It is not official yet, but the rumors are swirling that Ron Paul will be dropping out of the presidential race. On Friday Ron Paul sent a letter to his supporters saying that he will continue to talk about his message but that he would not be continuing his quest for the presidency.
The good thing about Ron Paul is that he was trying hard to keep the Republicans honest, and cut through their rhetoric on the war. And while he raised large amounts of money, and excited a significant portion of the Republican electorate, he was unable to win any Republican primaries or caucuses. In many ways, Ron Paul was the Dennis Kucinich of the Republican party.
One thing that I am hoping comes out of the this early and unnecessary political whittling process which eliminates the best candidates after a few small states hold primaries and caucuses is that the country takes another look at how this process of primaries and caucuses is done. The system is broken and we need to fix it now. As someone from Maryland, who rarely gets any say whatsoever in who the nominee is going to be, I am furious and ready for a massive change in how the primary system works in America.
Hopefully, America has had the largest and most unpleasant civics lesson in history over the last seven years, and now the electorate is steamed up enough to finally demand that something be done about it. Let's hope so.
Dr. John Moffett is an active research neuroscientist in the Washington, DC area, who has published articles on the nervous and immune systems. Dr. Moffett is also the author and webmaster of the political opinion website www.Factinista.org, and is a Managing Editor at OpEdNews.com.
"On Friday Ron Paul sent a letter to his supporters saying that he will continue to talk about his message but that he would not be continuing his quest for the presidency".
This is simply untrue! In the letter mentioned, Ron Paul clearly states that it is his intention to stay in the race...and I quote:
"With Romney gone, the chances of a brokered convention are nearly zero. But that does not affect my determination to fight on, in every caucus and primary remaining, and at the convention for our ideas, with just as many delegates as I can get".
I guess many people see wat they want to see and report whatever they want to happen as what has in fact happened regardless of the actual facts.
As Reports such as the one above continued to be proliferated, Ron Paul's campaign issued another release that was even more forceful in it's attempt to make it clear that Dr. Ron Paul is not quitting the race...and I quote:
"The presidential campaign is not ending, not being suspended, and not even drawing down. It's slimming down and ramping up - with over twenty states having already voted, we've shed staff, and we're concentrating financial and organization resources on the remaining states. We're going to the convention, and we're fighting for every vote and every National Delegate along the way".
Sir, the first sentence of your article is incorrect. I don't know why you wrote it. Here is the statement Dr. Paul issued:
Whoa! What a year this has been. And what achievements we have had. If I may quote Trotsky of all people, this Revolution is permanent. It will not end at the Republican convention. It will not end in November. It will not end until we have won the great battle on which we have embarked. Not because of me, but because of you. Millions of Americans -- and friends in many other countries -- have dedicated themselves to the principles of liberty: to free enterprise, limited government, sound money, no income tax, and peace. We will not falter so long as there is one restriction on our persons, our property, our civil liberties. How much I owe you. I can never possibly repay your generous donations, hard work, whole-hearted dedication and love of freedom. How blessed I am to be associated with you. Carol, of course, sends her love as well.
Let me tell you my thoughts. With Romney gone, the chances of a brokered convention are nearly zero. But that does not affect my determination to fight on, in every caucus and primary remaining, and at the convention for our ideas, with just as many delegates as I can get. But with so many primaries and caucuses now over, we do not now need so big a national campaign staff, and so I am making it leaner and tighter. Of course, I am committed to fighting for our ideas within the Republican party, so there will be no third party run. I do not denigrate third parties -- just the opposite, and I have long worked to remove the ballot-access restrictions on them. But I am a Republican, and I will remain a Republican.
I also have another priority. I have constituents in my home district that I must serve. I cannot and will not let them down. And I have another battle I must face here as well. If I were to lose the primary for my congressional seat, all our opponents would react with glee, and pretend it was a rejection of our ideas. I cannot and will not let that happen.
In the presidential race and the congressional race, I need your support, as always. And I have plans to continue fighting for our ideas in politics and education that I will share with you when I can, for I will need you at my side. In the meantime, onward and upward! The neocons, the warmongers, the socialists, the advocates of inflation will be hearing much from you and me.
