Ron Paul Suspends His Campaign

Today, Ron Paul has done something that I can actually support and get behind. He's suspended his campaign. I literally jumped up and down for joy at this news. However, I am not completely thrilled with this news because even though Ron Paul isn't running any more, he's encouraged his supporters to still go to the local conventions and become delegates. 

Obviously, the Paul campaign will continue with its strategy of urging supporters to swamp state conventions and get themselves elected delegates to the national confab. As we’ve written before, this is a clever, cheap way of using complicated delegate-allocation rules to Paul’s advantage.

What the Texas libertarian may be doing is amassing “stealth delegates” – delegates bound by primary or caucus vote to Mitt Romney, or one of the withdrawn GOP candidates, who are personally in favor of Paul. It’s hard to count how many such delegates there are – or whether they’ll abstain in the first round, or otherwise cause some sort of disturbance, in Tampa.

Ron Paul was never in the 2012 race to become President. There were two reasons why Ron Paul jumped into the 2012 race.

The first reason is that Ron Paul wants influence the Republican party platform. Earlier this year, he admitted that he isn't in the race to become President but that he's in the race for the sole purpose of amassing enough delegates so that he can use his delegates as a way of getting the Republican party to adopt his libertarian views on foreign policy, economics and other issues.Furthermore, he admitted on Fox News that he doesn't want the power of being the President but simply wants to influence the Republican Party on matters he considers important. 

However, if that is his goal, Ron Paul has only has 104 delegates as of today. In contrast, Mitt Romney will soon win the GOP nomination since he has 973 of the 1,144 delegates and only needs to secure more 171 delegates to formally become the GOP's nominee. Mitt Romney will get those delegates at the next primaries next Tuesday in Nebraska and Oregon. If not, he'll get them the following Tuesday in Arkansas and Kentucky. By May 29th, he should have the nomination wrapped up in Ron Paul's home state of Texas. After that, we will have the the final primaries will set in California, New Jersey, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota and Utah.

Even with all the dishonest and deceptive tactics used by his supporters to become delegates, it won't disrupt or hurt Mitt Romney at the national convention in Florida: 

Massachusetts aside, the Paul campaign has mainly flexed its muscles in states where Romney didn’t do well — and where Rick Santorum succeeded, such as Minnesota, Iowa, Louisiana, and probably Missouri when they hold their fourth or fifth event that will actually select delegates.  The net effect of the Paul conversion will be to weaken Santorum’s influence, not Romney’s.  Romney will win enough bound delegates from primary states to secure the nomination on the first ballot.

Even though Ron Paul has told CNN’s Newsroom that he doesn't support or like the idea of disrupting the GOP convention, he wants to do what ever he can to insert his political agenda and beliefs into the GOP platform. However, by the time the GOP convention rolls around, he won't have enough delegates to accomplish his short term goal of influencing the GOP platform. Ron Paul will be in a inferior bargaining position in attempting to negotiate with the Republican party into adopting  his views on the national platform. 

Moreover, Mitt Romney and the national Republican party will not tolerate any kind of disruption at the convention which is designed to railroad the GOP to adopt Ron Paul's political beliefs. Nor will they  or even sit at the negotiating table with man who is not a conservative and who conservatives won't support.

Ron Paul knows he won't become President or be picked by Mitt to be his VP. I hope they won't even let Ron Paul speak at the convention.

Ron Paul is delusional if he thinks he can influence the GOP. He can try but it won't work. 

The second reason why Ron Paul jumped into the 2012 race is because even though Ron Paul announced earlier this year that when the 2012 race is over, he will be retiring from politics, his son's political career is just starting. Which means Ron Paul has long term political aspirations for his son and is setting the stage for Rand Paul's eventual run for President: 

The elder Paul’s continued presence in the 2012 presidential race is in large part an effort to secure funds and infrastructure for his son’s own possible White House bid in 2016.

“If [Ron] hadn’t stayed in through the last few weeks, he would not have made those trips to the donors on the West Coast, in California,” said the adviser. “That’s 30 percent of his campaign’s income that will help build his movement for years to come. Yes, Ron is 76 years old, but he has a son.”

However, all of Ron Paul's short and long term plans might crumble if there is a brokered convention or if there is disruption of any kind. If that happens, Ron Paul might make it possible for Obama to win a second term and everyone will blame the Pauls for that.

Despite the good news that Ron Paul has suspended his campaign, conservatives still need to be on the alert at their upcoming state conventions in which Ron Paul supporters will still try to be delegates. If you are a Romney supporter in a state that has an upcoming convention PLEASE try to be there. We must NOT let our guard down. We want to end the deceptive shenanigans of the Raul Paul supporters in order to make  sure nothing happens before the GOP convention in Tampa.