Ron Paul announces presidential run, says Obama can't win youth vote

....Part of Paul's fervent support in 2008 was grounded in college-aged voters, a constituency that also largely favored Barack Obama. In this campaign, the 75-year-old Paul said today, Mr. Obama won't be able to hang on to the youth vote.

"I think that Obama will not be able to hang on to that enthusiasm of the young people because of what's happened in the last couple years," Paul said in Des Moines, Iowa, after his exploratory committee was announced.

The financial crisis, the bloated deficit and the ongoing wars make the libertarian views Paul is known for -- such as his anti-interventionist foreign policy and his antipathy toward the Federal Reserve -- even more relevant than in 2008, Paul suggested....

I heard differently. I happen to have been outside where they were doing their talk, it was in a restaurant/bar, with windows that you could partially see in from the street. Not on the debate, but on the tv show. Now, it’s very possible that Hannity was at a different place, not at the restaurant.
I can tell you that Ron Paul had very little control over Paulbots in 2008. There was hostility between Paulbots and the official campaign in 2008. The belief was that the official campaign didn’t know what it was doing, so Paulbots pretty much did whatever they wanted to. Hopefully that’s not going to be how it works this time around.

I've seen the video, I've heard Hannity, repeatedly describe what happened, and he wasn't in a restaurant or bar.

Ron Paul has no control over his supporters and doesn't appear to care what they do or say.

This time around, he doesn't stand a chance of wining the presidential primaries; let alone the presidency. Romney, has a better chance than Paul does and both would be terrible choices for the GOP nominee!

Just because he buses in his rabid supporters, to caucuses, as Obama did, doesn't mean that the general public finds him to be an attractive candidate.

You’re wrong. Flat wrong. Ron Paul got at least 2% in every state. I’m not sure what kind of math you’re using to get 1%.
Comparing votes with some “All Adults”.

The Tea Party’s core message is the same as Ron Paul’s core message, and he’s been on that core message the whole time.
Limited Constitutional Government.

For that reason, he certainly should get tea party support.

There is no doubt that some tea partiers will not approve of his foreign policy. There are certainly at least a handful of tea partiers who believe very strongly “must have less government, spend less money” at the same time as “must have more more, spend more money”. But the ones who chose “less government” over “more war” will definitely consider Ron Paul. And others will choose Sarah Palin, even holding their nose on “more war”.

But, seriously, no doubt there will be some tea partiers that Ron Paul doesn’t get because of foreign policy. But conditions in 2011 are not the same as in 2007. Telling Republican primary voters that he doesn’t like what Obama is doing is not the same thing as telling Republican primary voters in 2007 that he doesn’t like what Bush is doing.

Talking about Libya is talking about Obama, and being critical of a Democrat. I don’t think Republicans are so ideologically attached to intervention, as much as they don’t like to hear the Republican Presidents foreign policy criticized. Ron Paul can point to Libya and say, look, the Democrats are are intervening where we don’t belong - that’s what Democrats do, and always have done, and I’ve always been against that. I’m not agreeing with that, but that’s a potential argument he could make.

So, his core message is the tea party message, and the foreign policy ground has shifted from Bush to Obama. He’s also much more well known, and his son is in a powerful spot as pretty much one of the few national faces of the tea party. On the downside, he’s 4 years older.

Well, what I saw was a live broadcast, after debate recap, which was held in a bar. I’m not saying Hannity was there for sure. I should research that.

I don’t think there will be those kind of antics this time around. I could be wrong.

We’ll see what happens with Ron Paul, what kind of support he gets and from who. Huckabee just said he wasn’t running, right? So, who is “in”? Barbour is out. Who is in? Huckabee supporters are not likely to support Mitt.

We’ll see about the numbers of votes next year.

There’s a debate day 5/5 money bomb. Watch what happens there to get an idea about how big it might be this year. I’m really not sure myself.

Oh wonderful.........he got all of 2%; says you.

Most Tea Partiers are pro-Israel; Paul isn't.

Most Tea Partiers aren't keen on hypocrites and Paul is a BIG one, re PORK.

Some Paulites claim that he started the TEA PARTY, which he didn't, and that annoys many Tea Partiers, who know the truth.

