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Ron Paul’s money plan is far from golden

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* Ron Paul won the presidential straw poll at the CPAC conference

* David Frum says part of Paul's appeal is his advocacy of basing dollars on precious metals

* He says the gold standard made the downturn of the 1930s into the Great Depression

* The markets won't take seriously any revival of the gold standard, he says

Editor's note: David Frum writes a weekly column for CNN.com. A resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, he was special assistant to President George W. Bush in 2001-2. He is the author of six books, including “Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again” and the editor of FrumForum.

Washington (CNN) — The annual Conservative Political Action Conference drew 10,000 activists to Washington over the weekend. The event traditionally concludes with a presidential straw poll. Last year, the poll was won by Mitt Romney. This year, Ron Paul won, with 31 percent of the ballots cast.

CPAC's organizers cautioned against over-interpreting the Paul win. Participation in the poll had been light, the Paul team had just out-organized, etc. All true enough.

But it's also true that Ron Paul-style themes have percolated through the conservative movement since Paul's beat-the-spread 2008 presidential campaign. Of all those themes, the one that has achieved the widest audience is Paul's call for a return to money based on precious metals such as gold and silver.

G.K. Chesterton observed that you should never pull down a fence until you understand why it was put up.

via Ron Paul’s money plan is far from golden – CNN.com.

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