ron paul=awesome/kickass?

[knuckleboner]

No.

Doc, I've read quite a few of your posts lately. My impression is you know quite a bit about both macro and microeconomics, unlike LM and KB you're debating with.

At this point in time, I think Romney will win the nomination, think Paul might be on the ticket, hope Santorum and Gingrich go fuck themselves, and wish Chris Cristie or Mitch Daniels would run.

ha. opposing the gold standard is considered having a lack of economic understanding? wow.

and, there is NO CHANCE ron paul is on a ticket. any ticket. his or somebody else's. conservatives are not a big fan of most of paul's policies. they already distrust romney. a romney/paul ticket is a guarantee that enough are disheartened and stay home, thereby assuring an obama reelection.

[knuckleboner]

Well, there you go...

Where the fuck are these votes coming from ??

How many Sanatorum signs and bumper stickers do you see daily...none ??

Thought so...

simple politics. republicans who think romney is the best chance to beat obama (and he is) vote for romney, though they're not overly excited about it. the more conservative republicans who can't accept romney see santorum as the only possible conservative option (though, he's got his on negatives, so they're not excited about him, either.)

in the end, there's plenty of votes for both romney and santorum, but not a lot of enthusiasm.

[Dr. Love]

ha. opposing the gold standard is considered having a lack of economic understanding? wow.

and, there is NO CHANCE ron paul is on a ticket. any ticket. his or somebody else's. conservatives are not a big fan of most of paul's policies. they already distrust romney. a romney/paul ticket is a guarantee that enough are disheartened and stay home, thereby assuring an obama reelection.

Sometimes I wonder if you guys understand Paul's motivation for being in the race and running as a republican versus 3rd party, which I see pushed so often.

I don't want Paul to run as 3rd party. Neither does Paul.

If Paul ran 3rd party, no one would have to talk about him. He wouldn't be in the debates. He wouldn't get all the attention he gets now. For someone who is running an education campaign, this is exactly where he wants to be. He's not going to drop out. He's going to go all the way to Tampa, educating and motivating the next generation of republicans. He absolutely gets killed in the older demographic, but he absolutely kills in my demographic, and younger. He's focused on the future.

Every person I work with, 40 or less, that cares about politics is a Ron Paul supporter. We talk about it every day at work. The older coworkers aren't fans, but that's fine. We have a civil discussion (something sorely missing around here).

Ron Paul is someone we all admire and like, but we all recognize he won't be running again. We're looking at the other people out there like him, as well. I have a lot of hope for the future; I have a lot of hope that the US will get back to its principles of liberty and limited government. It won't happen while the baby boomers continue to run things. But their days are numbered.

Ron Paul's devotees are running for republican offices at the local and state level. Ron Paul's Iowa campaign chair just got elected as Iowa's state GOP chairman.

So you guys who sit here and say, "omg, ron paul will never win!!" or "Ron Paul should run third party!!" ... you guys don't get it. You don't understand the point of the whole thing.

Would it be great for Paul to win? I think so. But it probably won't happen. What we want is to get a lot of delegates, and continue to have a platform at the national level to reach more people. Use those delegates to ensure that we get exposure at the national convention, where we can affect the platform of the party and can ensure prime time speaking rights, when the whole nation will be tuning in.

Ron Paul is averaging anywhere from +50% to +200% turnout at every primary and caucus over 2008. Every single time. He is getting his message out there, and people are listening. That's what matters.

[Nitro Express]

Ron Paul said himself the reason he's running as a Republican is he can get on all the ballots that way. If he ran as an independent he would spend all his money trying to get on all the county ballots around the country. Ralph Nader had to have a huge staff and spend a lot of money and he still never could get on all the county ballots. You have to send people to every county in the US and go through all the red tape. It's time consuming and very expensive.

[FORD]

If every person who supported Ron Paul could guarantee me a solid LIBERAL majority in both houses of Congress that would prevent him from enacting the delusional Randtard fairytales, and then we would get the 10% of his agenda that actually MAKES FUCKING SENSE, I'd vote for him in a heartbeat.

But Ron Paul with the current teabagger congress is unthinkable. Not that Mittens or Frothy the Dog Raper would be much better with this congress. Arguably worse, at least as far as the Iran shit goes.

Get me a LIBERAL Congress, and I'll campaign for the old racist bastard myself.