Look, you like him, you are devoted to him, I get that, but you are blinded by your own bias and don't want to accept the fact that the vast majority of GOPers and conservatives think that he is a KOOK and wouldn't vote for him if a gun was held to their heads.

The man is pushing 80, the easy way and he looks it. His views on the legalization of illicit substances and Israel, his hypocrisy vis-a-vis Pork, and the thuggishness of his supporters turns vast swaths of people off.

I'm done with this...............nothing I post appears to get through to you and your repeated, factless, delusional protestations have become ennui inducing.

I gave you his better numbers in the teens, when he won delegates, in earlier posts.

I don’t think that Israel is that important to tea partiers.

You’re wrong about the pork. I’ve heard the argument here somewhere between 100 and 1000 times. He doesn’t vote to spend the money. But he puts earmarks in. Back and forth.

The truth about tea party is that Ron Paul did use the name “tea party” to describe a money bomb in December 2007. That is true. And that was a very successful effort. And it did closely tie at that time “tea party” and “Ron Paul”.

But, the actual “tea party” movement was started by Rick Santelli in Jan or Feb 09 with his CNBC appearances. Some Ron Paul people are involved in the tea party. He is an influential with certain actual tea party members. I would assume that Palin would be the favorite with other tea party members.

You don’t realize how much things have changed. Conservatives would vote for Ron Paul before they’d vote for Mitt Romney. Just because you still want to call Ron Paul a kook, doesn’t mean that the rest of Conservatives will too.

I’m not making any predictions about how well Ron Paul is going to do. Better than last time, but beyond that, I don’t know. More people want what Ron Paul is selling now than in 2008, and he’s well known now.

And plenty of Conservatives do believe in a much smaller federal goverment, limited to doing what the constitution allows it to do. And the Conservatives that believe that that is the #1 issue, a much smaller fedgov, doing much less, only what the constitution allows, those will support Ron Paul. Some Conservatives who believe in a mixture of things - more spending in one place, more government in another, but less in a lot of places, might not like Ron Paul, because he believes in less across the board. Conservatives who like more government and more spending in their favorite areas don’t like Ron Paul much.

Ron Paul got in 2008 -

Iowa - 10%
NH - 8%
Nevada - 14%
Maine - 18%
Alaska - 17%
Minnesota - 16%
Montana - 25%
North Dakota - 21%

We’re better known, will have a bunch of money, we’ve been organizing, winning in the straw polls at places like CPAC, a test of organizational strength, so, it’s reasonable with a strong organization and money, an improvement over the Iowa results.

It still remains to be seen what happens if Palin runs. Presumably she would draw huge crowds and get news coverage for everything she did in a state like Iowa or New Hampshire. Last time around, McCain won rather quickly, even though there were many Conservatives who were dissatisfied with him. It’s not unreasonable to think that Palin could win quicker than McCain did. She can put the “Quayled” thing behind her with any number of things, and then what, a truly impressive debate performance. People say “I always liked her, why were they saying she was stupid” and maybe people point out a couple of glaring flaws with Romney, and the possibility of the first female President is a Republican, plus with huge crowds for rallies and such, the idea that she could just win out is not implausible.

The road for Ron Paul is not as easy as that, I’ll completely grant that. There aren’t too many Republicans who would disagree very strongly with Palin on enough issues
to fight against her to the end of a long primary process. Ron Paul would have competition to the end, likely, so it becomes at some point, Ron Paul head to head against someone like Mitt Romney perhaps, or, a 3 way race. However it would work out, I do see possibly a clear easy path for Palin and a tougher but possible path for Ron Paul, and I’m not sure I’d want a lengthy drawn out head to head battle with Romney.

One thing you can say about the race right now, that you know with some certainty, is that Ron Paul will get some delegates. There isn’t anyone that can move into the race that will displace him with his current supporters, who were enough to get delegates last time.

I fully concur with your analysis re Sarah Palin and she's the one I am supporting, but I'm not delusional about her and know that though she has a huge base of supporters, she will have to change some people's misread of her,due to the MSM.

Straw polls, especially at this stage of the game, are meaningless.

Barbour and the Huckster are out ( should Palin get in, most of the Huckster's supporters will go to her ) and I think that many others will also pull out, before the primary season begins.

Will Trump bow out, as he has done several times before, when he spouted off about running for president and mayor of NYC? I don't know.

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