I asked Lou Dobbs a question last night!

I went to go see Lou Dobbs speak at UC San Diego last night. He was there to promote his new book, "Independents Day".

Here's a recap of my evening, and what I learned:

I arrived and right outside the venue, there was a huge protest going on, lots of signs that said "Lou Dobbs is a Racist!" and other accusations along those lines.

I entered the building and the woman taking my ticket noticed my Ron Paul 2008 button. She smiled and I asked her if she liked Ron Paul. She said "yes he will take lots of votes away from the republicans and democrats." I told her not only that but he has a good chance to WIN the GOP. She gave me a funny look and I told her he raised $4.3 million in one day last week. She was very surprised to hear this!

The Dobbs talk was not too far from what he says on air. His main platform is that the republicans and democrats are two wings of the same bird, that they're both bought and paid for by corporations. He believes we all need to register as independents and find a candidate for 08 that is not running for either major party.

He went on to talk about how the illegal immigration issue is NOT racial, and is instead political. He mentioned the North America Union but clearly stayed away from the topic as a reason for all the illegal immigration. He mentioned Ron Paul briefly and said how while the $4.2 million day was impressive, if we had an independent candidate, that could be a daily event.

The Q&A session was interesting. We wrote down questions and Lou read them and answered. Mine was "How would a Ron Paul presidency help the American people?" And "Can you tell us more about the North American Union?"

He skipped my NAU question but did answer about RP. He said that he is not a supporter of Ron Paul. He does think that Paul and John Edwards are the two closest candidates to his views, but he does not think they will do enough about our borders and ports, or our education.

Someone asked about Bloomberg and he's not at all excited about him.

Another question was about the CFR and he just said it is an elite organization that does not have the American people in it's best interest.

He was asked about Kucinich's bill to impeach Cheney, and he said while Kucinich has a lot of good ideas, impeachment would be a waste of time- if we impeach Cheney, we should impeach a lot of others in the administration. Instead, Dobbs said, we should vote all these corporate politicians out and vote in independents.

Enrique (the guy that hangs out at the border and argues with the minutemen ) was there and accused Dobbs of being a racist. Dobbs brought him up near the stage and asked him a couple of questions. Enrique is full of confidence but appears to have many facts wrong, and he could not back up his accusations with any examples. It started to get a little rowdy as people were yelling at Enrique, but it quickly calmed down and everyone was civil.

Overall I feel that Lou Dobbs is truly independent and is not beholden to a political party or candidate. However, he is also a statist who believes in government solutions to most problems. He pushes the envelope more than most reporters on TV, however, he skirts along the edge of complex topics like the CFR and NAU (to keep his job in my opinion), and does not delve very deep into them.

He could do more, but he clearly does not want to upset his bosses enough to take him off the air.