The Ron Paul campaign says a new TV ad -- featuring the candidate's son, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) -- will air in Iowa and New Hampshire Dec. 24-25 (Christmas Eve and Christmas Day).

Wearing a coat and tie, Sen. Paul suggests that his father helped drive the Tea Party movement.
 
“The Tea Party began as a protest against politicians who supported more debt and bigger government. My father, Ron Paul, stood against the establishment and against government bailouts.”

Keeping in the spirit of the season, Sen. Paul is in front of a Christmas tree and wishes viewers a “Merry Christmas." Then he says, "God bless America."

EXETER, NH -- Ron Paul, whose surging poll numbers have made him a top-tier presidential candidate in Iowa, was vetted like a frontrunner campaign stops in New Hampshire on Tuesday.

The Texas congressman took to the trail as news outlets reported on a renewed interest in Ron Paul newsletters from the 1990s that contained slurs against homosexuals and African Americans. The most recent issue of The Weekly Standard dug up some of Paul's old newsletters.  An article from June 1992 reads "Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks,”  the magazine reports.  Another suggested that AIDS patients should not be allowed to eat in restaurants since, according to the opinion, "AIDS can be transmitted by saliva.”

But today, Paul maintained he did not write the articles, which contained no byline. Instead, he said it was an example of a political attack stemming from his rise in popularity.

"Nobody talked about it for 20 years until they found out that the message of liberty was making progress," Paul said outside a variety store in Manchester. "And everybody knows I didn’t write them, and it’s not my sentiment, so it’s sort of politics as usual.”

The presidential candidate faced similar questions about the writings in 2008, though not as much was uncovered about the publications and Paul had not risen to the profile he now holds. Then, like now, he denied knowing the author.

After a town hall meeting on Monday night Paul told reporters, though cautious, he considers himself the frontrunner in Iowa.  Though he may be on the verge of breaking through in the Hawkeye State, the presidential candidate spent two days in New Hampshire, where polls have him closer to the middle of the pack. 

Before the resurrection of Paul's newsletter, one of his biggest criticisms had been what his Republicans rivals have called a weakness on foreign policy.  Paul has expressed an unwillingness of U.S. involvement in foreign affairs -- even in instances where national security is at stake.  But the 76-year-old Texan has dismissed the claims that his policy is one of isolationism.

"The other Republicans are saying, 'Boy, this is his downfall, how can he do it with his foreign policy?'" Paul said Monday. "I happen to think its one of the reasons I'm rising in the polls is because the American people are tired of the wars, and are tired of spending their money, so I think it's a big positive."

His rise in popularity today was apparent with the media contingent following him on the campaign trail.  Press flocked to four campaign stops here, despite the fact that Paul did not so much as deliver his stump speech. Instead, he took a tour of a small business, took questions from high school students, and popped in to surprise shoppers at a convenience store in Manchester.  Later in Exeter, Paul made what his campaign called "a retail stop," where the candidate walked into a series of local businesses and introduced himself.

Paul holds a town hall event tonight before heading back to Iowa.

NASHUA, NH -- The ad wars in New Hampshire are heating up, and Texas Rep. Ron Paul's campaign reserved the largest of several ad buys in the state just weeks before its primary.

The libertarian-minded congressman has reserved over $160,000 worth of airtime between Dec. 21-27, according to local station WMUR. That's good enough to run 142 spots on morning news, evening news and primetime ABC shows.

The ad Paul will run is an extended, 60-second version of his ad, "The One," which casts him as the only candidate suited to take on the environment in Washington.

It was the largest of several ad buys announced Tuesday.

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who's pinned his hopes of winning the GOP nomination on winning the New Hampshire primary, was also the beneficiary of new spending from Our Destiny PAC, the political action committee established on his behalf.

Our Destiny bought just under $100,000 in airtime to air a total of 58, 30-second spots during morning and evening news between the dates of Dec. 20 and Jan. 1. Our Destiny also ran a full-page black and white print advertisement in the New Hampshire Union Leader's front section yesterday with almost the exact same quotes as the television spot.

Huntsman, at a town hall in Nashua, dismissed the importance of Jan. 3's Iowa caucuses in favor of the Jan. 10 New Hampshire primary.

