One of Romney’s biggest problems with speakers could be how to handle the Ron Paul movement.Romney’s greatest fear could be a movement to nominate Paul from the floor of the convention, which could happen if five state delegations line up behind him.
If these things are true then certainly Ron Paul is a real threat to the Romney nomination. You don’t have to ‘handle’ something that can’t hurt you and Romney couldn’t be afraid of a convention coup if it weren’t actually possible.
This is great news, right? Romney is having a lot of trouble with his campaign and the press is admitting Ron Paul has a shot at the nomination.
So why then does Jesse Benton say this?
“Dr. Paul will not seek to be nominated from the floor”.
Over $35 million dollars have been donated to the Ron Paul campaign for President this election cycle. During the same time period that Ron Paul was accepting these donations he promised many times on national television he was running to WIN the election.
So the question is, does Jesse Benton speak for Ron Paul or has Ron Paul decided to throw in the towel before finishing the game?
Perhaps more importantly, how can Ron Paul and members of his various organizations send out fundraising requests to help pay for delegates to travel to the convention while Jesse Benton simultaneously states that Ron Paul will not use those delegates for their primary function…even if given the opportunity to do so?
How did we go from wanting to influence the party as the back up plan, to wanting to influence the party as the ONLY plan?
Ron either being clueless as to Benton's actions or complicit in them really pains me.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts exactly... :(
DeleteFrom what I have read and from insiders I know Benton NO LONGER speaks for Ron Paul...but he is "quiet" since he is "family" which is NOT good...It pains me as well
DeleteI take it that you mean RP is "quiet", not Benton?
DeleteI thought it was over a long time ago. I wouldn't even be involved in politics if it wasn't for Ron Paul. He can do whatever he wants as far as I'm concerned.
ReplyDeletei will be ready, and so will you
ReplyDeleteBenton is looking for future employment in the GOP apparatus. Paul isn't. Pretty simple to me.
ReplyDeleteGreat analysis Bob. I think you have asked some great questions. I hope someone addresses them.
ReplyDeleteI think Paul was threatened with something credible enough that it's put a limit on his actions. Either that or he's just another corrupt DC politician.
ReplyDeletePeople, stop making fools of ourselves: Ron has sold out. Period. That's clear as a day. All our excuse-making and all our searching for convenient angles to deny the obvious could not change that simple fact: how much time did Ron have to fire Jesse Benton, or at least to react to some of his most egregious acts? He had all the time of this world, and he had chosen to do nothing. He is not complicit, he is behind the betrayal, in order to secure Rand's political future in the GOP. Let's face it.
ReplyDeletetrue it could be something as simple as that but if he was going to sell out he would have done it years ago and save himself the years of being regarded as a kook, at best,by his own party.
DeleteAnd if one was thinking dynastically, why would you destroy your voting bloc and launch Rand in as just another bloody Republican like your Romneys, Ryans, Huntsmans, Gringrichs, Pawlenties, Christies, Jindalls etc with their salutes to the troops and their wonderful families.
You are all fools.What did Obama do.Co-opt the grass roots movement.After election what happened.
DeleteRon Paul did the same.He basically neutered electorate from electing anyone but the system.He is same as the rest.
Stop believing the fucking politicians.You might as well believe everything JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs tell you too.
You are all fluoridated morons.Sorry but it's the truth.
As someone pointed out over at Dailypaul, the motion to be nominated from the floor must be initiated by the delegates. Benton (who undoubtedly seems to have screwed up what little chance there was for this to happen) simply said that Paul will not seek to be nominated from the floor. Sounds OK to me. A plurality of delegates from 5 states WILL seek to nominate Dr. Paul from the floor (if they manage to get into the building and can avoid being tazed once they're inside.)
ReplyDelete"So the question is, does Jesse Benton speak for Ron Paul or has Ron Paul decided to throw in the towel before finishing the game?"
ReplyDeleteI think a question that has to be asked is, at what point do we need to give Paul back his agency? So far most of what I've read in the past few months at EPJ, Anti War, and to a lesser extent Lew Rockwell always blames Beton, Tate, Paul (Rand) for the turn of events. But isn't Ron Paul ultimately responsible? Whether it's familial pressure or Ron thinking all of this is a good idea, at some point we have to come to one of two realities:
1) Ron agrees with how his campaign has evolved; or
2) Ron does not agree, but he can't even manage his own campaign. For as much as most of us would prefer a do-nothing president to an activist one, if Ron can't even handle those immediately around him, what hope would he have ever had as U.S. President?
You ask a tough question. A legitimate one alas.
