Shock: Kurt Bills Endorses Mitt Romney / Paul Ryan GOP 2012 Ticket

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FrankRep

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Kurt Bills Endorses Mitt Romney / Paul Ryan GOP 2012 Ticket



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6eumkx5ZaI


Kurt Bills for U.S. Senate, Minnesota
http://www.kurtbills.com/


ST PAUL, MN—Kurt Bills, the Republican candidate for US Senate in Minnesota, today wholeheartedly embraced the Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan ticket for President and Vice President.

Bills, elected to the Republican National Convention as a Ron Paul delegate, always maintained that he would support the eventual nominee of the Party.

Romney is visiting Minnesota today, and Bills sent an email to 70,000 Republicans today calling on all Minnesotans to support the Romney/Ryan ticket.

Bills said in his email:

"In order to defeat Obama and his lieutenant Amy Klobuchar, Republicans of all stripes must stand together. We cannot afford to squabble, and mustn't equivocate. We need to unite—standing on our shared principles—to win in November.

"That's why I'm declaring my unequivocal support for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. After a hard-fought Republican primary, they alone have the ability to beat Barack Obama in November and help America rediscover its conservative principles."
 
This is old news, and the article reminds me that Romney was going to visit his state the next day. Romney is polling against Obama much better than Bills is polling against Klobuchar. Bills needs the Romney support to even come close in this race.
 
Bills from day one said he would support Ron through the convention and support the nominee whomever it was, after. THAT he said even at the nominating convention (the MN state GOP convention). While it says some things about Bills and his views and how he works, I don't see the after the convention part as a betrayal, because he said he would all along before we started pushing him. The problem I had was his asking Ron BEFORE convention if he could endorse Romney. But we all know the signals we were getting from the campaign by that point, after the delegates from multiple states were stricken, and the campaign said there was no way Ron could be nominated on the floor. We were even told, falsely, as a 'supporter management tool', that Ron wouldn't accept a nomination on the floor if he got it. For someone looking for an excuse, I can see where he thought he had it, at that point, and he wasn't in Tampa to vote at the RNC.

I take it as saying something about him, but he is still the best person for that seat, imho, and the one Ron endorsed. I must admit, I didn't donate any more after that, though.
 
CaptLouAlbano said:
This is old news, and the article reminds me that Romney was going to visit his state the next day. Romney is polling against Obama much better than Bills is polling against Klobuchar. Bills needs the Romney support to even come close in this race.
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Bastiat's The Law said:
Bills talked to Ron about this prior. It's time to buck up or get out of politics all together if this type of thing upsets you.
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Yep.
 
Obviously no one here is happy about this, but it had to be done in a Republican election year where the Presidency is at the top of the ballot. Bills is a good man who has been attacking Keynesian economics and supporting Ron Paul before it was really popular. He supported RP in 2008 too, before he held any elected office.

I am not justifying the Romney/Ryan endorsement, but I don't see that there was any alternative once they had the nomination locked up. What good would have come from alienating the state party and hardline GOPers more? Bills isn't a Senator yet, and the GOPe hates him a great deal. Refusing to endorse Romney would have only made them stand down even more, and may have black balled him from any future runs as well.

I realize this is a tough race, but I'm not convinced it's impossible yet. With funding and good debate performances, Bills can turn this around. If he doesn't win, he needs as many votes as possible.

Remember, the reputation of liberty candidates against Democrats is on the line here. If he fails badly against Klobuchar, the GOPe in MN and beyond will point to it as the rotten fruits of running an "extremist libertarian" candidate.

Worse, Bills may not be able to run for another office if the results are ugly. If he keeps it somewhat close with Klobuchar, I have a good feeling that he will have an excellent chance of taking the House seat in CD-2 when John Kline retires. I doubt Kline will stay in for more than another term or two, and Bills lives in his district.
 
Bastiat's The Law said:
Bills talked to Ron about this prior. It's time to buck up or get out of politics all together if this type of thing upsets you.
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that's pretty 'my way or the highway' isn't it?

People may have varying purity standards and still be involved in politics, just with fewer candidates, or different ones. I already gave my response to this though. But for the timing before convention, I wouldn't have thought this as big a deal, however that is in part because I never thought Bills was all THAT pure.
 
sailingaway said:
that's pretty 'my way or the highway' isn't it?

People may have varying purity standards and still be involved in politics, just with fewer candidates, or different ones. I already gave my response to this though. But for the timing before convention, I wouldn't have thought this as big a deal, however that is in part because I never thought Bills was all THAT pure.
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No, it's just reality. I'm not going to attend a curling competition and then complain about the sport.

Speaking about "timing" the nomination was lost in January. The convention run up was done to flex our muscle and show our clout, not win a nomination that was already out of reach.
 
Bastiat's The Law said:
No, it's just reality. I'm not going to attend a curling competition and then complain about the sport.

Speaking about "timing" the nomination was lost in January. The convention run up was done to flex our muscle and show our clout, not win a nomination that was already out of reach.
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Since Ron wasn't expected 'likely' to win from day one, obviously, the campaign was about winning more than just the nomination. And those goals were still being vyed for When Bills endorsed though was after Wead said there was no way Ron was being nominated on the floor and all sorts of fake data was being spread that Ron wouldn't even accept nomination if he could get it. So in that time frame it seems a little less of a betrayal than earlier when we were still clearly fighting to win delegates, however, he had told those who gave him the GOP nomination that he would support Ron through RNC, so there is still something there.


It wasn't about 'our' clout, it was about RON'S however, since it was Ron's campaign.
 
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He did something he always said he would do. Where's the shock? Smart move on Bills part. I only care how politicians vote. Endorses Romney + gets elected and votes against the next TARP= completely cool with me.
 
We live under a 2 party dictatorship. Liberty candidates want to survive and get elected. Endorsements are often just lies to keep the big money from attacking. Politics requires lies. Ron Paul himself did it. Either go the way of anarchist non-participation or realize what has to be done in this disgusting practice that is government.
 
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