Paulites to crash the GOP Convention?
Posted on May 12th, 2008 by David KaiserWhile Obama is standing over the coffin of Count Clinton with his hammer and wooden stake in hand, trying to figure out a way to finish her off, there are rumors floating that Ron Paul’s supporters are planning an embarrassing demonstration of some type again John McCain at the GOP’s National Convention in Minnesota this September.
There is some conventional wisdom out there that McCain could use of discord in a Democratic party split between Obama and Clinton to his advantage in the general election. That CW could go out the window, down the block, and across the bridge if a break of any decent scale took place in St. Paul in the first week of September.
Keep an eye on this one.
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If that happened, then this race would be even more problematic than it is now- with Obama likely having to bring the diehard Clintonites back into the fold and McCain having to content with a small but vocal part of his own party.
As I have said……KOOK
They may try, they will fail. The GOP is unified and moving forward toward the victory this fall.
Bruce, did you type that with a straight face?
The GOP is hardly unified. Are you not seeing how many votes Huck and Paul are still getting? And we’re not even talking about the people staying home that don’t like McCain, were talking about people driving to the polls to vote AGAINST the presumptive nominee. That ain’t unified.
Bruce, I agree with natz. Unified is not a word I would use to describe the GOP. Now that Barr has announced, he likely will get the Libertarian nodd, and he’s going to pull many GOP faithful his way.
So Barr is officially running for the LP nod? I had not heard that. Wow, that will shake things up; curious to see how the MSM handles it.
Do they ignore them altogether, or do they spotlight it as a way to dismantle J-Mac?
Barr gets my vote.
Be warry of Ron Paul Backers, they can do more damage than you think. (No offense intended to any ron Paul supporters on this site :-))
They have been showing up heavily at the county conventions, which choose delegates to go to the state conventions, which choose who will be a delegate for the National.
In cases Like Missouri, they took nearly 33% of the county elections, so that means that probably 1/3 of the delegates for MCcain will support him by casting the vote, but what will happen when someone who is for the Iraq War tries to make a speech?
whats to stop those delegates to jeer and give cat-calls? What will the Media Portray when MCcain gets jeered at over the war at his own convention?
I hardly agree the whole party is unified, Huckabee supporters are still warry of Mccain, and Ron Paul Supporters even more.
It will come down to who is choosen for vp, If Romney is choosen, Hucks Backers will bolt, if Huck is choosen Romneys backers will bolt, if Liberman is choosen will everyone bolt?
You’re right - the VP stakes are huge in this one. Pick a lib, and the whole conservative wing goes away (or to LP). Pick a conservative, and risk losing the rep of being a maverick (which got him the cred in the first place).
When you play in the middle of the road, you can get hit from both directions - that sounds like a Whodat proverb!
What must happen is what I have been trying to do for over a year, and that is to speak honestly about Paul and his fellow-LOONS. They are KOOKS that must be marginalized. I am tired of people walking on egg-shells trying to ligitimize these NUTTERS. That strategy has FAILED. These people, including Ron Paul are KOOKS!!! Conspiracy NUTTERS!! LOONS!!. Period!
Now I will get responded to with some long silly rant about “freedom” and “The Constitution” and the “Gold Standard”. etc. etc. The guys is off-his-ROCKER! Am I the only one who can see this? To just watch the man speak for more than 2 minutes it is clear he is not ALL there. I dont underestimate the ignorance of those who follow this NUTTER, they WILL make ASSes of themselves, they WILL disrupt the convention, because thats what they do.
I no longer give his NUTTERS, or him, the benefit of the doubt. I am tired of whitewashing their foolishness. I am tired of hearing from them. Arent you? They are a freaksih cult. And the government raids a religious compound in Texas.
RoPaul might be a loony, but I don’t think BoBarr has the same rep - which is why he can be a threat. If he can pull the nat’l media exposure, he has the potential to grab a few % from J-Mac. Even 5-8% can mean the difference come November.
Agreed. Barr is not a LOON. Paul is.
Neither are loons. They both represent the best candidates for upholding the Constitution. Some people have forgotten what that document says or just don’t care anymore.
Dear Brian “Ron Paul supporters are in a freakish cult” H,
You, my friend, sound more like a ranting KOOK in that last post than most RP supporters who post on this site (Lazlo excepted)…
You may be angry at the Libertarians but to lump all of us into a KOOK or Cult category is counter productive. Most of us are actually nice people, have families, jobs, go to church, donate time to charity, treat our fellow men with respect, and help old ladies cross the street.
Just because our opinions are not your opinions does not make us KOOKs. If you want to vote for JMac, then vote for him. I will not hold your Kool-aid drinking, I can’t think for myself, vote for anyone with an “R” after their name, Ron Paul is KOOK attitude against you if you don’t hold my Libertarian view against me.
