Ron Paul no longer a "contender"

Supporters of Congressman Ron Paul have deluged us with emails since Steve Walsh referred to him in a Saturday story as a “former” Republican candidate for President.

Some of the emails have been kindly reminders from True Believers that he is not a former candidate at all but is still in the race. Some of the emails have been more in the vein of harassment. Some of the emails have been tasteless, emotional, and insulting. Perhaps it would be good for the Paul supporters to consider whether a potential voter receiving the kinds of messages some of these emails contained would want to support him because of the company he apparently keeps.

So, okay, we will agree that Ron Paul is not a “former” candidate. He is a “wannabe” candidate whose supporters -- based on some of the emails we have received -- believe a meteor will fall on John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, and others who have generated significantly more broad support throughout this nation than has Mr. Paul and therefore clear the way for him to become the GOP standard-bearer.

One email said that John McCain could drop dead before the Republican National Convention, a generally tasteless comment we thought. The same might be said of Ron Paul who is, after all, more than a year older than John McCain.

But let us not wish terminal misfortune on any of our candidates.

We’ve checked a couple of sources to see just how strong Ron Paul’s support has been through the primary/caucus experience so far. One website, realclearpolitics.com, says McCain has 1260 delegates locked up. Romney has 272. Huckabee has 270, and Ron Paul has a robust 24. CNN.com puts McCain at 1243 and Paul at 21.

We could quibble about whether someone with 21-24 votes (some Paul supporters claimed as of February 6 that Paul had all of 42 delegates) while someone else has the delegates needed to get a first-ballot nomination is still really a candidate. But that’s useless discussion for the Ron Paul loyalists. Ron Paul has not pulled out of the campaign, they remind us in various nice-to-nasty ways, and until he does, they are a force to be reckoned with.

Before, dear reader, you dismiss the Paul True Believers as delusional, please consider that they are in many ways what this country is all about.

The old cliché that “anybody can grow up to be President” is certainly not true. But anybody CAN grow up to RUN for President. And when they run they give a public voice to others. They might be kooks. They might be philosophers. They might be heretics. They might be in favor of white slavery, free love, a return to the monarchy, destruction of the First Amendment, the elimination of all things that are carbon-based (which would eliminate a lot of voters, come to think of it), oppose the eating of any plant or animal matter, want to return to the days of the open range, or want to deport all non-native people. Perhaps they want universal health insurance, reinstatement of the draft, and immediate nuking of any nation that disagrees with us.

That’s part of the magic of our nation. You and I can run for the nation’s highest office. We might be irrelevant in the grand plan for the eventual election of the next President of the United   States, but to those who are our True Believers, we are totally relevant and are the fulcrum on which they can apply the lever to move the world.

So to the Paul People we hereby concede your candidate is not a “former” candidate.

Is he a relevant candidate? To you, he is and we are never going to say you are not free to believe in a candidate and to passionately espouse that candidate’s causes although we wish some of you would show a little more maturity and rationality than you showed with your emails. .

Does the Missourinet consider him a contender? Sorry. No. Candidate? Yes, but not a contender. 

If a meteor does fall and if Mr. Paul becomes the Republican nominee, we’ll cover that process and the ensuing campaign as it affects Missourians.

But if he doesn’t make it, how many of the people who showed little or no class  and were pretty poor personal representatives of Ron Paul with their emails will send us a note of apology for their over-zealousness?

Probably not many. But that’s part of our political system, too.

Bob Priddy
News Director
The Missourinet

Comments

[Ken Bruce]

If a man decides to run for President of the United States, and is not doing well in the polls, I beleive the press should give him as much print as a man or woman that is doing well at the polls. Name recognition is priority 1 in any type of election so not only you but to the press in general...... shame on you!!!

[FLO]

Dear Bob Priddy,

Please be a Ron Paul supporter for one week. You will then understand what 350,000 volunteers in this country have been threw just trying to get media coverage for a Republican candidate for President of the United States of America.
You could get better press in Cuba. NO JOKE!
People get frustrated constantly fighting for what should be nearly a given.

[Jim Palmisano]

Mr. Priddy,

It seems that you will continue the massive effort that the mainstream media did to play down Dr. Paul. I threw a rally for him on June 15th last year in Kansas City where nearly 1200 people showed up to support him. The Kansas City Star didn't even send a reporter nor did any local radio or tv stations show up. Meanwhile all you heard in the mainstream media was Guiliani, McCain or Romney.

Then I attended the Ames Straw Poll in August where Romney spent nearly $5 million and bussed in thousands of people and paid them to spend a day at the poll and vote for him. Ron Paul had a good showing there and was completely kept out of mainstream reporting. Even to the point of skipping his name and posting Guiliani as next in votes.

This massive effort by the mainstream media has continued to this day. Keeping him out of important debates, marginalizing and ridiculing him in the debates he was allowed to participate. They even turned up the mics so Guiliani's rude and childish giggling could be heard over Dr. Paul.

He was kept out of the Debate right before New Hampshire. His supposed second place in Louisiana was not even reported which he actually won but the Louisiana GOP hacks cheated him out of it(which is being legally challenged as we speak). Ignoring his second place in Nevada. Fox News not even posting his name on election day broadcasts. Not including him in the Candidate Comparison that the AP sent out the day before Super Tuesday and was printed in most major newspapers around the country. I worked my polling place on Super Tuesday and many people had never heard of him. I wonder why.

I could go on and on with a multitude of examples but it would take a book.

The majority of this country has been cheated out of hearing from the most honest and intelligent Presidential candidate probably in the history of our country next to the likes of our founders.

We will not allow the Corporate heads and power brokers of this country decide who is to be our next President.

Ron Paul's message has ignited a worldwide movement that has only just begun and it won't go away. We showed that last weekend at the Caucuses.

We want freedom, liberty and peace and we're willing to fight for it. It's plain to see that you know nothing about what is really happening to this once great country. I hope you'll take the time to learn before it's too late for it will be too late for ALL of us.

[Ralph]

Bob, I am a support some of Dr. Paul's ideas which are really not his. They come for the constitution and that's where I put my belief. Ron is just a spokesman and I believe he is a hard working and sincere man. The future is always scary, however, the common question, "where is our country heading"? keeps fresh in the minds of tax paying citizens. I do agree and I would believe that Dr. Paul would feel the same way about those supports which are rude and tired of what is going on in our country. I pray for all leaders in the USA to come together in a common bond. FREEDOM!!! After all these years, we're still battling.

Just ask Obama's minister.

Thanks for your opinion. RP