For a great variety of reasons, I don’t think Ron Paul will run on the Libertarian Party ticket should he (as most expect) fail to win the Republican nomination. Indeed, I would wager that he will end up endorsing the GOP nominee. (Will explore this in a subsequent post.)
Given my theory, I quickly clicked on a link on Yahoo!’s home page: Ron Paul Quietly Plots Backup Strategy While Seeking the Nomination:
But behind the scenes Campaign Manager Jesse Benton admits to ABC News that the team is plotting a back up strategy in case the congressman doesn’t pull in enough delegates to become the nominee.
If the campaign comes up short at the convention, Benton says the plan is to use all the delegates awarded to Paul as a bargaining chip to force the Republican Party to stick to its limited government platform.
To this, I say, “Right on!” If Paul can use his prominence in the primaries to push his party toward free market principles, then his candidacy will have indeed served a positive purpose.
And Republicans can get all the good the Texas Congressman has to offer (free market principles) without the baggage (newsletters and foreign policy).
Dr. Paul doesn’t really want to be president. I don’t think he wants to help reelect Obama by splitting the vote against him, either. He just wants a seat at the table.
The Republicans will keep his nuttier notions from ever seeing the light of day. The more radical libertarians need the GOP as a steadying influence; left to their own devices, they’d destroy their own movement.
I don’t think people need to fear Ron Paul. He says some dumb things, but he also brings a lot of good things to the table.
I hope he doesn’t. I mean, really, how could you endorse any of the other candidates when their stances are so differing and anathema to yours. I would like him to simply tell his delegates to do as they wish and be done with it.