Thanks.
Fist of all I said Ron Paul and his fellow travelors are KOOKS, NOT most Libertarians. I agree with many Libertarian prinipals is theory, but that does not make PAUL less of a KOOK. Thank You for admitting that Paul is a Libertarian….not a Republican. Why must we pretend otherwise. Why dont Paul and his NUTTER-Clan disrupt the Libertarian convention?
This just proves my point. Paul is such a LOON he cant figure out which party to destroy. If I were the Libertarians I would want NO part of Ron Paul. The fastest way to discredit your party is to let this laughable-LOON lead it. HAHAHAHAHAHA
Brian, you call Paul a LOON and a KOOK, so the burden of proof is on you. Show us the evidence. Quotes, links, anything. I ask this because apparently not all of us have your gift of vision because not everyone here thinks Paul is a KOOK And I’m not just talking about Paul supporters. DK has said many times on this blog that he respects Ron Paul but disagrees with him on a number of issues. Is DK crazy for respecting a loon? Is Milton Friedman a LOON? What about Judge Andrew Napalitano? These men have shown support for Ron Paul. Does that make them KOOKS?
OK, I’m not a Ron Paul fan, but I think you’re overdoing it here, BrianH. This is NOT a fringe movement. Not with the numbers he’s still pulling.
Ron Paul is certainly the most pressing issue at the convention. It certainly won’t be figuring out how to avoid mentioiong a 2 term Prez at 31% approval. Unless of course by that time history has validated his decisions…
Bush’s numbers are high among Republicans, hence a Republican convention. Ron Paul is a disaster. He is no less a LOON than Rev. Wright.
I CANT BELIEVE THAT I AM THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN SPOT A NUTTER WHEN I SEE ONE!!!! Guess it takes one to know one.
There is always 1%, more or less
Who vote Libertarian each time…
One year it was even Ron Paul hisself!
But, that still changed not the paradigm.
So, old Bob Who? has trumpeted
That He Who will be the LP nominee
Of the party of the one-percenters
No matter how irrelevant that may be.
Pardon my yawn. Excuse my snore. Most
Of these are so far right, they’re left;
Left of center, left of reality, Left
Outside the mainstream, of power bereft.
Oh, and Dr. Ron and his Kool-Aid kids?
Sure, they’ll make a bunch of noise…
But, with almost no seats and fewer
Friends, they better bring their toys!
Whodat got no patience with symbols and fringes
WELL SAID. If the so-called “Libertarian” Americans want to convince themselves they are part of the process by supporting a statistical insignificant party the should go right ahead. HAHAHAHAHA What a joke! HAHAHAHA
The truth is that most (MOST) Paul supporters are the same anti-war,pot-smoking, first time voters that would be voting for Obama if not for Paul. That is why you hear rhetoric from these LOONS about a Paul/Kucinich ticket….HAHAHA
They are too STUPID to understand their own ideology.
Why smart ideological Libertarians cant recognize a KOOK when they see one is amazing. They want so much to be important I guess they will accept anyone who gets them ANY recognition. How Sad……..
Brian, you are correct that some Paul supporters are political novices and don’t quite understand politcs. In many some cases that is actually a good thing. After all, don’t we want people to get involved and stop being apathetic?
I understand how ridiculous a Paul/Kucinich ticket sounds. Some of its proponents really are confused, others know perfectly well the ideologies of both candidates but just feel very strongly about the areas they do agree on (war and civil rights). But that is neither here nor there, Paul supporters aren’t largely Kucinich or Obama supporters as well (some are).
Again Brian, please, since you seem to be the only one with the gift of knowing a KOOK when you see one, provide the rest of us with some evidence. Apart from ideological differences that is. I have ideological differences with McCain, but I don’t think he’s a KOOK.
The Evidence of KOOKINESS…as you requested.
Paul talking to 9/11 Conspiracy NUTTERS, Student Scholars for Truth.
Student: …we’ve heard that you have questioned the government’s official account.
Paul: Well, I never automatically trust anything the government does when they do an investigation because too often I think there’s an area that the government covered up, whether it’s the Kennedy assassination or whatever.
Student: So I mean, would you advocate for a new investigation into 9/11?
Paul: Yes, I think we have to look at the details of it.
Paul: And we’d have a better chance of getting a new investigation. Too often investigations on almost any issue is usually a cover-up.
Student: So I just wanted to say, you know, we’ve talked to Dennis Kucinich and he says that he’s willing to, you know, investigate it. He would advocate for a new investigation.
Paul: Into 9/11?