"Iowa will do their thing and I believe the results of Iowa will kind of be forgotten in a day or two," Huntsman said. "And then the people of New Hampshire can stand up and you will render a judgment. And I like our position here. We've worked this state harder than anybody else."

Huntsman sits at 2 percent nationally according to a CNN/ORC poll released Monday, but enjoys slightly higher support (13 percent according to a Suffolk/7News survey) in New Hampshire. That's a noticeable rise after wallowing in low single digits for most of the summer and fall.

"This wave effect is happening," Huntsman said in Nashua. This morning's town hall marked his 127th public campaign stop in New Hampshire.

The campaign of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who leads in most polls of GOP primary-goers in the state, doled out about $60,000 for 161, 30-second spots over the same Dec. 21-27 time frame.

AMHERST, NH -- Texas Rep. Ron Paul contended Wednesday that his recent ads and web videos about Newt Gingrich's record are not negative, but merely clarifying the former Speaker's history in politics and Washington.

"I think pointing out people's positions is not negative," he told reporters after stopping by a grocery store to meet voters Wednesday morning. "I think the candidates have a responsibility to point out, 'Well, his position used to be this.' What's wrong with that?"

This week, Paul released a new commercial and several web videos attacking Gingrich's record and Washington business ties, including receiving money from mortgage giant Freddie Mac. Earlier this week, Gingrich himself issued a letter to his staff vowing that he will stay positive during the campaign and instructing all staff and surrogates to "avoid initiating attacks on other Republican candidates."

When Paul was asked about Gingrich's promise to stay positive, he laughed aloud. "That's what campaigning is all about. He used to say this and he flipped over like this. I don't consider that negative," Paul said.

This comes amidst Paul's rise in Iowa polls. According to the latest NBC News/Marist survey in the Hawkeye state, Paul ties front-runner Mitt Romney at 17% while Gingrich surged ahead to 24%. In New Hampshire, Paul is securely in third place behind Romney and Gingrich respectively and ahead of former Utah governor Jon Huntsman.

"I think in political terms it means we're probably peaking at the right time," Paul said Wednesday morning.

Paul's voter turnout at single events in Iowa has ticked up into the quadruple digits. In New Hampshire, where he usually pulls around 300 people, he spoke to nearly 500 at the Peterborough Town House Wednesday night and stayed afterward to pose for pictures for all who were interested -- a Ron Paul campaign trail tradition that was mightily tested as hundreds waited in line to meet him.

Despite his momentum in early states, a universal question looms over these massive events. Over and over again in New Hampshire, diehard supporters wonder aloud in questions to Paul about his electability on the national stage. Throughout his swing in the Granite State, voters have encouraged the Texas congressman to push harder to make a case for himself.

"You need to start saying, 'I can get elected.' Because nobody is saying it. You have got to say it," a Republican voter told Paul this morning at a local Republican party breakfast at Joey's Diner.

"Well, you know why they say that?" Paul responded. "Because they're scared to death I will get elected. So they have to put a negative spin on it."

Looking at the long game, Paul is confident his campaign's organization can withstand an extended race, even if he hopes it is exactly the opposite.

"Well I'm not looking forward to anything being long and protracted so I hope it ends rather quickly and we do real well at the beginning of the year," Paul said.

"The organization is fantastic. The question is: am I going to hold up if I keep doing all of this?" the 76-year-old joked.

WEBSTER CITY, Iowa -– Ron Paul spoke to over 50 people at a town hall on Friday in the Webster City Fire Station, the hometown of his Iowa Campaign Chair Drew Ivers.
 
Commenting on the support he is getting in Iowa, Paul said, “Last night, we had a few students come out at the university, like 1,300! I don’t go in there with wild promises.”
 
Paul stressed the importance of the early voting states candidates like him and told them their “single vote” is a hundred fold benefit compared to the vote in California.
 
“A state like this as well as New Hampshire allows opportunities for candidates like myself to come out and meet people and talk about the issues in a more deliberate fashion because there won't be very many states, once this thing gets rolling, once the first two primaries are done in Iowa and New Hampshire, once they're done, you know it is really, really a rat race.”
 
He said “you can’t run a campaign without the money,” and that for him, “fortunately, fundraising has been rather easy.”
 