Sincerely,
Ron
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Nathan Higgins (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Sunday, February 10, 2008 at 8:51:59 AM
Hey folks, I didn't report this, I am just commenting on the rumors that are popping up all over the internet.
Dr. Paul will almost certainly not get the nomination, but if he stays in the race for a bit longer, I think that would be great. Anything that keeps the war on the table, and makes McCain squirm, is alright with me.
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John R Moffett (78 articles, 14 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 587 comments)
on Sunday, February 10, 2008 at 9:09:38 AM
Yes, thank you for this, for it was your posting which brought it out. Evidently the "rumor mill" is grinding out the false impression of quitting all over the net and I didn't know what to think about it yet either until clicking up your article.
(-:G
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G Achin (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 20 comments)
on Sunday, February 10, 2008 at 9:46:20 AM
It has become even more evident just HOW the media intends to control the election process. As evidenced by Mr. Moffett's unsubstantiated claim that Ron Paul intends to quit the presidential race. No doubt this may be Mr. Moffett's desire and objective. And it may be that Ron Paul will withdraw in the future, but NOT now. Then after watching the Republican Presidential Debate on CNN, January 28th, and there watching CNN deliberately cutting out the responses of both Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul, it was more obvious what CNN was doing. That being to allow ONLY a two man debate between John McCain and Mitt Romney. CNN may as well have not even invited Mr. Huckabee and Mr. Paul to the debate, just as Fox News did to Mr. Paul in one of their earlier debates. The media wants to control who gets to have air time.
It is also truly unfortunate that Ron Paul has, thus far, been rejected by the voters. I have watched every debate, and every Ron Paul video clip, and it is obvious that Ron Paul has the most sincerest and straight forward objectives and plans to get this country out of the mess we are in right now. And with that rejection, we, as a country, are about to reap our further indebtedness to foriegn countries, along with supporting millions and millions more illegals, and the now shrinking middle class being virtually eliminated over the next eight years.
Luckily, I am old enough that I may not see those results, but I can only say, may GOD help those of you who do!!
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Monte Post (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Sunday, February 10, 2008 at 9:50:24 AM
Indeed, it was released on AP recetnly that Dr. Paul has vowed to stay in the race for now.
But he is downsizing his campaign, and if he isn't careful, he may lose his seat House seat, like Dennis Kucinich might, if he doesn't pay any attention to keeping his current day job.
What it sounds like is that he won't drop out but he won't do much campaigning, deciding instead to concentrate on winning reelection to the House. So he's not fully out or fully in. This works best for a candidate like Paul, who is not charismatic but attracts people through ideas, which can be spread without his personal presence.
There is a great deal of dissatisfaction in the Republican Party. In Washington State, McCain "won" according to the rules but only got 26% of the vote. That 74% voted against the anointed candidate speaks volumes. And in the other states, Huckabee won by landslides. So McCain is the likely nominee, but much of his Party doesn't like him. BTW Paul came in a strong 3rd in Washington.
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Bill Samuel (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 180 comments)
on Sunday, February 10, 2008 at 12:35:19 PM
For most of us Ron Paul supportors we know that the only hope for American is Ron Paul and we cannot give up on his message and him. With Mitt Romney gone and a chance Huckabee will be fading fast, Ron Paul does have a chance.
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Rick Theile (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 49 comments)
on Sunday, February 10, 2008 at 1:01:42 PM
You shouldn't report rumors on the Internet. In this case, the rumors turned out to be wrong. Ron Paul's web site has reiterated the fact that he's staying in the race.
He is now focusing on winning the primary for the Republican nomination to his congressional seat. That will be held on March 4. After that, the smoke will have cleared somewhat as to which direction the Republican Party is going. He could, at that time, decide to go third party. The Libertarian has its nominating convention in early May, and the Constitution Party's is in late April. So, there's still plenty of time, but right now Dr. Paul is focusing on his congressional campaign, where the Republican establishment is trying to defeat him.
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michael ketcher (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 6 comments)
on Sunday, February 10, 2008 at 5:24:28 PM
The Constitution (sic) Party advocated killing drug dealers, so there is no chance Paul would ever, in his wildest dreams, think of associating with them. The Libertarian Party has no interest in embracing Dr. Paul either.
Paul has said in no uncertain terms that he will NOT run as a third party candidate and I believe him.
