Ron Paul barely made a dent in the Republican primaries and he’s openly attacked the Republican nominee and suggested that it would be best if his supporters voted for a third-party candidate such as Bob Barr or the Constitution Party’s Chuck Baldwin, so it’s no real surprise that he isn’t exactly a welcome guest in St. Paul this week:
Paul is expecting 10,000 supporters to attend a daylong rally Tuesday, at which numerous libertarian and independent-minded speakers, such as former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura, Grover G. Norquist, and Tucker Carlson, will discuss his agenda for a smaller government, lower taxes and an end to the Iraq war. The convention will be held across the river from the Republican convention, at the arena where the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves play, and will include a performance by blues guitarist Jimmie Vaughan, speeches and panel discussions.
(…)
Paul said he organized his counterconvention after officials at the Republican National Committee told him he would not be permitted to address their convention. Paul said the RNC has also limited his access to the convention floor, and his movements at the hall will be monitored by the party. He is not supporting John McCain’s candidacy, but he said his event should not be viewed as a protest.
“What we’re doing is, we’re having a rally. It’s a celebration not intended to obstruct or complain,” Paul said. “It’s also to make a point.”
So there’s a counter-convention called the Rally For The Republic that is being held alongside the Republican National Convention. And, interestingly enough, The Washington Times is reporting that the McCain Campaign is talking to Paul about an enodrsement:
The McCain campaign, acting through the Republican National Committee, has been negotiating with Rep. Ron Paul to win his support and acquire the names of his sympathizers among the 4,607 delegates and alternates at the Republican National Convention, according to a senior aide to the Texas congressman.
The aim is to try to win support for the John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket from Paul sympathizers, some of whom formally committed to Mr. Paul during his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination and others of whom are closet sympathizers of his libertarian brand of Republicanism.
Sen. McCain and national party strategists worry that Mr. Paul’s sympathizers will vote for Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party candidate and former Republican congressman who shares many of Mr. Paul’s views.
Mr. Paul has refused to endorse Mr. McCain, and Mr. McCain’s operatives have refused to let him address the Republican National Convention.
The discussion it seems, has gotten fairly detailed:
Mr. Benton said Mr. Paul is negotiating with convention officials - who are in effect McCain campaign representatives - for permission to make the rounds on the convention floor Wednesday in the company of his personal security guard, communications director and political aides.
Mr. Paul has said he will speak respectfully about Mr. McCain in return for the convention granting the entourage access to the floor of the Xcel Energy Center. Mr. Paul, as a member of Congress and a member of the Texas delegation, automatically has floor access for himself.
Earlier negotiations to have Mr. Paul address the convention fell through because the congressman would not change his position on the war in Iraq, which he opposes as needless and self-defeating for the United States.
He also was denied permission to address the Republican Platform Committee last week in Minneapolis, Mr. Benton said. He said Mr. Paul wanted to discuss the foreign-policy planks in the platform, but the McCain forces who controlled the platform proceedings, as well as the Rules Committee and the Credentials Committee, objected.
The Times’ Ralph Zallow interviews Paul about today’s rally here:
So, what to make of these supposed negotiations ?
Well, today on CNN, Paul seemed to downplay them:
CNN: A report I read this morning that the McCain campaign and the Republican National Convention are actively reaching out to you to try to get your support for Senator McCain’s candidacy. is that true?
PAUL: I wouldn’t put it in those words. (laughs)
CNN: How would you put it?
PAUL: Imagine — I don’t even know where they got a statement like that! I mean, we’ve been reaching out. we were requesting whether I could come to the floor. and really, we’ve been just up against a wall.
CNN: So they haven’t been reaching out to you?
PAUL: I wouldn’t call it that. They had one individual come talk to us and said with a would we like. We listed a lot of things. We said could we come to the floor? They said yeah under very very restricted conditions. A Republican congressman should have a pass to the floor but they said your pass will be at the gate and you can pick it up when you leave and you can’t take anybody with you. I mean, my staff — they said we would have three guest passes that i could take on to the floor with me, but they never confirmed that.
So, would Ron Paul really endorse John McCain in exchange for a spot on the platform this week ?
I for one would be shocked to see it happen.
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Had it been McCain and someone with a bit of leadership acumen, I could have held my nose and voted for McCain. However, by picking the notoriously snotty, vindictive, Palin in a shallow attempt to win Hillary’s supporters, McCain alienated most of the Middle Class men and women who are the core of the Republican Party.
By showing contempt for the Ron Paul supporters, the Party leadership have pissed away the goodwill of MILLIONS of new voters who were mobilized by the Ron Paul revolution.
Here in Virginia, Ron Paul attracted a huge turn out at the annual Republican Advance. Those folks, many of whom are tech savvy, could have been quickly welcomed into local committees and put to work on behalf of local GOP candidates. Instead, the “old guard” treated these fine, patriotic citizens as if they were trailer park trash relatives showing up, un-invited, to the county club cotillion.
The only reason the McCain staff wanted to know who the “Paulistinians” were, was so they could take action to neutralize any demonstrations.
The right thing for the Party to have done, would have been to welcome Ron Paul as a key speaker at the Convention. He earned that right and America deserves to hear his ideas.
I hope that the Paulistinians raise holy Hell at the Convention and that they get a great turn-out at the Ron Paul join-up. I am not sure how many will make it in person, since many of us have work, or class to attend on Tuesday, but you can bet MILLIONS will watch the Ron Paul event via the web and later on DVD, More people will see Ron Paul, than those who will suffer through watching that charade of a Convention.
With Palin dragging the ticket into the sewer, I will likely vote for one of the alternative parties. I expect that, after being treated with such utter contempt by the GOP leadership, many of the Ron Paul supporters will not work for McCain and especially not Tammy Faye Palin.
Paulistinians will likely support Mr. Barr, which means we shall all start practicing saying, “President Obama.”
Oh well, four more years of uninspired, incompetent leadership won’t kill the Republic; or will it?
September 3rd, 2008 at 9:02 am
I believe that Ron Paul could have gotten alot farther along in the primaries except for his radical supporters. They remind me of the Obama supporters in that they worship the ground Paul walks on and treat him as their messiah. Paul’s message was/is important in many ways, but his manner of hearding his supporters is less than admirable. He could have handled the whole thing much more commendably, and gotten his message out more effectively had he used his influence in ways other than to take his radicals to the RNC convention area. The pictures I saw on TV with the slashed tires, broken windows and other violent tactics were anarchy unleashed. I believe that many of those were Paul antiwar supporters. A Paul blogsite was frantic with telling everyone to shout and disagree and to make as much ruckus and noise as possible & etc at the convention. No wonder the McCain people barred them. And, I don’t believe for a minute that many of the supporters will do anything but write his name in on November 4, they have already said that. Then they were advised to go to the precinct the next day and make sure their votes were counted. Can you say- President Obama?