Student: Yeah, into 9/11. I mean, if it was Dennis Kucinich and you, there’d be congressional support. You know what I mean? So you wouldn’t be the only one.
Paul: It’d be bipartisan, too. And I’ve worked with Dennis a lot on a lot of these issues.
Student: Yeah. Yeah, and I know that he is really serious about this because I know that his office is already investigating certain aspects of 9/11 he’s having his guys look into.
Paul: I’ll talk to him about it.
Student: Yeah, that’d be great. Thank you, thank you very much!
AS I HAVE SAID……..KOOK
That proves what? Nothing.
Reagan has said, “I don’t believe in a government that protects us from ourselves.”
and
“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’ ”
I believe that labels him a kook in your eyes.
I second that post Troy.
Put the recent Paul “victories” or numbers in context, are J-Mac supporters or middle of the road Republicans even showing up to state/county conventions? I don’t think they are because they know J-Mac has the numbers, so why bother. The only people that are coming are the pissed off Paul-ites. The only reason I’ll vote in my state’s primary in a few weeks is for the local offices etc. I’m not even going to bother checking the McCain box.
Good point. The Paul people have NOTHING else to do on election day than to demonstrate their insignificance. HAhAAHA…Like calling into post-debate polls 500 times just so their guy can distort the polling process. What children…HAHAHAHAHAHA
glad my small donation may have helped Bob Barr decide to run… you’ve got him to the right of McCain on economic AND social issues, you’ve got Baldwin for the Constitution party running to the right of him on social issues, and you have McCain running without much of a plan or platform at all…
unified? Brining Hillary supporters to the fold will be easy once they see the nuts they’re running against… the GOP is splintered right now, and its looking pretty
At least the Republicans dont have 30% of their top oppositions voters claiming they will vote for the other party. At least “white-Americans”, “hispanic-Americans”, “seniors”, and “Jews” will vte for McCain. But hey….you do have 97% of the African American vote and white college kids and rich liberals…….Jimmy Carter would be proud.
Obama is Carter “2nd Term”.
“right of McCain on social issues”? Like abortion?
I knew there was a reason I stayed out of this one, sorry Brian.
It is time for me to SHUT-UP about Ron and his KOOK-Fringe-Followers. They are worst than the Obama-maniacs. I have stated my case. If people in here choose to take this LOON seriously than they themselves are proven to be….unserious.
Brian, I hope you realize how insane you, yourself, are starting to look. All the SCREAMING and loon and kook talk has branded you as unreasonable. I get what you’re trying to do, but now most of us (even fellow conservatives) are laughing at you. Disagreeing is one thing, but you’re acting silly and childish. And as for the facts, you can’t possibly think that EVERY SINGLE person who’s voted for Paul is a KOOK and LOON. As I’ve said before, I wouldn’t vote for Paul, but I know a lot of Paul supporters that are good, honest, normal people that think the GOP has gone wayward. And Paul has received their support in HUGE numbers.
So all your ranting on this site has really only done one thing, made us all think YOU’RE the KOOK and LOON.
Ron Paul supporters have joined our local county committee. Before they came along we had five people who attended out of 15 possible. Now we have 11 regulars, five are Paul backers. They have been very willing to work, excited, and show up. We have a DA candidate who, thanks to the efforts of Paul fans got his petition done in two weeks.
They have made it clear they won’t be handing out McCain stuff, but they are all working hard for the lower ticket candidates. They pushed hard to get the Republican Party to come down against the county giving money to the Chamber of Commerce, and raised a stink when the County Chair said in the paper that some times taxes have to go up. He had to go back and make a statement that he was not speaking for the Republican party.
I’ve not found them to be kooky across the board, but some are. (heck even the Pualites voted to not let one on the committee.) They have shaken up this county committee and are pushing the mantra “no taxes, less regulation, no compromise.” If they stay involved they are going to run the Republican party here. Several town candidates are competitive this year because of the Paulites support. Support we could not give, they found three or four Paulites to dedicate to the campaign. The best we were able to do is give each candidate $100.
If the rest of the party is seeing this, Brian, your going to see a lot of state and congressional candidates in the Ron Paul model in a few years. If they are Kooks, well they have revitalized our party at the local level. We have a bunch of young and hard working people now.
This is exactly why I said Ron Paul is the Goldwater of this generation and the impact they will have in 2010/2012.
You may think they are kooks BrianH but they are the ones who will be running the GOP within ten years.
Keep in mind Goldwater won 52 Electors.
How far we have come when we compare voices of Conservatism like Goldwater, Reagan, and Buckley to Paul, 9/11 Truthers, and Anti-Globalization protesters.
Paul and Barr. The rest were your contribution.
