| Republican
presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, is not new to the campaign trail,
having first run for the Oval Office in 1988 as the Libertarian candidate. Although
he came in third place behind George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis, Paul garnered
almost twice as many votes of any other third-party candidate. After several
terms in the House and unsuccessful runs for the Senate and presidency, the former
Air Force flight surgeon left politics to return to his first career as a physician. He
re-entered the political sphere in 1997, when he once again was elected to the
House as a Republican, though many of his ideas are aligned with the Libertarian
Party. Paul voted against authorizing the Iraq war in 2002 and the USA
Patriot Act in 2001 and again in 2005. He advocates withdrawing the United States
from the United Nations and abolishing the income tax. He argues that social issues
such as same-sex marriage and abortion should be left to the states to decide. According
to the congressman, he hesitated before making the decision to form a presidential
exploratory committee, saying supporters urged him to enter the contest. "I
was pleasantly surprised to find a number of people who responded and the fund
raising went very well," Paul told C-SPAN in March 2007. "I have been
encouraged and I think a lot of people want to hear my message. I'm willing to
deliver it." | 