“I've never been really good, I'm very enthusiastic about our message, but I've never been very good, and people who work with me in campaigns think I'm not very good at calling people up, like I don't do it and ask them 'Send me money. Send me money.' I always work on the assumption, if the message is worthwhile, they'll send some money."
 
Paul talked little about the economy and more about foreign policy, stressing his belief that bringing the troops home is the easiest way to cut spending.  He also warned the audience about upcoming war with Syria and Iran.
 
“We plan now to go into Syria and the plan, matter of fact, the covert war or war has already started in Iran. I mean, we have our CIA agents in there, we’re trying to overthrow that government, our drone plane just the other day was shot down. They captured some of our CIA agents. War has already started. I would say that, that does not help us. It furthering our bankruptcy. It makes us more in danger.”
 
Speaking about the president’s press conference yesterday where he told reporters “nothing is off the table,” with Iran, Paul said that really means a nuclear attack.
 
“Nothing off the table means military, bombing and actually nuclear first strikes. That’s what usually it means that we want to reserve and intimidate people and say nuclear first strikes, not off the table. You know what, they have taken one thing off the table and that’s diplomacy. And I would say in a civilized society, that should be the first thing which we should try. That’s what we are admonished to try as Christians, that we should talk to our enemies and try to deal with them.”
 
One woman asked Paul about a provision in the Defense Authorization Bill and the ability of the federal government to indefinitely detain American citizens.
 
“It goes against the First and Fourth Amendment -– that you don’t have to give a judge to write a search warrant and they have one of these sneak and peak searches in your house. If you tell anyone about it –- you can go to prison. So that’s an attack on the first amendment. And what she’s talking about is that it passed the senate overwhelmingly –- and that is -– the battlefield for terrorism which is everyplace and any place and you can pick people and arrest him.  But the battlefield specifically is everyone in this country too. If you could be associated with an organization that might have contributed and been involved with Muslims. You could be suspect and you could be thrown in jail. And it’s actually written that the president must try them in a military and they can be held forever. You can be hauled off to Guantanamo even if you are an American citizen.”
 
Paul called that provisions “very dangerous” and said “some people have compared this to the enabling act in Nazi Germany to say that literally that the way that the law should read that we should virtually give up our 5th amendment rights of the rule of law and our lives can be taken without the due process of law.”
 
He told the audience that if someone is against this provision, they will be labeled.

"It’s always couched in the tune of -– you don’t like this -– you don’t care about terrorism -– blame America! They twist it around and say that you’re not a patriot -– that's why they called it the Patriot Act -– because if you didn’t vote for it, you were unpatriotic.”
 
He also addressed a question about his support for Israel, saying he is for the sovereignty of the country which means no foreign aid.
 
“It actually helps Israel ... Israel’s neighbors get seven times as much as Israel gets, so it really doesn’t help Israel.  And you know, the other day somebody came to my defense and they explained Zionism, in an article, and they said the two basic principles of Zionism is independence and self reliance. And even this year, Netanyahu gave a speech on the House floor, you know, in Congress and said that we do not need American troops to defend ourselves, we can take care of ourselves.”

PORTSMOUTH, NH -- Texas Rep. Ron Paul is doubling down on his criticism of ascendant GOP candidate Newt Gingrich, saying that the former House Speaker is a "flip-flopper" who is "getting a free ride" on his changing positions.

Speaking to reporters at a health food store in Portsmouth, NH, Paul said his campaign produced a harsh new anti-Gingrich web video to underscore that he's "a flip-flopper" whose political evolutions have been inadequately covered by the media. 

"I think that he's getting a free ride," the Texas congressman said of Gingrich. "And I've worked with him for a long time. And I think the points I made on the various issues, he's a flip-flopper, so he can hardly be the alternative to Mitt Romney."

"What I find is a shame is look at the amount of energy the media put into talking about sex," Paul said, alluding to the ongoing controversy about Herman Cain's alleged extramarital affair and sexual harassment claims. "And how much does the media put into exposing what Newt Gingrich believes and what he's done?"

Asked whether he believes Cain should drop out of the presidential contest, Paul declined comment but hit the former Kansas City Fed member on his 9-9-9 tax plan.

