Tuesday night at 7 PM Eastern, New Hampshire will play host to the next Republican presidential debate. This would not ordinarily fill me with any hope or anticipation, except that there is a dark horse slowly gaining traction within the party who threatens to stand the whole thing on its head. Former Libertarian presidential candidate and current Republican congressman, Ron Paul, is the first presidential candidate since Steve Forbes in whom I’ve seen a glimmer of hope for the future of our Constitution and our country. His hardline stance on voting against any legislation that is not specifically authorized by the Constitution is without equal in American politics over the past hundred years.

During the last debate, he and Rudy Giuliani faced off over the source of terrorism in this country, and Congressman Paul forced the former New York City mayor into demonstrating that he had not read the Congressional report on the Sepetember 11th attacks, which strongly suggests that the motivation for Muslim terrorism is America’s presence in the middle east. Giuliani had attempted to smear Ron Paul’s comments about the motivation behind terrorism by saying that he had never heard anyone blame the 9/11 attacks on U.S. meddling in the middle east, thus exposing his ignorance to the findings of the report.

Ron Paul’s faithful voting record and reasoned, non-interventionist approach to foreign policy is going to force every other Republican candidate to D-up and make firm commitments to their stance on all issues. That is, if he can stay in the game. He’s gaining popularity and momentum, but he needs a strong performance and lots of support at the New Hampshire debate to spur his campaign forward. Fundraising will also be of paramount importance, as he lags far behind current leaders Giuliani and Romney. But, he has a lot going for him. New Hampshire is one of the most libertarian-oriented states in the country, which will mean a lot when it comes to the actual New Hampshire primary next year, and many of Ron Paul’s supporters across the country (myself included) are libertarians and registered independents. By attracting support from those camps as well as gaining the trust and support of Republican voters, Ron Paul has a real fighting chance.

The Republican debate will be broadcast on television on CNN and online on CNN’s Pipeline service, which will be free for the debate.