, reaching as high as 28% Wednesday night, there can be no doubt that the once un-electable Ron Paul is now a serious candidate for the highest office in the land and a formidable grass roots driven opponent for a President who has thus far failed to manifest the hope and change promised in 2008.

For those friends and supporters of President Obama who worked so hard to get him elected and continue to help him maintain some semblance of credibility among die-hard supporters by keeping mum on stories like the Fast and Furious gun scandal and the $4 million Obama family holiday vacation, discrediting any legitimate Presidential contender is the primary directive, regardless of the legitimacy of the charges.

In the following interview, CNN reporter Gloria Borger presses Ron Paul  about his involvement in a newsletter published/written (it’s not clear exactly what the relationship is) under his name in which there were reportedly some controversial statements made about race and other issues:

While the legitimacy of the questioning is not in doubt, as the views of Presidential candidates should be thoroughly vetted, viewers will note that Ron Paul claimed that he had been questioned by the media on previous occasions, and that those questions were answered.

Paul: I never read that stuff. I was probably aware of it ten years after it was written. And it’s been going on twenty years that people have pestered me about this, and CNN does it every single time. When are you going to wear yourself out?

Borger: Is it legitimate. Is it a legitimate question to ask?

Paul: When you get the answer it is legitimate that you take the answers I give. You know what the answer is?

I didn’t write them, I didn’t read them at the time, and I disavow them.

…

Borger: I mean, it’s legitimate. These things are pretty incendiary.

Paul: Because of people like you.

In the midst of Presidential campaigning in January of 2008,  CNN interviewed Paul about the same issue:

A series of newsletters in the name of GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul contain several racist remarks — including one that says order was restored to Los Angeles after the 1992 riots when blacks went “to pick up their welfare checks.”

CNN recently obtained the newsletters — written in the 1990s and one from the late 1980s — after a report was published about their existence in The New Republic.

None of the newsletters CNN found says who wrote them, but each was published under Paul’s name between his stints as a U.S. congressman from Texas.

…

Paul told CNN’s “The Situation Room” Thursday that he didn’t write any of the offensive articles and has “no idea” who did.

“When you bring this question up, you’re really saying, ‘You’re a racist’ or ‘Are you a racist?’ And the answer is, ‘No, I’m not a racist,’” he said.

Paul said he had never even read the articles with the racist comments.

“I do repudiate everything that is written along those lines,” he said, adding he wanted to “make sure everybody knew where I stood on this position because it’s obviously wrong.”

CNN has not been clear about exactly what types of newsletters these were and the specifics about what Ron Paul’s alleged involvement may have been.

What is clear, however, is that Paul is a serious contender for the Office of the President, and the only character assassination scandal they can come up with is based on an obscure newsletter indirectly tied to Paul’s name and controversial comments made by an unknown author.

The questions were legitimate, as they deal with the very serious issues of individual freedom and equality under the law. Ron Paul has answered them on at least two occasions with the same network.

Perhaps it’s time that CNN ask some more legitimate questions and rehashes old material, but this time they should be directed at the leading candidate of the opposing party and cover topics such as real estate schemes in Chicago, sympathies towards violent extremist leaders, and ties to communist ideologies. And, if she can find time in her busy schedule, Ms. Borger may also want to look into Fast and Furious dealings with Mexican drug cartels, half billion dollar loans to alternative energy companies operated by friends of the administration, and the continued militarization and weaponization of our local police forces. Those, it seems, are also legitimate questions that require some answers for the American public.