Ron Paul hints at Indie Run!

[TruthAtLast]

We need true leaders to arise from the grassroots and take this movement to the next level.

There is nothing more true than that statement.

It is clear that Ron Paul will not be the future of this Movement. Not necessarily because people wouldn't want him to be, but because HE doesn't want to be. He seems to feel that people are attached to HIM rather than to the Movement. He seems to want to distance himself from the Grassroots effort and step out of the leadership roll, hoping others will emerge to fill that void. He got the ball rolling and wants us to take it from here.

But there is a problem with that strategy. HE is the rally point right now. He has the ability to galvanize the supporters (not to mention hundreds of thousands of email addresses). Whether he likes it or not, central leadership is needed for EVERY SUCCESSFUL REVOLUTION IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD and he is that leader that everyone is looking to for direction. He talks about the "next phase" but only really mentions a march (which he then says he can't really be involved with and MAYBE he'll come) and his own Liberty PAC (which hasn't been updated in who knows how long and has contact information that is broken).

If he has a master plan (even if it isn't to necessarily be President) then the supporters need to be in on it, otherwise it is yet another missed opportunity for the Movement to grow even further. Of course it has helped people "wake up" and start thinking differently, but that isn't enough to take over the Republican party as he seems intent on (or has at least talked about) doing.

If he is serious about pushing this Movement to the next level then myself and thousands of others are waiting for some direction from him. He's given us NOTHING. Fight for delegates? We're already doing that (with little help from HQ I might add). Support other Liberty Candidates? He's only endorsed a couple people and hasn't given us any direction on how best to support these candidates (not to mention the LPAC site not even working correctly). Buy his book? Well great but if that is the great "strategy" then this thing is pretty shot.

If he is serious on just getting "the message" out there, then there is no better time than now! ATTACK McCain and the other Candidates. What else does he have to lose at this point?

I see a man who is tired and who somewhat reluctant to even continue. I see someone who appears to have given up long ago and now is continuing out of obligation. I'm sure the campaign has taken a toll on him. But he has seen the support he has. Wouldn't that energize him? Wouldn't that get him fired up?

There is a problem when the supporters are more fired up and enthusastic than their leader.

 

[nc4rp]

please let this issue die until Congressman Paul says otherwise. Stay with the plan, stop trying to side track everything.

 

[tonyr1988]

I haven't jumped on the "Indy Run / 3rd party" bandwagon, but I have to admit that he did hint at it in this interview.

He sounded like he knew he wouldn't have a chance at winning, but that isn't the point - the point would be to give people a true conservative to vote for. And if he had an Independent run, it wouldn't contradict him staying in until the convention (although a 3rd party would be viewed that way).

I'm warming up to the Indy idea, actually. Not necessarily to win, but to advance our ideas even more, and possibly have a larger presence at the convention.

 

[amy31416]

It is clear that Ron Paul will not be the future of this Movement. Not necessarily because people wouldn't want him to be, but because HE doesn't want to be. He seems to feel that people are attached to HIM rather than to the Movement. He seems to want to distance himself from the Grassroots effort and step out of the leadership roll, hoping others will emerge to fill that void. He got the ball rolling and wants us to take it from here.

*snipped*

What's more important, the man or the message?

In my opinion--the message. Ron Paul never said he was perfect, he's also indicated that he entered the race reluctantly. I feel that we're lucky to have had him in the capacity that we have. WE are responsible for taking things to the next level. That's a big part of the message: Self-reliance. And while I obviously agree that we need a leader to arise, that's simply because leaders provide direction amidst chaos. And there's certainly plenty of chaos around here!

Instead of being disappointed by this, we should simply accept that this is how he operates, this is what he decided and stick together to achieve goals such as electing like-minded people to office, educating people on the constitution, resisting the loss of our national sovereignty and preventing lawmakers from doing crappy stuff like voting for the Patriot Act.

If you see that something isn't being done as well as you'd like, what do you do? Point fingers? Complain? Or do you do something about it?

 

[mketcher]

Ron Paul is going to stick it out to the convention. He's said so. That's in September. So if, after the convention, Ron Paul wants to run 3rd party, he'd have like.. 1 month to run an independent campaign for president. Yep, that would make perfect sense.

I doubt that Ron Paul would make an independent run for president -- ballot access would be too difficult and expensive between now and the election. There are several possible scenarios for a 3rd Party run, which would probably be on the LP ticket. The LP will have ballot access in at least 47 states.

The LP convention is in May. Ron Paul has until then to decide if he wants to try for the LP nomination. It would be far more advantageous for him to wait until then to announce, rather than announcing now.

