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Congressman Paul Debates "Obama" on Fox News

In a bizarre appearance on the Fox Business Channel, Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Tx., joined host John Stossel for a mock debate with an impersonator of President Barack Obama.Stossel insinuates the fake debate will foreshadow the 2012 Presidential campaign, but it's unclear what this is supposed to accomplish other than more mocking of Paul's candidacy.Check it out:It certainly doesn't make Paul appear presidential. Also, is the faux Obama in blackface? I can't tell.UPDATE: If you're scratching you're head about this, particularly the impersonator, then you're not alone. This is just, weird.Much like Paul's libertarian views, which excite conservatives and progressives alike, it's always a little difficult to figure out what he's doing and why he's doing it.But Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi says there are some things he just can't get past, no matter how much he agrees with Paul. In particular, Taibbi takes issue with the congressman's racial views.From Mailbag (h/t Barefoot & Progressive):It struck me afterward that the Ron Paul strict-constitutionalist rhetoric is a very convenient mask for the Nixonian “Southern Strategy” racial-resentment politics.

(SNIP)

I came to all of these conclusions before I even heard about the crazy history of Ron Paul’s newsletters in the eighties and nineties, which are full of paranoid rantings about blacks and gays and communists and prone to lines like "Order was only restored [in the L.A. riots] when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks."

Paul has denied that he wrote any of the crazy entries in these newsletters, but at best he exercised extremely bad judgment in letting some of these things (how about calling MLK a “communist philanderer”?) in there go out under his name. You add that to the fact that neither of the Pauls seems particularly troubled by the racially-heated overtones of their campaigns, and Ron Paul becomes a guy I can’t vote for. Which, as I said, is too bad, because I do agree with him on a lot of things, and I have a few good friends who are faithful supporters.