Who else has pointed out that the Constitution says Congress has to declare war before we fight one?
I feel we had to go into Afghanistan and Iraq but there are procedures and they weren’t followed.
Reagan wanted to get rid of the Department of Education and others simply because they were not part of the Constitution. Paul and Barr only want to finish what Reagan started. Why have people such as yourself strayed so far away from those beliefs?
I will say this, I think we’ve lost sight of the real debate of this post; which is that Paulians are planning to disrupt the national convention.
I know someone will say that they only plan on doing so if Dr. Paul doesn’t get invited to speak. What exactly do you think he would speak about? He would undoubtably undermine the Republicans national security policy and hurt the Republican nominee.
He’s been invited to almost every debate the Repubs have had this primary season and at every one he’s highlighted the differences he has with Republicans instead of the similarities. If he wanted to talk about limited government or his support for the 2nd ammendment, I’m sure Johnny Mac would let him speak. But you can’t seriously think that Paul or his Paulites would play nice when almost everything they’ve done has suggested they would do otherwise.
It’s time for some “straight talk”. The Iraq war and to some extent the war against islamic jihadists is an unpopular war. No one, and I mean no one, wanted this war. President Clinton ignored the threat that Bin Laden and his followers posed to America and her citizens. When Bush ran in 2000, he ran on the idea that America would largely leave the rest of the world alone. He wanted to privatize social security, cut taxes, increase school choice, and do a long list of things that I don’t remember since I was only 10 at the time. But when two huge passenger planes (filled with fuel) carrying American citizens was flown into the world trade center, everything changed. Was it a mistake to invade Afganistan, no. Was it a mistake to invade Iraq, maybe. But we’re there now, we have the responsibility to the citizens of Iraq and our soldiers who have sacrificed their health and lives to ensure a free and secure Iraq.
In my opinion, it is nothing more than political opprotunism on the part of Dr. Paul to act like he’s the only Republican who doesn’t want war. Once again, no one wants war. But almost no one wants another tragedy like September 11th ever again. It is the responsibility of government to protect its citizens from outside forces, and that is exactly what heroes like John McCain are trying and have tried to do. Unfortunately, some individuals like Dr. Paul are willing to risk another terrorist attack in the name of preventing war. I would a lot rather see terrorists killed in Iraq than innocent American citizens who were only going to work here at home.
We didn’t start this conflict with Jihadis, but rest assured someone is going to finish it. If we don’t, they will.
I think the GOP is too scared to have someone speak at the convention and tell them how far they have strayed from their own beliefs.
PERFECT!! Great post!!
Accept for the fact that many Paul supporters believe that Jews and Govt. flew the planes into the buildings, and then did a “controlled demolition”. HAHAHAHAHA
This has been one of the most hotly debated posts I’ve ever made, and I’d like to weigh in on it.
First of all, I think Brian H has gone off the deep-end and joined the likes of Lazlo with his statements. Am I a Ron Paul supporter? No. Do I respect the man? Yes. Do I agree with all of his views? Hardly.
That doesn’t make him a “KOOK”.
I agree that some of his supporters are a bit extreme, but I also do not agree with becoming a sterotyper like Brian H seems to have done.
I enjoy debating with the likes of Troy, even if I don’t always agree with them, that’s sort of the point of this website.
Troy’s stand is that Ron Paul is the next Barry Goldwater, which is a bold statement. It’s a fine prediction, but that is all it is. It took Goldwater’s conservative movement 16 years to manifest itself. There are a heck of a lot of other “movements” that never took flight, despite the ferver and conviction of its supporters.
Look at George Wallace.
I wish the Paul people luck, and I don’t judge them like some, but I also don’t buy it quite yet.
It will take some time to see if Ron Paul is Barry Goldwater or just another guy trying to make a difference.
You would have to agree that there are a bunch of Paul supporters who are taking action and becoming part of the core of the GOP. That in of itself will change the party.
I’ve run for office before. Seeing rhetoric like Brian H’s only fuels my desire to start again. I think the party needs help. This will be the first election in 24 years that I won’t vote Republican. Normally I would swallow my pride and vote for the lesser of two evils but this time that person is None Of The Above.
I’ll grant that point Troy, but it is still a minority in the party and feel like they aren’t being taken quite so seriously yet.
Like I said, you could be right, in time, they could become a major force.
They could also vanish.
I don’t think Troy is a kook either, I think there’s a distinction (at least in my mind) between your average Libertarian and “Paulites”. That’s not to say that there’s not some sane average Libertarians who are supporting Paul, but the term “Paulite” in my mind is only associated with the fanatics.
Agreed. My point is that many of the Paulites do not represent the Libertarians. At least I hope not, for the Libertarian Party.