Well, I'm in a Monetary Policy course here at Northern Illinois University, so I'm a bit familiar with the gold standard. I know the basics and that it was abandoned in the middle of the 20th century in favor of Federal Reserve notes. I don't know enough about it to give a definitive opinion on it, but I'll say that our current monetary system is superior to it. People have criticized the Fed for making the great depression worse and so on, so I can see why people would want a natural system to keep them in check, but the Fed has also learned a lot since then. We have one of the best (possibly THE BEST) banking systems on the entire planet, so I don't see why we'd want to change that.
Here's a quick fun fact that you can use to impress your friends: Our nation is one of a very few nations on the planet that has never defaulted on its debts. We ALWAYS pay our debts back. Not many countries can say that. (Please don't bring up our current national debt, as a percentage of GDP it isn't anywhere near a record high.)
Also, I think Bernanke is doing an incredible job as chairman and history will treat him well. So, I'll say right now that the gold standard would not be a good thing to bring back. It was a bottleneck on our economy and Federal Reserve notes seem to be the better option. Like I said, we have a great system in place right now so there's no need to shake things up, no matter what Ron Paul says.
Can you all tell that I'm in the middle of writing a paper on the Fed right now? It's on why the FOMC held the Fed Funds rate at 5.25% at their June 2007 meeting. And yes, it is as fun as it sounds. I'm really having a blast.