Vice President Rand Paul
Posted on 03/22/2012 3:34:13 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
About halfway through his second quest for the Republican presidential nomination, Ron Paul has yet to win a single primary or caucus state.
Whenever this inconvenient truth is mentioned to his campaign aides, their first point of rebuttal typically is that the Texas congressman won the popular vote in the U.S. Virgin Islands earlier this month.
He did so by netting 112 votes in the presidential straw poll there, enough to best Mitt Romney’s haul of 101 islanders, although Romney still gained seven out of the territory’s nine delegates, making it something less than an impactful victory by just about any standard.
That Paul’s campaign is left to tout a triumph of such dubious distinction leads to inevitable questions about why the 76-year-old lawmaker continues a quest that has gone from unlikely to virtually hopeless.
While he has long paid lip service to the idea that he might actually win, Paul has for months acknowledged the long odds he faces.
His team maintains that there is still hope for emerging from a contested convention as the Republican nominee, but even the most ardent Paul partisans now suggest that he is motivated by something other than the chance to become president.
“We’re not going to publicly announce that the goal is not to win the nomination, of course not,” said senior Paul strategist Doug Wead. “But there are many reasons to be in this campaign, and one of those is that we’re reshaping the Republican Party. It’s the biggest change in the Republican Party since evangelicals uprooted it in 1988.”
The Paul campaign says it expects to win a much larger than anticipated share of delegates at the district and county conventions that are integral to selecting the individuals who will head to the Republican National Convention in Tampa.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
The only thing of value I can see that he’s doing is showing that we need to seriously clean up the whole process.
He caters to a "radical" segment it appears to me. Though many like his economics it appears he is on Obama's side when it comes to blaming us vis-a-vis other countries. Take Iran for an example.
I was kind of wondering this myself. The only thing I could come up with is, disregarding his kook factor, keeping the whole center of these campaigns dragged over to the right.
I think, with Ron Paul, it’s all about the money.
Paul likes the attention and adulation from his rabid supporters. Paul likes the money.
That’s hard to do when touting lefty hippie anti-war dogma and taking the radically liberal approach to drug legalization.
“Paul likes the money”
The campaign of 2008 brought him a net benefice of $5 million.
As he announced he won’t seek reelection in the House in November, he looks for a nice retirement cushion ...
More of Ron Paul pulling us to the right...er, I mean left?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/01/ron-paul-immigration-nevada-caucus-2012_n_1247589.html
Ron Paul outlined his views on immigration Wednesday, saying he favors a compassionate policy that doesn’t rely on “barbed-wire fences and guns on our border.”
Paul blasted politicians who blame immigrants for causing the country’s economic problems. He compared the situation to Nazi Germany’s targeting of Jews in the 1930s.
“When things go badly, individuals look for scapegoats,” Paul said. “Hispanics, the immigrants who have come in, are being used as scapegoats.”
...he said he opposes any effort to round people up and ship them away.
Paul decried a punitive border policy, which said offended his belief in individual liberty.
Paul also said he was against laws that require immigrants to carry proof of legal status. He says he doesn’t want to live in a country where people are required to carry identity papers.
He’ll drop out when the money stops.
Probably both true, but he also believes in his ideas, and running for president is a great way to push them to the forefront. And its worked to some degree. If he's still in good health he'll probably run agian in 2016.
The Ron Paul campaign, aka Occupy GOP. They certainly acted the part, up to and including law enforcement, at the Iowa GOP county conventions.
The more delegates he can snap up, the less likely it is that Romney gets the nomination sewn up without Paul’s delegates, and the better concession Paul can negotiate from Romney before handing his delegates over to him. Simple as that.
I believe most ardent Ron Paul fanatics have simply separated themselves from reality. They refuse to accept he has absolutely zero chance of winning the election. Their insurgent delegate strategy has failed miserably. It’s not that supporters of other long shot or non-candidates can’t be nearly as fanatical and delusional, but paulbots are a special breed of insane. For a real laugh read the Liberty Forest Forums. They literally make up their own delegate math completely out of thin air and repeat it over and over as a means of continuing the illusion.
I think Paul is going for a brokered convention, where he might have more negotiating leverage.
I’m just glad there is still someone I can be proud to vote for in our primary!
Is there anything that’s not “kook factor” in the crap you just rattled off?
Vice President Rand Paul
The thing I hate most about him being in this campaign is that he is still getting paid as a Congressman. He is basically traveling around America on his supporter’s funds, getting Social Security (is of age) AND getting a very nice paycheck as Congressman, but not doing one bit of work.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.