"i have no opinion about that. That's his own business," he said. "If he drops out I wish he'd drop out because he's proposing a national sales tax and he used to work for the Federal Reserve. That should have been enough from him to lose support and need to drop out."

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul’s campaign is increasing its efforts in early voting states by recruiting college-aged supporters to spend their "Christmas Vacation with Ron Paul" as part of a get-out-the-vote program. The campaign is asking students to devote their holiday break working for the campaign in Iowa (Dec. 27 - Jan. 4, 2012) and New Hampshire (Jan. 2-11) while providing meals, lodging and transportation.

A fundraising email sent to supporters after Thanksgiving calls the campaign's official youth effort "Youth for Ron Paul" its "Secret Weapon" -- one they say, "no other campaign will be able to duplicate. That's because no other campaign has the level of support and enthusiasm among young people that [their] campaign has."

The initiative hopes to organize “500 young activists knocking on doors and making phone calls ... to work all day and night to help" Paul succeed. The campaign claims it will cost "over $20,000 per day to put 500 young people on the ground in Iowa and New Hampshire," which means "a new expense of $600,000."

And the plea for donations includes a message meant to appeal to fiscal conservatives.

"I know that sounds like a lot, but actually, that is only $45.00 per person! I think you will admit that is a bargain!"

As part of the selection process, an online questionnaire asks applicants their views on public policy positions using a rating scale of 1 - 5 (from strongly agree to strongly disagree) answering statements like: The 9/11 attacks were carried out by Islamic extremists connected to Al Qaeda who were the sole perpetrators of the damage that day; after a complete audit of the Federal Reserve, the Fed should be abolished; cannabis should be legalized for recreational use; and preemptive, unilateral military action is never an appropriate policy for the U.S.

NBC News

Mitt Romney mailer

From NBC’s Alex Moe

With 37 days until the Iowa caucus, the mailers in Iowa are out in full force. Voters in the Hawkeye State found literature from Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, and Ron Paul in their mailboxes this weekend.

Iowa GOP Chairman Matt Strawn tweeted earlier Saturday: “Final sprint to Jan. 3 #iacaucus begins. Today's mail at home included pieces from Cain, Paul & Romney. Plus a [Michele] Bachmann autodial.”

Romney’s Iowa campaign sent out at least two Iowa mailers (there are multiple versions being sent throughout the state but the campaign would not confirm how many) -- large postcards that seem to attack President Obama rather than any of Romney’s GOP rivals.

Romney, who visited the first-in-the-nation caucus state for the third time in roughly a month last Wednesday, seems to be pushing harder in the state. “It’s up to you, Iowa,” both of Romney’s pieces say.

One Romney postcard, which seems to be aimed at social conservatives, tells voters that Mitt Romney is “the strongest Republican to beat Barack Obama and protect our values.”

The campaign, which opened its official headquarters two weeks ago, was also filming an ad at Romney’s event in Eastern Iowa earlier this month.

NBC News

Ron Paul mailer

Paul’s mailer came in a large manila envelope. It was seven pages long, including a page asking for donations and a copy of his “Plan to Restore America.” He was critical of three GOP rivals in his letter to voters, as well: Rick Perry, Cain and Romney.

“Only one candidate for president will fully balance our budget within three years,” Paul starts in his letter.

Newt Gingrich, now leading in many polls nationally, has not sent out any campaign literature or run any paid advertisements in Iowa as of yet. He is scheduled back in the state Thursday.

BEDFORD AND CONCORD, NH -- Ron Paul on Tuesday said he sees the Republican Party as a vehicle with which to get elected -- but not as a party or a structure that he fully supports.

The Texas congressman's position came in answer to a voter's question about why he participates in the two-party system, rather than running as an independent or third-party presidential candidate.

"You probably wouldn't even know my name if I had done this in a third party. I would have never been elected to the Congress," he said today at Enviro-Tote, a reusable cloth bag manufacturer. "Think of the parties as a vehicle for getting the message out and getting elected."

Paul went on to criticize the current format of national elections, saying: "It would be nice" to have a multi-party system. But Paul conceded his run as a third-party candidate would be "very, very difficult," given the Democratic and Republican parties' overwhleming roles in scheduling debates and other election matters.