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M. Bennett (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 55 comments)
on Monday, February 11, 2008 at 12:42:54 AM
Honestly, you call yourself a "Research scientist" yet you fail to check even the most primary, obvious, easily accessible source, the ronpaul2008.com? Instead, you take the gossip-mongering word of people that are the SWORN ENEMY of Dr Paul and his entire agenda, at Wonkette? That's beyond a joke.
Your title is irresponsible, in the extreme. It is being picked up by Google News, and is the greatest attempt at sensationalist beatup I have ever seen. Are you really that desperate for page views?
Ron Paul is still VERY much in the race. He is scaling back a few staff because he had geared up to be able to campaign in 24 states at one time, for Super Tuesday. He can do it much more efficiently now, by having less staff moving between states. He's being fiscally responsible, just as he would be with our tax dollars.
You should just delete this entire page. It's a waste of space.
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Nomen Nescio (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Sunday, February 10, 2008 at 7:51:52 PM
As sad as it is, I have been reading the pundits talking about how a John McCain/Joe Lieberman ticket may be the team on the Republican side and who knows about the Democrats. I think Ron Paul made a major mistake not leaving the Republican party and running as an Independent. He would certainly get more name recognition and his platform (which the Republicans have all but abandonded) would certainly get more play as well. I have NEVER (in the history of the Internet) seen anyone get as much support as this one man and his ideas. What with the blimp, the limo, the moneybombs, everything! I have never seen so many people rally around a man like this. The neocons are winning, however, and maybe Ron Paul knows this.
It would be HUGE if he ran as an Independent and as much as I have rallied for his cause and in all my 55 years finally became an activist for a Presidential candidate (which is huge in itself), I realize he knows the odds against him are not good the way things are not. I know all the other candidates are already bought and paid for and I have said this same thing commenting here time and time again. Whether it be McCain, Clinton/Clinton, or Obama - they are just puppets, ready to do the bidding of the bankers that control the neocon party, as that is what our Country has turned out to be run by.
I hope Dr. Paul wins his seat again in his district even though I know he doesn't have a chance in the Presidential election the way things stand now. But I also hope that the surge of Constitutionalists that Dr. Pauls has brought out (especially in young people), it will continue way after the electtion. As I know that the law as it is written, the politicians work for us, and we can get rid of them whenever we want.
So, we need to continue to get our friends, neighbors, strangers sick and tired and mad enough to not sit around an take it any more. I was apathethic way too long and with eight years of Shrub Jr., eight years of Clinton, and four years of Shrub Sr., wouldn't you say 20 years is quite long enough for the neocons to get their grips on us and try to get us to go "their way". I say NO, and I'm not going to give up the fight. From the movie Network a long time ago (around 1971), a broadcaster had lost it and said he was damn mad at what is being reported and he wasn't going to take it anymore. I'd like to see enough of America get DAMN MAD and gather together and NOT take getting run over anymore.
Let's not give up on Ron Paul yet, unless and until we hear it from him that he's finished and drops out of the election. Rumors are 'conveniently' placed in the media. Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear. If and until, I'm still going to back Ron Paul no matter what. Our kids futures and their kids' futures depend on it.
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MsTweetie (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 14 comments)
on Sunday, February 10, 2008 at 7:56:05 PM
It's to bad if he does quit. He runs circles around McCain as a choice, and we know McCain won from the fixed New Hampshire Primary. It is a mess, a cheat, and a absolute loss for America and I certainly have no ambitions in voting this year or any year in the future.
What's the sense in voting for a lousy candidate? But the guys who control the money control who gets in, to keep them going. Whoever thinks this is right and continues to support it I guess is good for them, but is not responsible government.
All I know is I am glad Hugo Chavez cut off some oil spickets. Whoever wins we are going to be at this again and again, like a broken record, facing rigged elections, and getting more and more war.
Ron Paul is not strong enough to fix it. If Hugo Chavez can't stop the fraud, how can Ron Paul? How can any of us. They want us to swallow them whole, stop complaining and work like slave dogs for them.
I quit along time before Ron Paul even began.
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Dom Jermano (20 articles, 0 quicklinks, 40 diaries, 934 comments)
on Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 4:17:53 AM