[Nitro Express]

Congress has something like a 6% approval rating right now. I would just like a congress that isn't completely bought off by K Street greasers. They are neither liberal or conservative. They are just self serving corrupt pieces of shit.

[Nitro Express]

Hillary has more plastic in her face than Dolly Parton has in her tits.

[Seshmeister]

https://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/world/2012/feb/23/ron-paul-amasses-delegates-republican-election

Ron Paul quietly amassing an army of delegates while GOP frontrunners spar

Paul's tightly-organised campaign is racking up delegates even in states where he did poorly in the popular vote. It's all part of a complex system that could make Paul the election kingmaker

While the Republican nomination race is focused on the ongoing battle between frontrunners Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, the Ron Paul campaign is waging an under-the-radar "delegate strategy" that could make the libertarian-leaning Texan the surprise kingmaker of the race.

In states that have already voted via a caucus system – rather than a straight primary ballot – Ron Paul supporters are conducting an intensively organised ground effort aimed at securing as many convention delegate slots as possible, often in numbers that far outweigh the number of actual votes that Paul got in the ballot.

If successful, it means Paul's campaign could arrive at the August Tampa convention at the head of an army of delegates far larger than the proportion of votes that it won during the nomination contest.

It could also increase the chances of a contested convention – where no candidate has enough delegates to declare the winner – as well as give Paul much greater ability to inject his beliefs into the Republicans' 2012 policy platform.

The strategy is based on the fact the GOP race is in fact a "delegate contest" despite an overwhelming focus by the media and most campaigns on "winning" individual states by coming top of the popular vote. But in reality, each state, weighted proportionally by population, sends a number of delegates to Tampa where a nominee is then chosen.

A total of 2,286 delegates are sent to Tampa and so a candidate must secure the support of 1,144 of them in order to win the nomination.

However, a bewilderingly complex set of rules, often varying from state to state, exists to actually assign these delegates. Ron Paul's campaign is seeking to work that system in order to maximise its delegate count.

So far signs are that the campaign is being so successful at its strategy that it may be able to "win" delegate counts in states where it did not win the popular vote.

"They will be able to perform well enough that in some states where they came in third or fourth in the straw poll, they will come in first or second in terms of the delegate totals. I am fairly confident in making that bet," said Professor Josh Putnam, a political scientist at Davidson College who runs the Frontloading HQ blog dedicated to tracking the delegate fight.
How the strategy works

The strategy works because of the varying ways each state assigns the delegates that get sent to Tampa. Some states hold a "winner takes all" primary that will assign all its delegates to the candidate who tops the vote.

Others assign delegates proportionally according to the vote, splitting the delegates roughly according to the results and ensuring each major candidate gets some delegates.

But it is in the caucus states that the Ron Paul campaign is focused. There the method of assigning delegates is complex and lasts a long time. In caucus states that have voted so far like Iowa, Nevada, Colorado, Minnesota and Maine, the process of assigning delegates in support of each candidate has barely begun.

That process begins on caucus night when each precinct votes and then chooses delegates to send to a county convention to be held later in the year. Those county conventions will then choose a smaller number of delegates to send to a state convention or conventions held in each state's congressional districts.

Those state and district level conventions are the bodies that actually finally choose which delegates to send to the Tampa national convention.

However, at the start of the process – the precinct level meetings held on caucus day – the delegates selected to go to the later county conventions are frequently under no obligation to declare which candidate they are supporting or to support the "winner" of the day's actual voting.

Ron Paul's campaign strategy is to get enough of his precinct-level supporters to volunteer to become delegates to the county conventions so that they outnumber other campaigns. "Their strategy is to gobble up as many of these slots as they can," said Putnam.

Then, if you manage to stack the beginning of the process with Ron Paul delegates, as the system moves through the county conventions and the district and state-wide conventions the chances of Ron Paul-supporting delegates emerging at the end and being chosen to go to Tampa is greatly increased.

The entire strategy is helped by the fact that Paul's supporters are seen as far more organised and dedicated than other campaigns.
Is it successful?

It is currently impossible to say. No caucus state that has already voted has yet held any county conventions at which an idea of the number of Ron Paul-supporting delegates chosen at the precinct level may emerge. Those first indications should come in March.

However, the Ron Paul campaign itself, which is at pains to point out their strategy is entirely within the rules, has released information from Colorado that shows how they hope it could be playing out.

In one precinct in Larimer County there were 13 delegate slots available. Santorum had won the precinct's vote by 23 votes to Paul's 13, with five votes going to Romney. But Paul supporters took all the delegate slots.