Today, Paul said he has no plans to run as a third party candidate. But in late October, he refused to rule out that possibility. "I have no intention of doing it," Paul told CNN. "Nobody has particularly asked me to do it, and they know what I'm doing and I have no plans whatsoever to do it."

Paul ran for president as a libertarian in the 1988 election and as a Republican in 2008. And in his third bid for the White House, Paul's campaign says it has attracted more mainstream Republican support than it has in the past.

"You do your best with it and work with it," Paul said. "To me the only things that counts are attitudes. Prevailing attitudes. Understanding economics. How you understand liberty. What kind of foreign policy you want. That's what really counts."

By NBC's Jo Ling Kent

KEENE, N.H. -- GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul told college students Monday he understands where they are coming from and is "very much involved in the 99" percent, after about a dozen Occupy Wall Street protesters spoke out at the end of his question-and-answer session at an evening campaign stop.

Approximately 15 students in a crowd of several hundred in a Keene State College auditorium stood up and began yelling as Paul awaited his final question from supporters this evening.

"We are the 99%! We will be heard! There are criminals on Wall Street who walk free, there are protesters in jail," they chanted. "There's something wrong with this system. We are the 99%! We will be heard!"

When the protesters finished, the Texas Congressman -- who smiled throughout their delivery -- leaned into the microphone and asked, "Do you feel better?" The audience erupted in cheers and applause.

"Let me address that for a minute, because if you listen carefully, I'm very much involved in the 99," Paul told the students. "We need to sort that out. But the people on Wall Street got the bailouts and you guys got stuck with the bills and I think that's where the problem is."

Paul is popular among college students in New Hampshire, a state where he enjoys 17 percent of support among likely Republican primary voters, according to a recent state-wide poll by Bloomberg News.

From NBC’s Alex Moe & Andrew Rafferty

ALTOONA, Iowa – After an emotional roundtable discussion, six Republican presidential candidates put on their party hats and headed to Adventureland to kiss the ring of the don of Iowa politics.

Cliff Owen/AP

Iowa Gov. Terry Brandstad takes part in the Health and Human Services Committee meeting at the National Governors Association winter meeting in Washington, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2011. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

Gov. Terry Brandstad celebrated his 65th birthday tonight, and five candidates – Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul – stopped by to celebrate and address the nearly 300-person crowd.

Newt Gingrich was the only candidate to attend the Family Leader Thanksgiving Forum but not speak at the birthday party.

The former House speaker did show up late, however, and apologized to the governor for his tardiness, explaining he needed to fulfill an obligation he made with Fox News.

Perry, the Texas governor, was first to take the stage at Adventureland Palace Theater just outside Des Moines.

With his wife, Anita Perry, by his side, he joked, "We just got through with a little debate downtown and she asked me -- she said, ‘Where do you want to go,’ and I said, ‘Let's go to Adventureland.’”

Cupcakes bearing the Iowa governor’s likeness – with a special emphasis on his signature mustache -- were served up as dessert.

Bachmann, the Republican Minnesota represtnative, said, "I bought my own mustache and so because there's cameras here, I won't put it on. But just to let you know, I'm for you Terry Branstad, happy birthday!"

The candidates weaved between doling out Brandstad birthday wishes and giving abridged versions of their stump speeches in front of a crowd filled with many likely caucus voters.

The two noticeable candidate absences tonight were Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman. Speaking to reporters, Brandstad made it clear he did not approve of Romney missing out on his party.

“I think they made a mistake by not being here,” said Brandstad of Romney’s absence.  “I hope they'll spend a lot more time between now and January 3rd here is Iowa.” (Romney plans to be there Wednesday.)

Still, the night was not all politics and at times resembled a roast of the longest serving governor in Iowa history.

"I was a little surprised,” Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, joked, “last I heard he was 39 and now all of a sudden he is 65. How did that work out?”

Charlie Neibergall/AP

Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks during the Thanksgiving Family Forum sponsored by The Family Leader as former CEO of Godfathers Pizza Herman Cain looks on Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa.

By NBC's Carrie Dann, Alex Moe, Andrew Rafferty and James Novogrod

DES MOINES, Iowa -- At an emotional two-hour forum focused as much on the candidate's personal and spiritual lives as on their policies, six Republican candidates spoke at length Saturday about their faith but skirted direct discussion of misconduct by either twice-divorced Newt Gingrich or Herman Cain, who has faced allegations of sexual harassment.

