At a forum with Democratic opponent Jack Conway in Kentucky, Paul said America’s poor, are “enormously better off than the rest of the world.”

He cited an old Russian propaganda film that showed poor Yanks with color TVs. The story goes that while this flick was meant to demonize capitalism, it backfired when the Russkies saw all those TVs. Rand added that “It doesn’t mean we can’t do better. But we have to…be proud of …capitalism.”

Some Dems are knocking Rand, saying his comments reflect ” a dogmatic belief in free enterprise and limited government,” which to me, sounds like a compliment.

The fact is, the richest person in a Third World country would trade that spot for the lowest rung on the American ladder. But I’ll go further and say the poor in the US – when viewed by the rest of the world – aren’t poor at all. The poverty level for us looks like something to shoot for.

According to the most recent data I found, there’s roughly 250 million TV’s in America. That’s over two per household, not including lap tops, dvd players and homemade puppet diorama’s.

And if you hate anecdotal evidence, you’re going to hate what I say next: I watch Cops, and every “poor” household they bust into has shag carpeting, an overabundance of prescription drugs and a cluttered entertainment center. This to me, is not poverty: it’s a slice of heaven.

Fact is, there are too many countries to mention where citizens have a yearly income measured in hundreds of dollars. While our poor can still buy music, beer and Nikes, one purchase at the Footlocker cripples Liberia for a week.

Anyway, for more information on this topic, watch Cops.

And if you disagree with me, that’s your problem.

tonight, we’ve got: 

Dana Loesch (a first timer!)

Joe Devito!

Rick Leventhal!

Based on the Wildstorm/DC comics series, “Red” could see Willis playing a retired CIA black-ops badass who is forced to take action when an assassin threatens both he and his girlfriend. The film is being produced by Summit Entertainment, the studio responsible for the “Twilight” series. Willis’s deal has not been finalized, but it could be a sweet one since, as Summit production chief Eric Feig told me a few weeks ago, he sees “Red” as another potential franchise.

Not many fifty-something actors get those kinds of offers.

Willis may also play the lead in ”Scarpa,” about the real life FBI deep cover agent who helped bring down New York’s Columbo crime family from the inside.

He’s also in talks to play a detective on the trail of a murderer in “Inventory,” set for Kevin Smith’s buddy picture/cop comedy ”A Couple of Dicks” and soon-to-be seen in the futuristic actioner “Surrogates.”

That film takes place in a world where housebound humans interact via robotic surrogates. Willis plays (surprise!) a cop who must leave his home for the first time in years to investigate a string of murders. That sounds cool.

It’s interesting to see Willis going back to the kind of roles that made him most popular, much the way Sylvester Stallone has done with Rambo, Rocky and “The Expendables.”

There are very few real action heroes anymore, and even fewer who can maintain their macho into their 50s and 60s.

Alongside Stallone there may only be Harrison Ford and his fictional father Sean Connery. Does Willis have what it takes? Hollywood seems to think so.