Zealotry inaction
While Obama and Romney hack away at each other in an exercise that’s sure to get tedious by about tomorrow, some very earnest and committed folks are doing their best to bring protest, disruption, and maybe even full-on chaos to their party’s convention in August.
Ladies and gentlemen, don’t forget about Good Ole Grampa Ron.
In the latest move made by passionate Paul peeps, they just pulled the same maneuver in Iowa they recently pulled here in Nevada. That is, they showed up at the Iowa state convention this past weekend (Jun. 16) and hijacked delegates that everybody just sorta assumed would go to either Santorum, because he won the freakin’ caucus in January, or Romney, because Mitt’s now running for president. But after all the electioneering was over, it was none other then good ole Ron who copped 21 of the 25 Iowa delegates.
This immediately brings to mind the question—if you can do stuff like that in terms of determining your delegates, what the hell is the point of having caucuses/primaries? In this same vein, there’s a new lawsuit in California that seeks to give all delegates permission to vote their conscience on the first ballot. If that suit goes anywhere, it’s basically a ticket to convention anarchy, so look for it to be quickly quashed. But it also shows the fervency factor of Ron’s supporters.
If the New York Times’ latest delegate count is accurate, all this Paul talk is vapor. The Times has Romney’s delegates at 1480, with only 1144 needed to win the nomination. It lists Paul’s delegate count at 137. So it’s all over, right?
The candidate himself seems to think so. In a recent e-mail to supporters, Paul wrote, “while this total is not enough to win the nomination, it puts us in a tremendous position to grow our movement and shape the future of the GOP!” But the diehards won’t die, and you gotta figure Ron loves it. Many of them are now pressing for delegates who aren’t devoted to Romney to abstain from the first ballot at the convention, hoping that enough will heed that call to bring about a second ballot. If that were to happen, things could get interesting. Very interesting. Most delegates are only committed to a candidate for that first ballot. Once you go beyond Ballot Number One …
Ron Paul voted against the Iraq War, the Patriot Act and every congressional pay raise. There’s much to like about the man, certainly when compared to Romney, a poster boy for imperious and impervious plutocrats if there ever was one. There will be a three-day “Ron Fest” in Tampa right before the convention, and it’s now obvious most of those folks won’t be there hoping to just get some of Paul’s positions included in the party platform. They’ll be there with hopes of frying up some much bigger fish. I wish them the very best.