During the Des Moines forum sponsored by the Family Leader group and moderated by pollster Frank Luntz, Gingrich disclosed a time in the 1990s when he felt that he was "failing personally," even turning to the Alcoholics Anonymous handbook because he felt "truly hollow."

"I wasn't drinking but I had precisely the symptoms of somebody who was collapsing under this weight," he said after Luntz directed candidates to "bare your soul."

The former House speaker, who has previously disclosed that he was engaging in an extramarital affair with his current wife while prosecuting the Clinton impeachment, acknowledged Saturday that his struggles "required a great deal of pain."

"I've been very blessed. Callista and I have a wonderful marriage," he said, going on to describe his closeness to his children. "But all of that has required a great deal of pain, some of which I have caused others, which I regret deeply. All of which required having to go to God to seek both reconciliation but also to seek God's acceptance that I had to recognize how limited I was and how much I had to depend on Him."

Earlier in the forum, Gingrich won the biggest laugh of the night for telling Occupy Wall Street protesters to "go get a job right after you take a bath."

In a rare moment, Cain, who typically sticks to displays of humor and defiance on the campaign trail, choked up when talking about his wife, Gloria, and the struggle he faced with cancer.

When Cain received his diagnosis, he said, he told his wife "I can do this." She replied "WE can do this," he said of his wife of 42 years, who accompanied her husband to the forum for her first campaign appearance in Iowa this weekend.

Cain later struggled past tears in describing one consequence of his business success. "I didn't believe that I was home enough when my kids were growing up," he said.

The Atlanta businessman made no mention of at least four women who have accused him of sexual impropriety. He said Saturday that he believes he has experienced a "series of little failures rather than one great big disaster."

Also shedding tears Saturday was Rick Santorum, who delivered an emotional recounting of his disabled daughter's struggles for life.  "I had seen her as less of a person because of her disability," the former Pennsylvania senator confessed when describing one moment when his daughter's life was in danger.

Rick Perry, telling a familiar story about the academic failures that prevented him from achieving his dream of becoming a veterinarian, smiled broadly when delivering a line that could perhaps also apply to the rocky start of his once soaring campaign. 

"If you want to see God laugh, tell him your plans," Perry said.

The Texas governor related details of his humble biography, saying that his presence on the stage after growing up in near-poverty was "a stunning story of America." He discussed, as he did at a speech at Liberty University in September, a period of time when he felt "lost" and "too busy for God" before turning to Christ at age 27.

The unusual format -- with the six candidates seated around a table topped with Thanksgiving accoutrements -- allowed each candidate to offer lengthy responses to questions about gay marriage, abortion, morality, and the role of faith in public life.

While largely focused on the candidate's philosophical views, the candidates also discussed their view of the federal government through the prism of morality. 

"The states have a right to be wrong," Rep. Ron Paul alleged, dovetailing on a back-and-forth he had with Gingrich about the meaning of "liberty." "The Constitution is a restriction on the federal government, not a restriction on the states."

Rep. Michele Bachmann spoke about her views of the spiritual nature of the oath of office, relating a story disputed by some historians that George Washington added the words "so help me God" and kissed the Bible upon delivering them. (The Bachmann campaign pushed back via Twitter on questions about the anecdote's veracity, citing author David McCullough.)

Bachmann also separately attacked Gingrich on his abortion record.

Republican frontrunner Gov. Mitt Romney, along with longshot Gov. John Huntsman, was notably absent from the Iowa forum, choosing instead to conduct a fiery town hall in New Hampshire. While the other candidates declined to take shots at the absent former Massachusetts governor, moderator Frank Luntz did take a dig at Romney, noting that he was not present to respond to critiques of the individual mandate for health care, an idea included in the plan he signed into law in 2006.

Romney’s absence was also noted by event organizer Bob Vander Plaats, who told reporters after the forum, “Romney was the only one who stiffed us.”

“I think that’s gone with his persona, in how he’s treating Iowa, which happens to be a swing state,” Vander Plaats added. “And he wants to win the presidency -- which tells me he lacks judgment.”