Some other notes from other comments here:

The CP and LP will not combine anytime soon for one reason: religion. The CP tends to bring it into the equation while the LP tends to leave it out, and that will keep them separate.

Greg M is right in that Paul going third party puts his House seat in trouble. Twits like Eric Dondero would love that.

Nice to see Steve Dasbach around. Steve, what have you been up to since you left the LNC-EDship?

Paul-Kucinich would never work as they are polar opposites when it comes to power of government and its use.

Ditto Paul-Lieberman. Rumor has it that Lieberman may be tapped to be the new AG for Junior to swing the Senate to the Rs after the R CT Governor appoints a R in his place, thereby shutting down all investigations in the Senate into the Bush regime.

Keep up the good fight, all, and victory in Texas Saturday!

I’ll take his advice rather than yours about what is a ‘waste’.

Rather than Unity 08, combining efforts with the the two political cousins, the Libertarian Party and the Constitution Party, their ballot lines would make baloot access possible for most states, but there are still a few that present real challenges. Oklahoma could be achieved via a non-partisan run, however its petitioning requirements are steep by anyone’s estimation.

Assuming Dr. Paul did not make such a decision before the primaries, there are also other obstacles in the few states that consider “sore loser laws” still to apply to presidential races. (South Dakota, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas) However, most experts think that previous historica election precedent would likely be upheld over those state’s attempts to block his ballot position - although it is not guaranteed.

Unity 08 also blissfully ignores the fact that candidates of entirely different philosophical approaches to governance would not find it easy, if even possible to run together. Some have bandied about the idea of a Paul/Kucinich Unity 08 run as they both are against the Iraq war and find some agreement on issues petaining to civil liberties - but considering that Paul is a Constitutionalist limited government type and Kucinich is a progressive socialist type, their policy positions diverge sharply from there in opposite directions. They both seem like nice men, personality wise, but how they could run for office together on a presidential ticket escapes my imagination.

Unity 08 seems built for candidates who would stand for practically nothing - together. (But don’t we have that already in good measure in the two major parties?)

Bottom line is the supporters of Ron Paul and constitutional government need to use every moment now to build support for his candidacy regardless of what he chooses to do. Right now, as much as I am not a eager devotee of the elephant shrine, the GOP run provides him the best platform for his message.

Did I also mention that his re-election race for his House seat would likely be threatened if he went Third party and/or Independent? Assuming his bid for the White House fails, the loss of him in the U.S. House as well would not be insignificant to the cause of liberty.

Sometimes it seems there really is no easy (or even moderately hard) path. Nevertheless, giving up is not an option if our nation is to have hope for the future. Dr. Paul is the best candidate I have seen running for the office of president in my lifetime. He is a far better candidate than he was in 1988. His many years of constitutionally dedicated public service, his example of faithfulness to his oath of office and his proven dedication to the cause of liberty is simply unmatched.

Ron Paul will win the nomination - there is no other Republican candidate out there that creates enthusiasm like Ron Paul.

Every day the campaign gets more votes, more support and more money. Everyone else is losing support and sure the heck is not getting any money.

Ron Paul 2008

Dr. Paul should stay right where he is. So many years of Republicans and Democrats writing the rules of elections, not to mention incumbency, name recognition and free press coupled with the winner-take-all election format have put institutional barriers in place such that make a third party win all but impossible unless a significant percentage of ELECTED Democrats and/or Republicans jump ship in favor of the new party. Even then, the new party will eventually replace one of the old two partys and you once again have a two party situation. What ever happend to the Whigs?

I have no illusions of Dr. Paul winning the nomination. But the message is more important than the individual. As a republican Dr. Paul receives some measure of legitimacy to libertarian ideology. He is already elected and established at the national level and as an established national party member, is poised in the best position to bring attention to the all important message of liberty that has been forgotten over the 20th century.

Dr. Paul took 9% in Iowa as a Republican. While this doesn’t mean he should start making plans to move into the White House, it does now make us a force that the Republican establishment must recognize. Contemporary presidential elections are won by a slim majority of electoral votes and 1 to 2% of popular votes. We are an unruly and unyeilding bunch most of whom will not support another republican if Paul does not get the nod. If the republicans want us (they need us!) they are going to have to dance to a few more of our tunes and I believe this was one of the primary reasons for Dr. Paul running knowing full well the entire contest would be uphill.

Because unlike nearly every other candidate from both parties, Dr. Paul’s campaign is not about an attraction to power or stroking his own ego, it’s about the message and while we may not like the Democrats and Republicans, it is only through them that this message can reach it’s full potential.

Honestly, would any of us, or the media, or myspace or You Tube be wasting this much time and brainpower on the rantings of Libertarian Candidate Ron Paul?

I suspect you’re perpetually puzzled, poor thing.

Why doesn’t McCain run on a 3rd party ticket, or Guiliani? Neither has a chance to win on the GOP ticket.

Conservatives won’t vote for them.

If Dr. Paul doesn’t get the nomination, I doubt very seriously if he will elect to run on a third party ticket again. Been there, done that. He knows full well that the stonewalling he’s getting from the media these days is absolutely nothing compared to the universal ignoring that is inflicted upon third party candidates. Remember, he ran as a Libertarian in 1988. He had the same ideas then as he does now, but he couldn’t get himself heard. Our best chance is to get him heard and to do that he needs to be affiliated with one of the Big Two. He has worked for the past long and hard to get himself into this position. Switching parties and then running immediately would have effected his credibility. But now he’s a longtime Republican.