In a Delta County precinct all five delegate slots went to Paul supporters though he came behind Santorum and Romney in the popular vote. In a Pueblo County precinct Paul supporters got the two delegate slots available despite the fact Paul finished fourth in the precinct's vote with just two actual votes.

Those examples are likely cherry-picked by the Paul campaign as best case scenarios. But Colorado party officials are – officially, at least – sanguine about what is going on as it obeys the party rules. "We are just here to play out the process. Whatever happens happens," executive director of the Colorado GOP Chuck Poplstein told the Guardian.

But Poplstein did say a successful delegate strategy was not easy to pull off. "It is difficult for any campaign. You have to be very well organised and in all of the counties. It is not an easy process. You have to have a very good ground game," he said.

But that might not be too much of a problem. The Ron Paul campaign is highly organised and focused. "We are also seeing the same trends in Minnesota, Nevada and Iowa, and in Missouri as well," the campaign said in its statement on the precinct performances in Colorado.

A recent report by the Washington Post from a caucus in Portland, Maine, revealed a dedicated activist organisation complete with pre-printed lists of which delegates should be voted for at the precinct level. That is likely true across all the caucus states.

"They do tend to be very organised and very enthusiastic for Ron Paul," said Professor Tim Hagle, a political scientist at the University of Iowa.
What impact could it have?

The fact is that Paul's delegate strategy would have little impact in a normal Republican race. The system is set up with enough winner-take-all and primary states to ensure that Paul's strategy has no chance whatsoever of picking up enough delegates via this method to actually win the nomination himself.

But it all changes when the Republican race becomes protracted and closely fought. If Santorum, Romney and Newt Gingrich all stay in the race beyond Super Tuesday and start to amass their own large piles of delegates, then reaching the vital 1,144 delegates needed to win starts to become more difficult.

If that scenario plays out – something most experts see as possible but unlikely – then Paul's delegate total becomes crucial. He could become a kingmaker, agreeing to throw his hefty delegate total behind one candidate who could then claim victory.

As a candidate with a very clearly defined agenda – on foreign policy, the role of government and fiscal issues, especially the Federal Reserve – Paul could demand a high policy price for that support.

However, even if a nominee emerges prior to the convention, Paul's delegates will still be important. If he amasses a loyal and large delegate total he will able to secure a high-profile, possibly primetime, speaking slot.

He will also be more able to get his agenda into the party's official policy platform. Given Paul's stance on issues like American foreign policy and the wars in Afghanistan, that could upset the party elite and the nominee.

Modern conventions are supposed to be highly organised, tightly controlled displays of party unity. At the very least a successful Paul delegate strategy could shatter that prospect.
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[Seshmeister]

A bozo is still a bozo even if Ron Paul gives them his support. Also as I understand it any deal he cuts with them can't be enforced so what's the point in say getting Santorum to pledge to avoid foreign wars?

[ELVIS]

If he amasses a loyal and large delegate total he will able to secure a high-profile, possibly primetime, speaking slot.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!!!

I highly doubt that's one of Pauls goals...

He will also be more able to get his agenda into the party's official policy platform. Given Paul's stance on issues like American foreign policy and the wars in Afghanistan, that could upset the party elite and the nominee.

That's more like it...

[jhale667]

(I so wish he was)Gayhale obviously does not care about the truth...

Go eat a cockmeat-flavored donut, Yngwie wannabe.

[Nitro Express]

I don't think anything you can stick your finger through should be flavored cock meat. That's best saved for hot dogs and sausage. The sausage should enter the donut. Better yet a bagle. A bagle with fish meat on it. Salty fish meat.

[jhale667]

I don't think anything you can stick your finger through should be flavored cock meat. That's best saved for hot dogs and sausage. The sausage should enter the donut. Better yet a bagle. A bagle with fish meat on it. Salty fish meat.

Normally I'd agree, but this is Yngwie-fanatic ELBOW we're talking about here...his hero loves donuts, and what OTHER flavor would an elbow-donut be? C'mon!!

[ELVIS]

Hardy har har har....

Duh...duh......duh....

Boy youz is sooo cool and clever....

Duh...doih...doih....duh...

[LoungeMachine]

Hardy har har har....

Duh...duh......duh....

Boy youz is sooo cool and clever....

Duh...doih...doih....duh...

Really?



Can't believe you typed that, let alone hit POST QUICK REPLY