Another possibility is that Ron goes all the way to the convention, and causes as much trouble as he can there. In the meantime, the LP nominates a strong "place-holder" candidate -- perhaps Bob Barr or Wayne Root. Barr would probably be the more likely choice. Once the Republican convention is over, then Barr drops out (or drops to VP) and Ron Paul moves in as the LP's presidential candidate.

This may seem somewhat far-fetched, but I was at a local LP meeting recently, in which Bob Barr spoke. The notion of a "place-holder candidate" for Ron Paul came up at that meeting, so I know that Barr is aware of that strategy. There have also been some rumors about Barr and Paul meeting recently -- and, of course, Barr was the one who introduced Ron at the famous AIPAC speech. There is a "draft Barr" movement within the LP -- and this is being led by some Ron Paul supporters.

I'm not saying that this will happen. I have no inside knowledge. I'm just reading between the lines. Ron has been intentionally vague in his recent statements. He obviously doesn't want to reveal his hand this early in the game. But until he does reveal his hand, he still has to keep the morale up with the troops. They need to have something to fight for.

I do think that it would be very dramatic for Ron Paul to announce at the Republican convention -- maybe even in a speech before the entire convention -- that the party has abandoned its small-government principles ... and he's going to run as president on the LP ticket.

 

[Akus]

Where is the leadership? Where are the enthusiastic and inspiring speeches not only telling all of his supporters and all of America that they still have a chance to make amends by supporting Freedom based candidates but also that he has a master plan in place for the next few years and here is what we need to do. He says that we should all buy his book and we should all support LPAC, but is it going to be mismanaged by the same Campaign staff who helped cause THEIR OWN Media blackout by not returning phone calls of reporters interested in doing stories, by not having quality campaign material ready, by not getting any speech writers, by not providing ANY central leadership or much information on how the delegate process actually works?

He might still be in the race... but he sounded like a man being FORCED to show up, as if he really didn't want to go.

Sadly you are one million percent right. They say this is not about Ron Paul, but really, at least until 09/04/2008, IT IS. We are fighting like madmen, we are making calls, knocking on doors, distributing literature, argue both on line and in real life and all for what. For the "meh, I won't win, or may be I will, or may be I won't" type of attitude that Ron Paul is displaying?

Look at the Hillary's campaign. Look at that of Obama and McCain. Those are war machines. They answer phones, they are on TV, they spend money on advertisement. Everyone knows who all 3 of them are.

Why should an average John Q. Voter care about some old guy from Texas, when even he himself doesn't project excitement and urgency of him being a president? If I knew nothing of Ron Paul, I'd dismiss him, too.

We are left to rely on no one but our own grassroot powers. But the blame is 70/30. If the official staff is filled with some high-schoolers who probably do nothing but eat delivery pizza while playing their X-Box on a big plasma TV (most likely bought with our $$), shouldn't Ron Paul start a shitstorm and fire their asses and get a professional that his $20 mil war chest would suggest?

It hurts me so much to see indifference on Ron Paul's behalf, as if this is a football bet and not quite possibly the last effort to save what remains of our Constitutional Republic. It hurts me a lot that the local grassroots are not as effective as we could be because of our little experience in this. But none of this is as painful as the thought that if we tank and Ron Paul loses, we will prove all the pundits right.

We were just a fringe counterculture movement made of three internet geeks in their mom's basement.

And that hurts like a motherfucker.

 

[Akus]

There is nothing more truer than that statement.

It is clear that Ron Paul will not be the future of this Movement. Not necessarily because people wouldn't want him to be, but because HE doesn't want to be. He seems to feel that people are attached to HIM rather than to the Movement. He seems to want to distance himself from the Grassroots effort and step out of the leadership roll, hoping others will emerge to fill that void. He got the ball rolling and wants us to take it from here.

And that is very very wrong. I don't want another Ross Perot. I want Ron Paul to WIN and I can't take seriously anyone who looks like a leader and acts like a leader, only to do what Ross Perot did to his grassroots - betray them.

Why would I "continue the movement"? Who is to say that the next President/Congressman/Senator/Governor/Sheriff with Ron Paul like rhetoric will not pull the same shit Ross Perot did or Ron Paul did? Why bother? Why tell people about him? Why get excited? Why care, donate, knock on doors, watch TV for results?

Why doesn't Ron Paul, who is far from an idiot, see this?

 

[JS4Pat]

i don't think it was a hint at an indy run. but he clearly realizes that there is virtually no chance at winning the Nomination unless McCain self destructs.

The fact that he is mostly continuing out of obligation, concerns me. I'm sure he believes in the Movement and wants to move forward, but he has talked about the "next phase" of our Revolution and hasn't taken any leadership in it. His LPAC site sucks and in fact doesn't even work, he isn't really aggressively trying to win these remaining states.