DeleteThe long and short of it is, Ron Paul was never going to win. No matter what he did, no matter how hard he tried. Deep down, most of us knew that. I did, but it didn't stop me from donating to his campaign in '08 and '12 and going to my county and state conventions.
ReplyDeleteI don't consider any of it wasted. Ron Paul, regardless of what he does now, has reached millions who otherwise wouldn't have had a clue. He moved the conversation to the point where attacking the FED is the norm, not the fringe, and where opposing the empire is at least far more acceptable than ever before.
I wish he had kept on going a while longer. But for whatever reason, he isn't. Maybe he figures he's done enough and he needs to do something for his son. Or maybe he figures Romney is going to crash and burn in November and he doesn't want the GOP to blame him for it.
Either way, I can't think of anyone who has done more for liberty in the past 40 years. So whatever he wants to do, I wish him well.
I agree. If he REALLY got close, by some miracle, there is always the lone gunman to solve the problem for D.C.
DeleteRomney has almost no chance of winning in November as things are now. Let him fail on his own.
This isn't to say I'm happy about a lot of stuff with the campaign, but a lot of this is judgement calls and I've never run a campaign or been in a campaign so my opinion is cheap.
Ron was a huge part of my path out of statism. Whatever errors he's made, he done a lot more right.
Why can Ron Paul delegates demand change from the establishment, return to principles, a voice in the convention and all that follows but not one of us is starting to rail the Paul campaign lines, emails, and any such method of communication to demand answers as to what the HELL is going on.
ReplyDeleteYou've made an excellent point. If we are contributing to delegates in record amounts with all these money bombs to get these delegates heard and possibly Paul NOMINATED does Benton, or anyone speaking for Paul, make such a statement.
Family or not such a statement deserves answers and action from Paul. I love the man and was never interested in Politics or Economics until him (now eat, sleep, and dream the realities of this world and the words of Rothbard and Mises) and will thank such a man for making an impact on my, and all of our, lives. But this is a big bit to merely swallow.
I think it is important for the Paul camp to stick together and ride this till the end seeking to get him nominated regardless of Benton and the establishment and their wishes. This is NOT the time to fall apart, but this should not go under, or over, looked.
Seems clear to me that Ron Paul is playing poker, and he has been using Jesse and Rand to set up his bluff. Annyone that thinks thay Ron would cash in 30 years of principle and integrity now should reevaluate. The RNC plays dirty; misdirection is mandatory.
ReplyDeleteThat is my thought too. He could quietly walk his way to the convention, wait for the Romney/Ryan ticket to implode since in reality, they don't have the support of a winning majority of Republican voters, accept the nomination from the floor and step up to the podium. A very long shot for sure, but the only thing that seems to me to fit.
Deletewell I hope so because he's really risking his support with apparently contradictory messages.
DeleteWishful thinking.
DeleteRP is not selling off his principles. Accepting defeat, or being sabotaged by people in your family is not the same as selling off principles.
It is too late to save the country.
ReplyDeleteWhoever gets the top spot will only get the blame for the collapse.
It is more important now to set up the infrastructure for the inevitable, "I told you so" moment.
Doing so through the Republican Party, who is likely to get the blame, is vapid at this point.
The only proper activity for a Ron Paul libertarian at this point is to use any bully pulpit they can get to give both Parties intellectual butt-strokes-to-the-head.
The only proper activity is to ensure that average Americans can identify causality between the policies they supported politicians for, and the Armageddon that resulted from those policies.
Fiscally, I can see no possibility of a positive outcome for the Western world, given the that the mentality that is producing the collapse is expanding even as the collapse enters its incipient phase.
Prepare for the "Collapse of Rome" and the "Rise Of The Barbarian Horde".
I will reverse this prognosis if and only if a firm majority can intellectually REALIZE that theft is not a path to prosperity, and can IDENTIFY actions that are theft in a line-up of possibilities.
They need to realize that all economic activities performed by means of government are necessarily acts of theft whether or not they realize that all activities of government are acts of theft.
As has been recently reported, D.C. is in the hole to the tune of $200 trillion+. There is no path out of that which won't cause the masses who expected to receive that $200 trillion+ to be exceedingly unhappy.
DeleteThe Titanic has hit the iceberg. That a small fraction of the population is starting to understand is encouraging, but it doesn't mean that the ship can be saved. In fact, people still trying to save the ship are wasting energy they could be using to save themselves, their families and their friends.
Wenzel,
ReplyDeleteAre you shouting into the internet woods to let off some steam or are you actually curious to know?
Why don't you ask Ron Paul? You shared a car ride with him once.
As for me, well, I'm just baffled and confused as to how the political system doesn't allow authentic voices for liberty to penetrate the veil...