BREAKING: Ron Paul OFFICIAL STATEMENT on DELEGATE STRATEGY

[wizardwatson]

RP has been running a educational campaign from the get go with only a slight window just before Iowa when he thought he might win. EVERYTHING after that was educational. He campaigned ONLY on educational campuses and I think he realized a lot of his delegates were going to go rouge and embarrass him and destroy all he had a done to educate. They were going to cause a circus and drag his and Rands name into the mud for history.

Never thought of that. It seems more sound of a theory than the "this is all a stealth tactic" rhetoric. In fact it does make sense that when defeat was imminent you'd want to calm the supporters down before they go rogue as you say and act like complete fools at the convention when it becomes obvious that Ron isn't going to win.

We played the game with the establishment within the rules of our screwed up two party sports contest and we lost. Honestly it really wouldn't be right if we "threw a fit" at the convention just to make a point. Good theory, you might just be on to something.

 

[BenMuldowney]

I'd gladly go to jail to vote for Ron in Tampa. Unfortunately I am not a delegate.

go to prison.. not jail, plus a fine and lawyer's fees. and they will over turn your vote anyways. is this really a winning strategy?

 

[BenMuldowney]

I'd gladly go to jail to vote for Ron in Tampa. Unfortunately I am not a delegate.

were you a district or state delegate?

 

[Carlybee]

It was the media putting it out there that the delegates were badly behaved. All I have seen are informed people following the rules...not bopping others over the head.

 

[JWZguy]

go to prison.. not jail, plus a fine and lawyer's fees. and they will over turn your vote anyways. is this really a winning strategy?

On what basis would they overturn your vote? You either have the right to vote at the convention or not.
Ben - you are still speculating without complete information, and you're talking about 2 different groups of people. Your conclusion is unsupported and unlikely at best.

 

[pacelli]

If the campaign is saying they wont have the delegates then I assume they know something we dont. As for bashing Benton, y'all do know he is Ron Paul's son in law right? He is not going to be fired and it was RPs choice to have him in that position.

Grandson-in-law.

 

[BenMuldowney]

On what basis would they overturn your vote? You either have the right to vote at the convention or not.
Ben - you are still speculating without complete information, and you're talking about 2 different groups of people. Your conclusion is unsupported and unlikely at best.

im not talking about 2 different groups... where do you get that? please enlighten me as to what two groups i am talking about?

 

[Barrex]

Whining and posting endlessly on RPF will not change anything. Get all of your concerns and formulate a letter and got there:

http://www.ronpaul2012.com/contact-us/


***I still can not understand that fallacy that grassroots can not cooperate with campaign and that contacting campaign it taboo.

 

[CJPrinter]

Okay, look, we are talking about several things at the same time here.

This was a bad time to do this. Disheartening, think of CA and Texas and other "late" states. For the first time in how long would they be able to vote for a choice of candidate still in the race? We were told we are in this all the way to Tampa (period), and that gave everyone "drive", but this is deflating that drive.

But, that doesn't mean everyone gives up. What will a "disheartened" heart look like tomorrow or the next day? This thread is a venting thread. We are not going to comfort others by saying, "What you give up just cause.....". I'm pretty pissed right now that this has come out when it did. That doesn't mean I give up, it means I have to take a sit-back and reevaluate what is it that really "drives" me and what direction I will drive.

I understand everyones point of view, "Stick with it, it's about a movement", "Damn those campaign loosers", "screw this, get your act together", etc... They are all correct, right, wrong, left, right, and justified.

I love you all....

Well put Clyde!

 

[playpianoking]

After the convention, Ron Paul will be the VP pick and join forces with Gary Johnson to attract 15% of popular vote to be included in debates.

 

[CJPrinter]

Am I the only one who does not really care about this? I don't know about the rest of you guys but campaign or no campaign, President Paul or no President Paul - I am going to take my country back.

EXACTLY! It's NOT about the man, it's about his message! Nothing he has stood for is negated by him issuing these messages!

 

[sailingaway]

It was the media putting it out there that the delegates were badly behaved. All I have seen are informed people following the rules...not bopping others over the head.

apparently stopping someone's fist with your head reflects poorly on us.

 

[freedomordeath]

Never thought of that. It seems more sound of a theory than the "this is all a stealth tactic" rhetoric. In fact it does make sense that when defeat was imminent you'd want to calm the supporters down before they go rogue as you say and act like complete fools at the convention when it becomes obvious that Ron isn't going to win.

We played the game with the establishment within the rules of our screwed up two party sports contest and we lost. Honestly it really wouldn't be right if we "threw a fit" at the convention just to make a point. Good theory, you might just be on to something.

