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Are these the same average voters you were just saying didn't get a voice and got stuck with Romney before they even had a chance?
Or the ones that are turning out in droves to try to get the one they are passionate about elected?Comment
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Here's why Romney doesn't have to worry about RP people at the national convention:
Romney's Former Lt. Governor Loses Delegate Bid In Massachusetts
posted Apr 30, 2012 11:11am EDT
Mitt Romney's former Lieutenant Governor, Kerry Healey, lost her delegate bid to a Ron Paul supporter at the Massachusetts Republican convention Saturday, an alarming sign about Romney's organization in his old home state.
With the nomination in hand, Romney had put together a slate of Mass. delegates to represent him at the Republican National Convention in Tampa — but a surge of libertarian activists at the convention resulted in the defeat of many of Romney's picks.
More than half of the 27 delegate slots went to Paul supporters, the Globe reports. One of the casualties was Healey, who remains a top Romney supporter.
The defeat is symbolic: Under state rules, all delegates will still be bound to vote for Romney at the national convention, which Romney won handily last month. But the Massachusetts delegates will have the opportunity to make mischief with votes on the party platform and to elect a chairman — a suggestion that Paul could play an outsized role at the convention this spring.
BuzzFeed's phone calls to the Romney and Paul campaigns went unreturned.Comment
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Ron Paul Supporters Focus on State Delegations
By Danny Yadron
Undaunted by a GOP primary that is effectively over, Rep. Ron Paul’s supporters are now working to take over state Republican parties and delegations to the Republican National Convention this summer.
This weekend, Mr. Paul’s backers effectively captured the Alaska GOP, won the Louisiana caucuses and beat out delegates picked by Mitt Romney in Massachusetts, the presumptive nominee’s home state.
None of this, of course, is expected to alter the outcome of the GOP primary, but it is a notable illustration of the movement Mr. Paul built this election season, despite failing to win a single state’s nominating contest. It’s a network another Republican with libertarian views, such as Mr. Paul’s son, Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.), could tap in future elections.
Mr. Romney needs to amass 1,144 delegates to mathematically clinch the Republican nomination. He currently sits at 847, according to the Associated Press, while Mr. Paul has 80.
In Alaska on Saturday, Republicans voted a pair of Paul supporters as the state party’s chairman and co-chairwoman. While Rick Santorum won Louisiana’s GOP primary last month, Mr. Paul won the state’s party-controlled caucuses Saturday. That means Mr. Paul will have a majority of the delegates at the state party’s convention in June, which, in theory, would lead to more delegates at the Republican National Convention this summer, local TV reports.
In Massachusetts, where Mr. Romney won with 72% of the vote in last months’ primary, the Boston Globe reports that less than half of Mr. Romney’s delegates won spots this weekend.
Once again, it may not matter much for Mr. Paul. Since Mr. Romney overwhelmingly won the Bay State’s primary this month, even the delegates supporting Mr. Paul will have to back the former Massachusetts governor at the national convention this summer, though they will be able to shape the party platform, the Globe noted.
There's a bigger picture that I think the guy missed.Comment
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What a useless rag the Wall Street Journal has become. They missed a lot. Just read the comments.No! You can't have the keys to the wine cellar!Comment
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The delegate system is based on trust. That delegate can vote any way they want too at the end of the day. It's why a lot of people don't like the system.No! You can't have the keys to the wine cellar!Comment
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That's why I like the idea of having a presidential tournament. Do it like karate or tennis. All the candidates start in the first round and as the rounds continue more and more get eliminated and those with the most votes go onto the next round. Then you have the whole US using a secure electronic system with a paper trail do the voting. It could be done and it probably would work better than this stupid party system we have now.No! You can't have the keys to the wine cellar!Comment
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if by droves, you mean thousands in a contest that will take 60 million votes, then yes, droves.
though, overall, i think my position's been pretty consistent. the average voter, who will decide this election, like they always do, are not that well served by the current primary process.
i don't begrudge the paul supporters for being enthusiastic. in fact, more power to them for being so. but it doesn't change the fact that i think the process is still problematic. as will be demonstrated by the overall lack of participation.Comment
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By droves, I mean enough people to overwhelm the establishment in many states and take control of the nominating process and several state parties in the process. Just the same as any other dedicated group of voters could.
