We know that Ron Paul is not going to get the nomination. But, will his supporters rebel and stay home on election day or will they support the eventual nominee?
I know a Ron Paul supporter and he’ll sit out the election if Paul isn’t the nominee.
Scary.
Some will, some won’t.
A lot of his supporters are libertarians and/or youth. The libertarians will fall in line with the GOP nominee UNLESS there is a strong independent run by someone (ie: Gary Johnson). The youth voters are more problematic. Historically they only turn out to vote if they are passionate about a candidate...that’s true with both liberal and conservative youth.
We don’t need to worry about that. He gets his greatest strength from 3 camps. Young voters (who don’t show up reliably), disaffected Democrats who feel betrayed, and hard line libertarians/conservatives who like his limited government approach and don’t see that anywhere else. None of those voters are headed back to Obama. I’d be 100% behind Paul if he wasn’t caught up in the moral equivalence crap defending Iran, etc.
I’m hoping Bachmann or Perry come back but we are headed toward an even messier primary season. I’m betting a lot of people are wishing Palin had ran after all. I can’t get a good feel at all which one of these people will win the nomination. This is most certainly a different kind of election.