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Is Ron Paul in or is Ron Paul Out?

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What’s that old saying? When the cat is away, the mice will play. That’s how I feel about the last couple of days. I had to deal with some technical issues with the blog and was unable to read a lot of news or the blogs I normally visit every day. My humble apologies for that. At any rate, what do I see when I start trying to catch up with the news? An announcement from Ron Paul that he will not be vying for votes in the states who have yet to hold their primaries in the GOP race. Wow, talk about a shock!

Ron PaulI actually think it’s funny, in a strange kind of way. For months, we have seen Ron Paul, at best, marginalized by the media. At it’s worst, it has been a complete ignoring of the man from Texas. At one point, he was doing well in the polls, but you couldn’t tell it from the media reports. Now that he has made his announcement, the media is all over it. Kind of odd that they would apply so much coverage to a man who they tried to ignore. I mean this not as sour grapes, but a simple statement of fact. Regardless of your feelings about the man, it can not be argued that the media treated him fairly.

If you care to visit the different websites that focus on Ron Paul, you will find no end of supporters who are upset about this decision. They wanted to see their candidate fight all the way to the convention in Tampa. They may disagree with me on this, but I’m not so sure that isn’t what he is still trying to do. At some point, decisions have to be made about the direction and future of a political campaign. Like it or not, those decisions may have to be based upon financial concerns. That is part of what I see happening here.

One other item of interest to consider is the email sent out by the Ron Paul campaign to his supporters and interested parties. I’ll quote part of it here, taken from The Daily Paul.

We will head to Tampa with a solid group of delegates. Several hundred will be bound to Dr. Paul, and several hundred more, although bound to Governor Romney or other candidates, will be Ron Paul supporters.

Unfortunately, barring something very unforeseen, our delegate total will not be strong enough to win the nomination. Governor Romney is now within 200 delegates of securing the party’s nod. However, our delegates can still make a major impact at the National Convention and beyond.

All delegates will be able to vote on party rules and allow us to shape the process for future liberty candidates.

We are in an excellent position to make sure the Republican Party adds solid liberty issues to the GOP Platform, which our delegates will be directly positioned to approve. Our campaign is presently working to get several items up for consideration, including monetary policy reform, prohibitions on indefinite detention, and Internet freedom.

Finally, by sending a large, respectful, and professional delegation to Tampa, we will show the party and the country that not only is our movement growing and here to stay, but that the future belongs to us.

The emphasis in this quote is mine and I added it for one reason. I believe it is telling of one of the reasons Ron Paul has made this decision. Here is another quote, this time from Politico, that explains this further.

But those close to the 76-year-old say he’s become worried about a series of chaotic state GOP conventions in recent weeks that threaten to undermine the long-term viability of the movement he’s spent decades building.

For those of you who have always though Ron Paul is just a cantankerous old codger who was borderline crazy, think again. All along, this has been about more than just winning the GOP nomination and possibly, the presidency. It has always been about a movement towards restoring our liberties and freedoms that have been taken away. I believe Ron Paul just proved that with this decision. In spite of how some of his supporters have acted, Ron Paul is more about restoring liberty than he is about winning the White House.

I mean no disrespect to anyone who has supported Ron Paul, or anyone who continues to do so, but reading the comments on the articles I have linked to gives me pause. I understand many people have put a lot of money, time, and effort into the Ron Paul campaign, but is this decision a good reason to question the candidates integrity? Just because he sees the writing on the wall and is acting accordingly, is that a reason to act like children?

Some supporters have went so far as to suggest Jesse Benton be fired. They have accused him of betraying the campaign and the movement by sending out the email in question. They despise the fact that he admitted Mitt Romney was a scant 200 delegates away from locking up the nomination. Many of them still refuse to accept the delegate count reported by the media.

Let me point out the obvious here. Do the supporters of Ron Paul really believe Benton would send out an email such as this, without the approval of his boss? Seriously, why would he do that? This has nothing to do with betrayal or backdoor deals. It does have something to do with Ron Paul desiring to move the campaign for liberty forward. Yes, he wants his supporters to gain control of the Republican Party, from the ground up, but causing trouble at state conventions isn’t helping that cause. If they haven’t fared so well at the state conventions, do his supporters really believe they will do better at the GOP National Convention in Tampa? Ron Paul doesn’t seem to think so and he is working to make sure he, and his supporters, have their proper place at the convention.

My suggestion to all supporters of Ron Paul is simple. Let’s sit back and see what he does. We may not see our man in the White House, or in the Vice-President slot, but we may be surprised at how well his strategy of influencing the GOP platform works.

The post Is Ron Paul in or is Ron Paul Out? appeared first on Political Realities.


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