Posted on 05/07/2012 9:31:44 AM PDT by JohnKinAK
Pipe dreams. If a state GOP delegation is pledged to vote for Romney, it will vote for Romney despite what individual delegates want. The delegation won’t be given a chance to vote on it. The leader of the state will, when his state is called, recite the agreed to delegate vote count. Paul’s sneak delegates will not be recognized. They can lay down on the floor and stamp their feet, whatever, they will not be recogized.
The bottom line here is not “is this possible?”, or even if this is a good thing or not.
The bottom line is that if this *does* happen, then what?
If the onerous Romney fails in the first ballot, that is the end for him. He will not get a second chance. But this does *not* mean that Paul will win, either.
Or Santorum, or Gingrich.
What it *does* mean is that the real conservative leaders out there, who have been relatively quiet so far, had better be lining up a real conservative who is acceptable enough to those delegates, 60-70% of whom will likely be conservative, to win the nomination.
So far I’ve seen a list of about a dozen who have been in the background, very quietly, and not thrown their hat in the ring. But I also have to assume that eight to ten of this dozen will refuse the opportunity for the job.
This leaves one or two that are not just “nihil obstat”, but who are such reliable conservatives that they can take the convention.
Granted, they cannot enter “clean”. They will have to give some iron clad promises, in writing, to the conservative king makers. But these should not be objectionable to their core values.
In return, they may also demand support from congressional leaders.
“Lunatic Libertarians have been trying for decades to tank the GOP”
The GOP sure doesn’t need any help in that regard, it does just fine on its own.
Gee, great comeback.
Unfortunately, there is one big difference: McGovern actually won a number of primaries back in 1972.
Ron Paul didn't manage to with single primary with the possible exception of the irrelevant state of Maine.
Still, it would be good theater and possibly force the GOP to adopt a couple of overdue rules changes:
Delusional nutjob wrote this article and he has followers. Haa, haa...
Again, I am not a supporter of Romney, but jeez... Romney will win at least 750 of the remaining delegates handily, odds are plenty more. 856 + 750 = 1,606 Delegates at a minimum. Ron Paul would have to steal over 450 Delegates from him at the minimum (more than he will have earned through votes). Which is not going to happen on a planet where reality exist! On Ron Paul’s followers’ bizarro world it might.
At this point I’m: “go Ron Paul”!
Ron Paul’s people are acting like the cheating; lying, backroom boys that they campaigned against.
The will of the voters (like their choices or not) in the primaries are being totally ignored now.
“No wonder the GOP is called The Stupid Party. Yeah, let’s have Grandpa Ron Paul as the nominee. Obama is salivating at this scenario.
Better than Mitt Romney. At least we know what Paul will do. With Romney, we have to hope that he’s as conservative as he is a liar. Funny how ABO only works for Romney and not for any other candidate. If Paul pulls this off, at a brokered convention ANYTHING could happen.
Let me tell ya tale ‘bout a man named Jeb,
Rich Southern folk always kept his family fed,
Then while out for a make or break vote,
He’s drafted for a job of significant note:
Presidency that is...POTUS...Commander-in-Chief.
Well next thing ya know ole’ Jeb is ‘45’,
Obama’s out and it ain’t no shuck ‘n jive,
Hey Jeb, D.C. is the place ya otta be!,
So he moved up North next to Hillary!,
Clinton that is...Secretary of State...wife of a President.
It’s the Jebberly Snowbillies!
Jeb Bush/Sarah Palin 2012.
I think Jeb would be refused by conservatives, because of his family.
H.W. violated his “Read my lips...” pledge, for pragmatic reasons; but that was nothing compared to what W. Bush did.
Granted, America had been attacked, and while W. Bush did “take the fight to the enemy”, he also “brought the fight home” *against* ordinary honest American citizens. This was a grotesque abuse against the constitution and America itself and will not be forgiven.
In short, on a “theory” of protecting Americans from foreign terrorists, he turned America into a minimum security prison. An intolerable abuse of power. And it has forever tainted the Bush family.
Broad sections of the Patriot Act, for example, were from the start used almost exclusively against ordinary Americans both for non-terrorism related investigations, or just fishing expeditions, when they were suspected of nothing.
America has 16 major intelligence agencies, and now well over 100 federal police agencies. While they should be directed outward at our enemies, instead they are directed inward against us. And much of the fault for this lies squarely with W. Bush.
The loss to our freedom and liberty has been horrific, and it will be generations before they can be fully restored.
This is one of the big appeals of Ron Paul, who despite his wacky foreign policy ideas, does have a very good idea about restoring balance and reason to the federal government through massive reductions in its size, power and authority.
While he personally will never become president, hopefully he will create an opening for a serious conservative who will carry out many of his ideas (while forgetting the odder ones.)
His people do seem to be masterful at short range infighting, which we can but hope will derail the nomination of the onerous Romney. If that is achieved, though he never holds our highest office, America will be deeply indebted to Paul.
Period.
The fact, however, is that Ron Paul **HAS** managed to take control of a number of district and state conventions and has racked up a bunch of delegates. His people are well-organized and now that everyone else has suspended their campaigns, he could possibly conduct an under-the-radar campaign that successfully causes serious trouble.
It shows just how bad things have gotten that Ron Paul — who is the Lyndon LaRouche of the Republican Party in 2012, not Ronald Reagan in 1976 or George McGovern in 1972 — has more ability to damage Romney right now than any credible Republican candidate.
The main thing this would do would be to de-legitimize the Republican Party by making us look like the chaos of the last national convention of the Reform Party when Pat Buchanan managed to get the nomination.
Some people may think total chaos at the convention with national media wall-to-wall coverage is a good thing. As long as a parliamentary brawler like Newt Gingrich with a legitimate record of parlaying backbench politics into top leadership as Speaker was in charge, I was willing to go along with the argument that a chaotic convention could be defended as “democracy in action.” After all, while I wasn't a Gingrich supporter, he had more than two decades of legitimate leadership work, knows his American political history up one side and down the other, and could make a case for a brokered convention.
At this later date, show me how utter chaos caused by Ron Paul supporters would help anyone except Barack Obama and I'll listen. I don't see it.
Also don’t forget there are a few hundred delegates that go the convention as unpledged because of their state leadership roles. Does anyone think these are going to vote Paul when in effect they are many of the ones ranted against here, GOPE , etc?
Since you against Paul’s national defense you might see why he gets support from those wanting to end America’s role as world policeman and nation builder.
A PRO-AMERICA FOREIGN POLICY
As an Air Force veteran, Ron Paul believes national defense is the single most important responsibility the Constitution entrusts to the federal government.
In Congress, Ron Paul voted to authorize military force to hunt down Osama bin Laden and authored legislation to specifically target terrorist leaders and bring them to justice.
Today, however, hundreds of thousands of our fighting men and women have been stretched thin all across the globe in over 135 countries – often without a clear mission, any sense of what defines victory, or the knowledge of when they’ll be permanently reunited with their families.
Acting as the world’s policeman and nation-building weakens our country, puts our troops in harm’s way, and sends precious resources to other nations in the midst of an historic economic crisis.
Taxpayers are forced to spend billions of dollars each year to protect the borders of other countries, while Washington refuses to deal with our own border security needs.
Congress has been rendered virtually irrelevant in foreign policy decisions and regularly cedes authority to an executive branch that refuses to be held accountable for its actions.
Far from defeating the enemy, our current policies provide incentive for more to take up arms against us.
Under the current environment I'd rather not throw stones at Rep. Paul. Nobody else is left out there trying to stop Mitt Romney, but his campaign is not one I can support.
If someone else wants to do so, that's their call.
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