You feel that the current process keeps many people from participating; That message is lost on us. We have been turning out and will continue to turn out long after everyone has called the match. If other people cared as much, they could do so too, and could change the outcome of these contests just as much as we have.
They simply choose not to.Comment
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Forget The Nomination: Ron Paul’s “Revolution” Is Taking Over The Republican Party
What little commentary we’ve seen from the media on Ron Paul’s silent coup presently underway in the Republican Party has focused mostly on its implications for the 2012 Republican Primary and whether Paul can hold back Romney’s delegate count just long enough to ensure a brokered convention, which is the only feasible scenario in which Paul could emerge as the party’s nominee.
But perhaps more important and far-reaching in its implications for the future of national politics in the US, is not Ron Paul’s delegate count, but the fact that his supporters are successfully taking over the Republican Party district by district, county by county, state by state. That the fiercely independent Republican congressman from Texas might still have a tiny chance at winning his party’s nomination, while interesting, is less important than what he will most certainly have succeeded at doing: Ron Paul has built a political machine.
Judging by recent events in state and local GOP conventions across the country, it may not be at all presumptuous for Ron Paul’s supporters to call their burgeoning movement a revolution.
In Iowa, it is no exaggeration to say that Ron Paul’s people have taken over the GOP. After a stunning coup on April 21st, the new Iowa GOP state central committee now has six members who have publicly expressed support for Ron Paul’s candidacy– and that includes the new state chair of the Iowa Republican Party, A. J. Spiker, the former vice chairman for Ron Paul’s Iowa campaign! Think about that. This is major news. It signals a sea change in the Republican Party. We are now living in a world where the head of the Republican Party of Iowa is a Ron Paul supporter.
And it’s not just Iowa, though Iowa is especially significant because of its prominent role in the national primary process. Ron Paul’s supporters are taking over the Republican Party everywhere. This weekend during the April 28th district conventions, Ron Paul supporters also took over the GOP in Louisiana, with not a bare majority, but a whopping 74% of the delegates to Louisiana’s state convention in June. You can bet they’ll show up and you can bet they’ll elect their own to positions of leadership in the state GOP.
It’s the same story in Alaska, where the Ron Paul movement took over the Republican Party’s state convention on Saturday, and elected two Ron Paul supporters to the positions of state chair and co-chair, Russ Millete and Debbie Holland-Brown, respectively. Even in Mitt Romney’s own home state of Massachusetts, Ron Paul’s movement swept the state’s district conventions Saturday, and stacked the slate of delegates bound to vote for Romney on the first ballot in Tampa with activists who will vote for Ron Paul on the second ballot if there’s a brokered convention.
Looking back further to mid-April, Paul’s supporters also dominated conventions in Minnesota and made a strong showing in Colorado. Looking ahead, Paul’s supporters are poised to continue repeating their successful takeover strategy at the Nevada State GOP’s convention this weekend, and careful observers should look out for more possible surprises in the upcoming Texas and California processes, especially with the likelihood of Newt Gingrich’s withdrawal from the race, leaving Ron Paul as the only alternative to an electorate that is hardly enamored with Mitt Romney.
Again, the bigger story here is not Ron Paul’s chances at winning his party’s nomination, but his supporters’ marked success at winning control over the party apparatus itself.
Another important angle here is that what we’re seeing happen in states all over the country completely disproves the pervasive narrative that Ron Paul’s supporters are computer-bound, “armchair activists” that can win online polls but just never show up to vote in person. In fact, we can infer from their apparent tenacity that Ron Paul supporters are actually more energetic than typical Republicans, more likely to show up and vote, and more likely to get more deeply involved in the political process by becoming delegates and attending party conventions at every geographic level.
