If Ron Paul wins a plurality of delegates at the Nebraska state convention on Saturday, his name will be placed in nomination at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. This will assure the 76-year old retiring Texas Congressman a 15 minute speaking slot — a prospect that makes many Republicans nervous due to some of Paul’s out of the mainstream views.
“Come on Nebraska, we want to see that speech,” cheers New York Magazine. Indeed, for Democrats, watching Republicans squirm as Paul spouts his conspiracy theories and promotes his extremist libertarian views, would be about as good as it gets. That’s why there will be a concerted effort by Romney’s team to deny Paul the plurality he seeks in Nebraska in order to keep him off the ballot at the convention.
Local reports say both Romney and Paul supporters have been “burning up the phone lines” making calls to delegates to assess who they’re voting for before the state convention in Grand Island.
Support for Paul could embarrass Governor Dave Heineman, who was the first Republican governor to endorse Romney.
“I welcome the Tea Party and Ron Paul supporters,” Heineman said. “That’s great for our party. But it’s time to be good sports and get behind Governor Romney.”
When Republicans arrive at the Riverside Golf Club for the convention they will be met with additional security, hired by the state party in anticipation of a Paul insurgency.
“It’s been communicated to us from other RNC members from around the country to watch for specific things,” Jordan McGrain, executive director of the state Republican Party, told NBC News.
“Their experience has been instructive to us. We’ve received correspondence from those who attended the Nevada and Louisiana state conventions where they had significant disturbances and problems. It arose from not everyone being on the same page and we have the benefit of that hindsight.”
Paul supporters have been blamed for picking arcane rule fights, which dragged out the state convention in Nevada and led to a brawl in Louisiana.
The 76-year-old congressman stopped actively campaigning in May, urging supporters to remain involved in politics to “become delegates, win office, and take leadership positions” and has focused resources on state conventions.
The date of Nebraska’s GOP state convention has not been lost on some Paul supporters, who point out July 14 is Bastille Day – “Vive la Revolution!” It’s up to Nebraska Republicans to determine whether Ron Paul’s Revolution will be loudly heard at the Tampa Bay Times Forum in August.
In fairness to Paul supporters, the Louisiana state convention came to blows largely because the establishment Republicans refused to follow their own rules and used strong arm tactics — including enlisting local police — to shove the Paulbots around, even though they won the rules fight fair and square.
It is also true that in Nevada and elsewhere, the Paulbots have gone in looking for trouble. Let’s just say that no one has covered themselves in glory at these state conventions where Paul supporters and GOP regulars have clashed.
This is what the NY Magazine and other Democrats are salivating over: the disruptive, rude, and unmannerly presence of several hundred well organized Ron Paul delegates who could make life very difficult for Republicans if they choose to continue with their guerrilla tactics. It’s difficult at a modern convention to initiate floor fights over the platform or rules, but if a way can be found, don’t count out the Paul supporters.
If Paul manages to surprise in Nebraska, where would the GOP place Paul for his 15 minutes of fame on the convention dais?
I’m sure they’d prefer the water closet at midnight but that won’t fly. You can bet it will be either pre or post prime time and convention managers will have plenty of bait for the TV networks to cut away from the candidate’s meaningless speech to interview party heavyweights. It won’t work. Networks are dying for something controversial to cover and an appearance by the GOP’s best known apostate will elicit wall to wall coverage of the Texas congressman and his enthusiastic supporters.
Interestingly, there is another Paul who may also speak at the convention. Senator Rand Paul, Ron’s son, has made his peace with the party and endorsed Mitt Romney. He is the offspring of the Tea Party and if Romney is smart, he will offer slots to Rand Paul, Michelle Bachmann and a few other Tea Party favorites if only to show he is not unsympathetic to their cause.
As for Ron Paul, he has set in motion a libertarian revolution these last 5 years. Hundreds of candidates for local, state, and federal office follow his lead on domestic and foreign policy. His supporters are extremely well organized and surprisingly well funded. Their goal is a lofty one; reclaim the Republican party on the basis of liberty at home and isolationism abroad.
One might argue their agenda is unrealistic and in a way, subversive of Republican principles. But few would doubt their dedication and no one should underestimate their potential to roil the convention.
Moran, this is just pathetic — nice backhanded way of admitting the Establishment Repubs were the thuggish aggressors in Louisiana though. How well is Mittens doing in the swing states again?
Here’s what you do: you let him speak, AFTER publicly announcing that if elected, Romney will appoint Ron Paul as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
Every media outlet on the net is posting the same story when it is WRONG! Why is that? Do all the supposed “reporters” get their information from the same place and then just KEEP REPEATING it? Even when it’s wrong? Wow. How can I get a job plagiarizing false information? lol.
Dr. Paul already has a plurality in six states, without Nebraska. Read em and weep guys.
