MOUNT PLEASANT

— Ron Paul, the congressman from Texas, at times elicited an electric, rock-concert-like response from the 1,300-plus crowd who came to hear him speak at Central Michigan University’s Warriner Hall Saturday.

The Texas Congressman’s message of “personal liberty,” controlling government spending, peaceful foreign affairs, auditing the Federal Reserve, repealing the Patriot Act and ending the War on Drugs was received eagerly.

The theater held 1,250 seats.

The outer aisles were also filled with standing-room only attendees.

Hundreds more, who could not fit, listened to Paul’s words via speakers outside the theater.

Those who were turned away were given vouchers for seats to see Paul when he visits Michigan State University Monday if they choose to attend.

Paul relayed a message of international peace and respect in order to avoid military conflict. And when military action is determined to be necessary, it should ordered by Congress in a declaration of war.

Our leaders have a “burning desire” to get into another war with Iran he said, reflecting on recent tensions in the Middle East.

“The war drums are beating.”

Paul called for personal responsibility, for allowing people the freedom to make their own mistakes.

Prior to the speech, a woman wearing a white “Mother for Ron Paul” T-shirt ran up and down the aisle alongside her toddler daughter, adorned in a similar “daughter for Ron Paul” T-shirt.

The diverse crowd consisted of supporters dressed in camouflage, T-shirts, jeans, dress shirts, suits and dresses. They were old — but mostly young — and sometimes in between.

On their heads were baseball caps, knit hats, pink hair, average hair and occasional mohawks.

“When you can tolerate people who are different, you know what happens, we come together,” Paul said. “The true belief in liberty brings all different kinds of people together.”

Paul honored about 35 U.S. servicemen from every war since World War II, who shared the stage with Paul throughout the night, one veteran seated with a spiral-carved cane and another bound to a wheelchair.

Paul's biography:

Born Ronald Ernest Paul in 1935, the politician, U.S. Air Force serviceman, obstetrician and gynecologist grew up in Pittsburgh with four brothers, says

, an offshoot website of the Biography Channel.

Paul married his wife, Carol, who is rarely far from his side on the campaign trail, in 1957 during his last year as an undergraduate in college and they moved to Durham, N.C., where Paul attended medical school at Duke University.

Before beginning his comments, Saturday, Paul introduce Carol Paul to the CMU crowd.

Upon graduation, the couple spent time in Detroit, where Paul completed his residency at Henry Ford Hospital.

Paul served as a doctor in the U.S. Air Force from 1963 to 1965 and went on to open a practice in Texas, where he’s said to have delivered greater than 4,000 babies, the

.

After becoming interested in politics, Paul waged an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 1974.

His first entrance into Congress was short-lived, by way of a special election in 1976 to fill a vacated seat that he then lost in a subsequent general election.

Unwavering, Paul returned to the campaign trail in 1978 and won three straight election as a Texas representative.

He lost a Senate bid in 1984 and defected from the Republican Party in 1988 to run as a Libertarian, where he garnered 500,000 votes in the general election,

Paul returned to his political home with the Republican Party several years later and was elected to the House of Representatives for a second time, where he remains today.

Paul placed fourth in Michigan’s 2008 Republican primary with 54,475 votes, compared to first-place finisher Mitt Romney’s 338,316.

A Rasmussen poll released Friday revealed Romney had 40 percent of the support, former U.S. Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum 33 percent, Paul 12 percent and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with 9 percent, among 750 likely Republican voters.

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