It now looks more like Paul has suffered in state-wide primaries and straw poll votes not because his supporters lack the energy and follow-through to vote, but because they are merely still outnumbered by voters more inclined to choose one of Paul’s opponents. But while Paul’s camp is outnumbered by people more likely to vote for a Romney or a Santorum on election day, the number of such voters with the energy to get as deeply involved as possible in the party process now appears lower than the number of Ron Paul supporters willing to do the same in states everywhere.
Whether media commentators consider this change a good or bad thing for the Republican Party and for the future of American politics, they have an obligation to report it to their audiences and acknowledge just how significant this change is. We are witnessing no less than a political revolution in the country and a major shift in the GOP’s internal composition. For two election cycles now, Paul’s supporters were an outside minority that had to make their case to the party establishment. It looks like in 2014 and 2016, Republican candidates will have to make their case to Ron Paul supporters in many places.
Start looking for more of Ron Paul’s platform of limited government, individual liberty, and constitutional rule-of-law in the rhetoric and on the agendas of candidates, policy-makers, and party leaders at every level of American government in the years to come.
The Grand Old Party is becoming a Grand New Party.
Nice party... we'll take it.
Last edited by Dr. Love; 05-01-2012, 10:12 PM.Comment
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haha Peter Schiff... you're awesome
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dude, regardless, the fact is it doesn't matter what ron paul's followers do, the majority of Americans - for WHATEVER reason - will not feel that connected with the party nominating process. that's my problem. the nominating process is NOT designed to give the average voter the best choice. and if that message is lost on ron paul followers, then they will never be part of the solution. because taking over a local republican party through a relatively small number of people (relative to the total registered voters there) will NOT encourage the average person to get involved. so the problem remains.
look, i'm not knocking ron paul followers' enthusiasm. that's a good thing. but until there's fundamental change in the process, itself, i don't believe any amount of individual enthusiasm will improve the overall situation. after all, ask yourself, what are the ron paul followers going to do when he loses the nomination (which he will) and when he isn't a major participant in the convention (which he most likely won't be)? will they say, "it was a hard fought contest, but i respect the process and will be anywhere near as involved in the general election?" my guess is no. which would mean the process is still flawed.Comment
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I think they'll shift their focus to the Campaign for Liberty and other liberty-minded candidates. Trust me, we're not going anywhere.
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Ron Paul outpolls Obama by 8 points in Montana, Romney barely ahead.
Romney leads Obama narrowly in Montana
President Obama is in worse shape in Montana than he was four years ago against John McCain. As part of his near landslide nationally, he lost this usually Republican state by only two points. Now, he trails Mitt Romney by five. But that is half the deficit Obama faced just five months ago, and by most standards makes Montana a marginal swing state.
Romney leads Obama 48-43, down from a 50-40 advantage when PPP last polled the state in November. Worse for Romney is that his soon-to-be-vanquished intraparty foe Ron Paul actually leads Obama by eight points (49-41). Obama is able to keep it relatively close here because he basically ties Romney with the plurality independents, while Paul leads by 22 points.
At this point, Romney is far more popular than Paul with Republicans, and has two-thirds of the vote in the caucus, while Paul only maintains the quarter of the vote he got in the three-way 2008 caucus. But with independents, Romney has a lot of work to do, and this is true and more problematic for him in swing states where Obama is doing just as well as he did in 2008 because of Romney’s toxicity with independents and Democrats. That is on top of lingering doubts with some partisan Republicans who were not behind him in the primary battle.
Paul’s libertarian brother Gary Johnson could also present a problem for Romney, particularly in the western states. Johnson’s presence on a third-party ballot line would bring Romney’s lead down to two points over Obama, with Johnson pulling 8%. That is because he lowers Romney’s share of the GOP vote from 92% to 83% while hardly touching Obama’s grasp of his party.
The president probably missed his best shot to win Montana in 2008, but luckily for him, he doesn't even remotely need its three electoral votes to win re-election.Comment
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