Let's just say that Ron Paul is correct in that the only true goal now is to get our "message" out there. Wouldn't you be swinging for the fence? Wouldn't you do everything to AGGRESSIVELY attack the principals of John McCain? Even if he couldn't win, he could do a lot to make sure John loses.

In this interview he obviously doesn't think too much of the Democrats either, but which is worse? He is telling us, don't vote for the Democrats, and don't vote for McCain. So are we suppose to just not vote at all in the General Election?

Where is the leadership? Where are the enthusiastic and inspiring speeches not only telling all of his supporters and all of America that they still have a chance to make amends by supporting Freedom based candidates but also that he has a master plan in place for the next few years and here is what we need to do. He says that we should all buy his book and we should all support LPAC, but is it going to be mismanaged by the same Campaign staff who helped cause THEIR OWN Media blackout by not returning phone calls of reporters interested in doing stories, by not having quality campaign material ready, by not getting any speech writers, by not providing ANY central leadership or much information on how the delegate process actually works?

He might still be in the race... but he sounded like a man being FORCED to show up, as if he really didn't want to go.

QFT.

This was my exact reaction after viewing that video.

I don't want Ron Paul leading the movement out of obligation because that is not really leadership.

 

[JS4Pat]

I don't understand why you morons keep insisting there's going to be a 3rd party run and grasping at straws to say he's hinting at it. How many times does Ron Paul have to say "it's impractical", "i have no intention", "there will be no 3rd party run", ......... until you accept the fact....... there will be no 3rd party run?

Probably only ONCE if we would just say "there will be no 3rd party run".

 

[familydog]

He's probly keeping the whole issue ambigous because he wants his supporters to stay on track, and not give up. By not saying no there will be no third party or independent run, he is keeping the enthusiasm alive. The hardocre, like many of us here, will always be enthusiastic about the message, but as you can see from the decreasing amount of forum participation, if things look bad people will tuck their tale and run. It's sad and unfortunate, but it is a fact. I doubt he will make an independent run, but if he does, I will be skeptical as to whether he actually wants to.

 

[kirkblitz]

who's to say he doesn't announce that independent bid the day after the convention in the unlikely event he doesn't get the repub nomination, guess we gotta wait

 

[speciallyblend]

impratical doesnt mean NO you could say this whole campaign was impratical but it exists

 

[speciallyblend]

it would be impratical to announce an indy run before the convention. what would be pratical is announcing after the convention

 

[Peace&Freedom]

it would be impratical to announce an indy run before the convention. what would be pratical is announcing after the convention

But doing it after would be impractical, since the deadline for getting on the ballot as an independent in most states will have passed.

 

[speciallyblend]

not if we work on them before hand

But doing it after would be impractical, since the deadline for getting on the ballot as an independent in most states will have passed.

plan 2 ,we dont need ron pauls permission to put him on the ballot so if the gop ignores ron paul .the most pratical thing to do is vote for RON PAUL 2008,or write him in or have another party endorse him,there are many options.
One option i dont have is voting for mccain,it will not happen

 

[DFF]

Is there a way Paul could run Indy/3rd and still keep his seat?

Anyway, I wish Steve Forbes would speak with him about a potential Indy run.

They agree (as far as I know) on a LOT of issues.

And with Forbes onboard; money wouldn't be an issue.

Plus, Forbes' name recognition would enhance Ron Paul's image in the eyes of the sheeple bigtime.

 

[TruthAtLast]

If you see that something isn't being done as well as you'd like, what do you do? Point fingers? Complain? Or do you do something about it?

I do a little of both.

I point fingers because I guess I'm hoping he snaps out of it and becomes a true leader of this Movement. I am clearly doing something about it in the fact that I'm developing a massive grassroots information tool, and donating to every one of these candidates I can find.

I totaly respect that maybe this is a burden that Ron never really fully intended to take on. But imagine the burden and leadership he would have taken on had he won. He would have been leading our entire country and the free world. It couldn't have been LESS than the leadership we are asking of him.

My point is that whether he likes it or not, he is the point man right now at least until someone else steps up to take his place. If any of us sent out an email, we wouldn't be raising a million dollars in 24 hours. If he simply waves his hand, pocketbooks open and money flows in. He has access to a massive number of supporters and if he is going to step back, let it be after the Movement has its feet on the ground and is fully capable of pushing forward on its own.

I guess I would just like his guidence in a time when he is telling us to move onto the "next phase". There are still people here that are enthusiastic and willing to fight. But people are splintering into many different directions and nothing ever really gets done that way. History is filled with examples where bottom up organizations fail time and time again. There MUST be centralized leadership.

 

[rockandrollsouls]

Paul + Forbes = victory

 

[nate895]

Paul + Forbes = victory

Forbes endorsed the Ghoul.

 

[TruthAtLast]

Paul + Forbes = victory

McCain + Poison = victory