SORRY, TOTAL AND UTTER RUBBISH, most of the RP guys have been very respectable, played within the rules, caucuses are mean't to be lively, look back to the old days. Most of the rougue element came from the /romney camp, he got Goldman Sachs money, thats all most of us need to know not to support this fool Romney

 

[freedomordeath]

I STILL SAY LETS PUNK THIS GAME, WE MIGHT STILL GET THE DELEGATES AND MAKE HIM PRESIDENT

 

[Mini-Me]

Fair enough: Benton does not believe this is winnable anymore, barring something "very unforeseen." Let's give them something very unforeseen by many: Our guys continue showing up, and Romney's don't.

Benton set the odds further against us by adding that paragraph to his email, but I'm not too concerned with the odds at this point: We've come so far that there's no point in backing down now. Frankly, any chance at all is good enough for me; Frodo didn't have much chance of making it to Mount Doom, but there was always hope, and literary necessity ensured it happened. Maybe the universe will be kind to us as well. At the very least, we need to pack the convention with Paul supporters and come close enough to winning, so ordinary Republicans recognize their mistake when Romney loses to Obama. We will never again get a chance to put Ron Paul in office, so I think it's worth taking the only chance we'll ever get, no matter how unlikely it appears at the outset...and barring that, we'll lay the groundwork for Rand in 2016.

As long as nobody rips their clothes off and starts howling like an animal if we lose at the convention (unlikely), there's no way but forward, and no harm in trying.

 

[Omnica]

Beauty contests die boldly.

 

[Fredom101]

Now that we have an admission from the campaign that he cannot win the nomination, isn't it about time we talk about RP's independent run?

Seriously, what have we got to lose?

The day after the GOP convention should be day #1 of Ron Paul the Independent for President.

 

[ASDF991]

I've watched this race from the start and I have to say Ron did have a chance at the nomination for only a tiny window of time.

Ron had the chance when his slow and steady Iowa numbers put him on top, then them media ramped the newsletters into hysterics and pumped Santorum.

The official campaign dropped the ball right then and there when they did not have a "rational" and "media friendly" response to the newsletters. Yes Ron said over and over he disavowed them but I really felt right then and there the campaign did not really have much of a response at all.

After that he placed 3rd in Iowa and 2nd in NH. If Ron had won Iowa he would have been much closer to Romney in NH and possibly could have hanged on past South Carolina as a frontrunner where we started to see some more RP friendly states.

It was an uphill battle from the start and I think the people advising the campaign were the wrong people to pick, with exceptions(Doug Wead)



Now when Ron gets some delegate wins at the conventions the campaign wants to stop it, the campaign and RNC have most likely been in talks and they do not want anything to disrupt their big party in Tampa........


Hmmmm....


So much possibility

So much wasted away!

 

[Mini-Me]

Now that we have an admission from the campaign that he cannot win the nomination, isn't it about time we talk about RP's independent run?

Seriously, what have we got to lose?

The day after the GOP convention should be day #1 of Ron Paul the Independent for President.

We can talk about it, but it's ultimately not our decision: It's something you'd have to convince Ron Paul to do, and I don't see it happening. We are more insistent than he is that he become President before he retires, because he's the man who rallied so many of us to the cause. Although Rand doesn't inspire the same revolutionary energy or draw the same cross-party support (for the general election), Ron clearly sees taking the Republican Party as the long-term way forward, and I agree.

I don't think he'd risk jeopardizing that (in the eyes of Joe Schmoe Republican Voter, not the corrupt Republican leadership) with an independent run unless he thought he had a good shot...which he really doesn't. He's currently polling 14% in a three-way matchup, which is just a hair under what it would take to get into the debates, and the vast majority of people have it in their mind that only a Republican and Democrat can win. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, but a single run is not enough to dispel the notion and make it untrue. With all of the continued rhetoric about Obama being the antichrist (figuratively or literally), the conservative vote will mostly go to Romney, and the majority of the liberal vote will still mostly go to Obama in fear of Romney's more open corporatism, and ordinary conservative voters (even former fence-riders) would blame us for Romney's inevitable failure and be much harder to convert in the future. Furthermore, Romney WILL lose to Obama, so there's no practical need to run third party just to spite the neocons.

Don't get me wrong: I'd totally support a third-party run and risk angering "conservatives" just out of spite for the establishment, but I do see it as futile, and I believe Ron has the same viewpoint. If you can convince him to change his mind, I won't object.

 

[opinionatedfool]

Benton probably told him "his supporters" were starting fist fights at the conventions. LOL.

I think this whole thing started with a misinterpretation of what happened in OK and AZ. I think the campaign just read the stupid reports that came out and listened to the establishment and thought it was Ron Paul's supporters that caused problems.