Last month on April 15th, the Ron Paul spoke to supporters about the evils of “The Empire” and bathed in admiration and rock star treatment, but from his tone it sounded as if the campaign had ended. He signed autographs and shook hands with moon-eyed fans to cheers of “Run, Ron, Run”. Although he’s never pulled in more than two percent in any state primary before the other Republicans quit running, his fans still think he has a chance to win the election.
The Washington Post today announces that “Paul Campaign Never Ended, Spokeman Says“;
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) told supporters in early March, through a Web video, that he knew he was no longer in the running for the presidency, and aides said his campaign would be “winding down.” But it turns out Paul never stopped running for president.
“He put out a video in which he said victory in the conventional sense was not available to us, but there was still much the campaign could try to accomplish,” Ron Paul 2008 spokesman Jesse Benton said yesterday. “People in the press reported that as him dropping out when he was not dropping out.”
Paul’s campaign has shrunk from a high of more than 150 staffers before Super Tuesday on Feb. 5 to around 15, according to Benton, and his record-breaking Internet fundraising operation has turned off its online ticker. But with more than $4 million in cash on hand, his campaign says there is no good reason to stop.
He is still racking up votes, for one thing, having garnered 16 percent of the vote in Pennsylvania’s Republican primary on April 22. And his supporters are still active at the grass-roots level: GOP officials abruptly canceled the Nevada state convention when it became clear that Paul’s backers outnumbered those for McCain and stood ready to take control of the delegate process.
Paul’s campaign hopes to turn such support into upward of 50 delegates for the party’s national convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul in September, where he is gunning for a speaking slot.
Now, I wonder why Ron Paul would lead his voters on like he does. I guess it couldn’t be related to his book which began shipping from Amazon at number one, could it? Or the fact that money still pours into his campaign fund? Ron Paul supporters are the first to say that all politicians are money-grubbing charlatans…I wonder why they think that Ron Paul is any different and why they think they’re not being played like a cheap violin.
Warning: This is not written to spark a discussion on foreign policy, the CFR, the Fed, or any other boogeyman of the Ron Paul crowd. If you want to explain to the rest of us why you still fund and support a doomed campaign, I welcome the comments. If you want to discuss all of those other things, please go to The Sniper and have that discussion with Thus Spake Ortner.
