Ron Paul won the support of about half of the undecided voters gathered in a Manchester house yesterday, when he spoke about how he could save hundreds of millions of dollars by scaling back America's overseas empire. But many left with concerns that Paul lacked the leadership ability necessary to work with Congress.

The Republican congressman from Texas opened by saying that he had a "very high respect for the Constitution" that is absent in a federal government with too much power.

"For instance, today we have the federal government running our educational system," Paul said. "The federal government runs our medical system. The federal government runs the welfare state. The federal government has unconstitutionally taken over total control, creating money out of thin air. The monetary system has been undermined, and we also have a foreign policy never designed by the Constitution, or by the founders. The founders advised against exactly what we are doing today."

But Christina McKinley of Nashua was skeptical.

"How could anybody vote for somebody who could not describe one buck-stops-here leadership step?" she said. Earlier, she had asked Paul what experiences had taught him to lead.

Paul answered by saying that he had a consistent record in Congress that would inspire trust.

"I can't list 25 bills that I passed, because I compromised and I sold out," he said.

Paul also said that his plan to restore the Constitution, and immediately pull out of Iraq would be acceptable to Democrats, as well as Republicans.

"To me this is the compromise of all compromises," Paul said. "We are going to turn off all of this corporate welfare, all this foreign welfare, all this militarism, save money, and go to a liberal democrat and say look, we're not going to cut education, or medical benefits, we're going to work our way out of this, before we lose everything."

But at the end of the event, McKinley said that she was more likely to vote for Mitt Romney, even though she had agreed with Paul's platform.

"I don't care how many wonderful ideas you have," she said. "If he had demonstrable leadership experience, the door would have been kept open for me."

Paul highlighted the weakening dollar and inflated home prices in recent years as the result of mismanagement of the economy. He said that the Federal Reserve has discouraged savings by setting the interest rate far too low. Bush had endangered America's standing in the world by printing more money rather than reducing the federal deficit, he said.

"Most great nations were defeated internally through the destruction of their own money," he said, providing the decline of the Soviet Union as an example. "We're kidding ourselves if we think our system is viable forever."

He strongly rejected Bush's justification for the so-called War on Terror.

"Some people argue 'Well, we've got to fight them over there, or we're going to fight them here.' I don't believe that for a minute," Paul said. "They come here because we occupy their territory. They do exactly what we would do if a country like China was here doing it to us."

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