The Republican Party hacks appear to be more than willing to sacrifice ‘08 rather than have a threat to the establishment to ascend to power.

In any case, Unity ‘08 appears to have a platform of nothing other than expediency. The Republican Party platform is a sufficient home for Paul.

It is important that Ron Paul stays in the Primary. Winning is not as important as putting up the best fight possible, to the bitter end. Think the 300 spartans at thermopylae, or Travis and Crockett at the Alamo. This could set the stage for a renewal of the republican party, with a new libertarian edged activism and new congressmen across the country demanding their constitutional authority back from the executive.

1- As a Republican he would get all of the Republican, Libertarian & Constitutionalist votes, he would get a large chunk of the independent and democratic vote and he would get every vote from people that do not want Hillary in office. I’m not sure any other candidate could muster the same level of support across all the parties.

2- As a 3rd party, Ron Paul would take the votes from the Libertarian party, the true conservative Republicans, the independents and the anti-war democrats. He still may end up winning easily. I know one thing for sure, any Republican other than Ron Paul will lose the bid for the white house in 08.

The GOP needs to wake up to this reality.

Because, how else can the GOP turn itself around??? If they don’t then they wind up like the Whigs before them and the next Civil War breaks out shortly thereafter. History will repeat itself. The GOP leadership is far too shortsighted to see it, and it will sink them and their Party with them, unless they nominate Paul, who can save both the GOP and the USA.

“If Paul breaks off from the GOP now and says that the party doesn’t represent real conservative values anymore, which is doesn’t, then he can mount a credible 3rd party run. If he gets to the primaries and doesn’t win and then starts a 3rd party bid…his credibility is DOA.”

Paul is a paid life member of the LP. He did that back before his ‘88 run. However, your last sentence here shows ignorance of the actual calendar next year. Super Tuesday is Feb 5. The LNC is Memorial Day Weekend in Denver. RNC is in August in St. Paul. LP Bylaws would allow Paul to get the LP nomination regardless of his GOP standing because of his membership. Therefore it is possible for Paul to be both the LP and GOP nominee simultaneously after St. Paul. That could easily happen (and I won’t be surprised if it does!) whether Ron Paul seeks a 3rd party nomination or not. Paul has said he won’t seek a 3rd party run. It may find him anyway without him looking for it, and I think he knows that.

What you’ll see happen is that come the primaries Paul will get votes in significant numbers from the GOP and you’ll also see him get write-in votes in good numbers from the DP and LP. Whether the MSM has the balls to report that remains to be seen, but the across-the-spectrum grassroots support that has been going on under the MSM radar in cyberspace and in the straw polls will show itself loud and clear in the primaries. You’ll also see that in the open-primary states Paul will fare better than the closed-primary states, mainly because the closed-primary states are closing their primaries (like CA has done) to shut out Paul’s support from the independents and other non-GOPers. The GOP is so determined to keep Paul from winning the nomination that they’ll shoot themselves in the head for the general election in the process. They’ll do it because they know if he wins, they’re out, and they don’t want to be out. So that means they are exercising a pure and blatant conflict of interest by treating Paul the way they are, rather than be impartial and support whomever the GOP membership chooses to be their standard-bearer. This is political party corruption at its finest, and it is the story that NOBODY in the MSM is talking about, and no bloggers have picked up on it yet, either. But that is the Inside Baseball here.

Paul is not only challenging the status quo in DC but in the GOP, and that makes a lot of people nervous. That’s good to see. So why mess up that great political theater and possibly see the biggest political upset since Truman beat Dewey?

There is no reason for Ron Paul to even consider running as an independent or third party candidate until after Super Tuesday, and he could probably wait even longer to decide.

Unity08 won’t make its pick until after the D & R nominees are known; neither will the Libertarian Party and the Constitution Party. Ron Paul could certainly get at least one of these ballot lines — probably any of them.

We (Ron Paul and his supporters) should continue putting 100% of our effort into winning the Republican nomination. If we are ultimately unsuccessful despite our best efforts, there will be plenty of time to consider where to go from there.

I think Ron Paul’s candidacy defies the whole political process. You finally have an honest, humble candidate who’s winning not by being a politician, but by being an academic. I don’t think you have a single candidate who can say they debated economics with Milton Friedman, and seems to embody the same distaste for American foreign policy as Noam Chomsky. Ron Paul’s broad intellegence allows him to run laps around any radio show host who tries to talk him into a corner.

If Ron Paul continues to build this momentum, and if his support grows on the Meetups to about a hundred thousand- I would like him to run as a third party candidate, but I think you have to understand that he’s a very old man and it wouldn’t be fair to have him campaign for an entire year just to send a message to the political process.

There’s still plenty of time ahead and anything can happen.

I think generally, both sides are right; Ron Paul does have a true ideological clash with the Neocon-contaminated Republican party that’s pretty much a brick wall to any sort of nomination, but for now, he can get the most exposure possible through the Republican party.

Besides, if he does do well at the primaries, and decides to run on a third party ticket, he’ll have another six months at the election, verses now, where he only has a couple months.