Colorado Paul 18, Romney 16, Santorum 2
Iowa Paul 23, Romney 2
Louisiana Paul 27, Romney 19
Maine Paul 21, Romney 3
Minn Paul 32, Romney 8
Nevada Paul 22, Romney 3
Reminder: Ron Paul is an antisemite who made millions of dollars selling antisemitic, racist propaganda in his newsletters during the 1990s. He proudly admits to seeking a revival of the political ideology of the Old Right, the antisemitic isolationist movement that did not want us to fight World War II. Paul’s attitudes toward genocidal madmen wanting to enslave the world and exterminate the Jews is the same for both World War II and World War IV. (And the Civil War for that matter.) In his most recent book “Liberty Defined” he adopts Jimmy Carter’s blood libel, that Israel is an “apartheid” state and endorses the our most embarrassing ex-president’s “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” book. He’s stated further than Gaza is akin to a concentration camp and that he does not oppose Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons.
Republicans and conservatives are too polite to the anarcho-capitalists and paleo-libertarian radicals of the Ron Paul political cult. This is an antisemitic movement, even if most of its members have been duped into thinking it’s really about their misunderstanding of Liberty and what George Washington supposedly wanted our foreign policy to be.
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2011/12/14/3-impolite-facts-about-ron-paul-i-hope-sean-hannity-and-ann-coulter-mention-next-time/
So, Ron Paul and Libertarians are an “antisemitic movement”? Thanks for that bit of levity.
Ron Paul’s not a libertarian. His mentor Murray Rothbard was an anarchist. Big difference between libertarians (basically conservatives who like to smoke pot, watch porn, and make fun of the creationists) and paleo-libertarian radicals.
PJM has their preferred Paul hating kept trolls to troll any Paul supporters who bother to comment here anymore after they massively censored the pro-Paul comments during the Iowa caucuses. Rick Moran’s Republicanism seems to start and stop at the water’s edge, judging by his statement that Paul ‘subverts’ what the GOP stands for (where is maintaining military bases in 120 countries in the GOP platform, again? How about Fed bailouts for the European Central Bank?).
The anti-Semitic canard is pretty well blown out of the water by the interviews Paul gave to Haaretz, if anybody bothered to read them, and the fact that he delivered hundreds of babies of color free of charge. Plus his idol Ludwig Von Mises (who seems to have influenced him far more than Rothbard, contra the comment above).
And the conspiracy theory thing doesn’t pass the laugh test anymore in a day and age when CNBC commenters on Squawkbox all agree we’re slaves of the Federal Reserve and other central banks. It’s all in our faces now. Rick, the days of keeping all conservatives down on the GOP reservation are over, particularly if Mittens ‘aka the most electable candidate’ goes down in flames and the claim that he was the best candidate to unseat Obama gets exposed as the fraud that it’s always been.
PJM has their preferred Paul hating kept trolls to troll any Paul supporters who bother to comment here anymore after they massively censored the pro-Paul comments during the Iowa caucuses. Rick Moran’s Republicanism seems to start and stop at the water’s edge, judging by his statement that Paul ‘subverts’ what the GOP stands for (where is maintaining military bases in 120 countries in the GOP platform, again? How about Fed bailouts for the European Central Bank?).
The anti-Semitic canard is pretty well blown out of the water by the interviews Paul gave to Haaretz, if anybody bothered to read them, and the fact that he delivered hundreds of babies of color free of charge. Plus his idol Ludwig Von Mises (who seems to have influenced him far more than Rothbard, contra the comment above) was a Jewish refugee from Hitler’s Germany.
And the conspiracy theory thing doesn’t pass the laugh test anymore in a day and age when CNBC commenters on Squawkbox all agree we’re slaves of the Federal Reserve and other central banks. It’s all in our faces now. Rick, the days of keeping all conservatives down on the GOP reservation are over, particularly if Mittens ‘aka the most electable candidate’ goes down in flames and the claim that he was the best candidate to unseat Obama gets exposed as the fraud that it’s always been.
Pls delete the duplicate comment above, PJM’s software appears to be getting cranky.
Once again, all PJMers who sneered at the hated Ronulans have been warned — Obama is now leading in nearly every swing state. What Big Tent is going to be left to rally around when your failure to unseat Obama is exposed? If you weren’t so darn arrogant and thinking all your 70 year old precinct chairman could keep those dang Paul loving kids out, maybe the GOP would have a snowball’s chance in hell of unseating Obama by attracting disaffected Democrats. Not now.
“One might argue their (Libertarian) agenda is unrealistic and in a way, subversive of Republican principles.”
Which Republican principles are those? The Bush / Frist / Hastert debacle of a decade ago, convinced me that the Republicans were a principle free party.
If the Paul’s and other actual conservatives are shunned by the party thugs, I will not waste my money or votes on statist Republicans.
To bad Mitt had to get the Republican Party in MA to kick out Ron Paul delegates because many prominent Republicans were not elected like the last candidate for Gov Charlie Baker and Romney’s own L Gov Kerry Healy. TO Charlie Baker’s credit he said no and to not do this but Romney needs his coronation to go forward.
RE:”Paul spouts his conspiracy theories”
…exactly what would that be? Could it be how the Fed has virtually stolen what little wealth we had by inflating the money supply and making our money worth less?? Or maybe how George Soro’s gets on TV and talks about having a one world governance over everything?? Specifically, the financial section for starters.. Yeah, that’s some silly conspiracy theories, huh? You know, the funny part about this is it’s really happening and we’re a frogs hair from losing it all! Yeah, that’s pretty funny!