The REAL Revolution ...
... will be at the GOP convention or so Ron Paul supporters believe it will, and will work towards making it a revolution so sayeth the LA Times:
But in the meantime, quietly, largely under the radar of most people, the forces of Rep. Ron Paul have been organizing across the country to stage an embarrassing public revolt against Sen. John McCain when Republicans gather for their national convention in Minnesota at the beginning of September.
Paul's presidential candidacy has been correctly dismissed all along in terms of winning the nomination. He was even excluded as irrelevant by Fox News from a nationally-televised GOP debate in New Hampshire.
But what's been largely overlooked is Paul's candidacy as a reflection of a powerful lingering dissatisfaction with the Arizona senator among the party's most conservative conservatives. As anticipated in late March in The Ticket, that situation could be exacerbated by today's expected announcement from former Republican Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia for the Libertarian Party's presidential nod, a slot held by Paul in 1988. ...
In the last three months, Paul's forces, who donated $34.5 million to his White House effort and upward of a million total votes, have, as The Ticket has noted, been fighting a series of guerrilla battles with party establishment officials at county and state conventions from Washington and Missouri to Maine and Mississippi. Their goal: to take control of local committees, boost their delegate totals and influence platform debates. ...
They hope to demonstrate their disagreements with McCain vocally at the convention through platform fights and an attempt to get Paul a prominent speaking slot. Paul, who's running unopposed in his home Texas district for an 11th House term, still has some $5 million in war funds and has instructed his followers that their struggle is not about a single election, but a long-term revolution for control of the Republican Party.
So the children are restless, and they want their man running for the presidency. How quaint. How utterly juvenile. Unless they can convince delegates to abstain from voting in the first round of tallies, John McCain will be the nominee. And, I hate to say this, but if by some miracle he does win the nomination, he will not be the Democrat that is nominated.
It is time to face facts here for the Ron Paul supporters. He sounds like a half-baked crank. His ideas are so out of the mainstream that no one will buy them. Yes, Paul supporters DO buy the nuttiness, but the average voter does not. And that is not because they do not understand him, but rather, as I said above, he comes off as a nut. We did not like the fact John McCain won enough delegates to get the nomination. Our candidates did not do well enough in the primaries to make it. But John McCain is the nominee. Ron Paul has about twenty-six delegates. That is it.
People that support Ron Paul can point to recent primaries where he has garnered more of the vote in percentage terms, but that is a moot point. John McCain is already the nominee. Any votes for Paul or Huckabee now are throwaway votes; protest votes, if you will. They do not matter to anyone but that candidate.
If Paul supporters cause trouble at the convention, expect to see them thrown out. They are already doing it on delegate committees in other states, claiming that their candidate was somehow cheated. That is not true. Paul had just as much a chance at the nomination as anyone else did. We do not want to hear Paul supporters claim that he was not given a fair shot with the media, either. He has been interviewed by all the major networks, he has been on Sean Hannity's radio show more than once, and he has been on Michael Medved's radio show more than once. He has gotten his name and his ideas out there, and they appeal to a very small minority in the country. Why? Because he sounds like a crank.
Marcie
But in the meantime, quietly, largely under the radar of most people, the forces of Rep. Ron Paul have been organizing across the country to stage an embarrassing public revolt against Sen. John McCain when Republicans gather for their national convention in Minnesota at the beginning of September.
Paul's presidential candidacy has been correctly dismissed all along in terms of winning the nomination. He was even excluded as irrelevant by Fox News from a nationally-televised GOP debate in New Hampshire.
But what's been largely overlooked is Paul's candidacy as a reflection of a powerful lingering dissatisfaction with the Arizona senator among the party's most conservative conservatives. As anticipated in late March in The Ticket, that situation could be exacerbated by today's expected announcement from former Republican Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia for the Libertarian Party's presidential nod, a slot held by Paul in 1988. ...
In the last three months, Paul's forces, who donated $34.5 million to his White House effort and upward of a million total votes, have, as The Ticket has noted, been fighting a series of guerrilla battles with party establishment officials at county and state conventions from Washington and Missouri to Maine and Mississippi. Their goal: to take control of local committees, boost their delegate totals and influence platform debates. ...
They hope to demonstrate their disagreements with McCain vocally at the convention through platform fights and an attempt to get Paul a prominent speaking slot. Paul, who's running unopposed in his home Texas district for an 11th House term, still has some $5 million in war funds and has instructed his followers that their struggle is not about a single election, but a long-term revolution for control of the Republican Party.
So the children are restless, and they want their man running for the presidency. How quaint. How utterly juvenile. Unless they can convince delegates to abstain from voting in the first round of tallies, John McCain will be the nominee. And, I hate to say this, but if by some miracle he does win the nomination, he will not be the Democrat that is nominated.
It is time to face facts here for the Ron Paul supporters. He sounds like a half-baked crank. His ideas are so out of the mainstream that no one will buy them. Yes, Paul supporters DO buy the nuttiness, but the average voter does not. And that is not because they do not understand him, but rather, as I said above, he comes off as a nut. We did not like the fact John McCain won enough delegates to get the nomination. Our candidates did not do well enough in the primaries to make it. But John McCain is the nominee. Ron Paul has about twenty-six delegates. That is it.
People that support Ron Paul can point to recent primaries where he has garnered more of the vote in percentage terms, but that is a moot point. John McCain is already the nominee. Any votes for Paul or Huckabee now are throwaway votes; protest votes, if you will. They do not matter to anyone but that candidate.
If Paul supporters cause trouble at the convention, expect to see them thrown out. They are already doing it on delegate committees in other states, claiming that their candidate was somehow cheated. That is not true. Paul had just as much a chance at the nomination as anyone else did. We do not want to hear Paul supporters claim that he was not given a fair shot with the media, either. He has been interviewed by all the major networks, he has been on Sean Hannity's radio show more than once, and he has been on Michael Medved's radio show more than once. He has gotten his name and his ideas out there, and they appeal to a very small minority in the country. Why? Because he sounds like a crank.
Marcie
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 4:34 PM
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