Ron Paul Hints At Third Party…If Supporters Want It
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, 3rd Party, Ron PaulYeah, yeah, I know he keeps saying he won’t run, but take a look at this and tell me he isn’t hinting that if you keep sending him money, he’ll make an independent bid.
For weeks rumors have swirled that Paul, who trails his opponents in national and state polls, will eventually run as an independent or libertarian candidate.“I have no intention of doing that,” Paul told The Trail.
Asked how he’d respond if his supporters clamored for him to mount a run outside the GOP, Paul responded: “We’ll see if the supporters keep sending the money. But right now, our focus is on Feb. 5th.”
Folks, that’s the biggest window I’ve seen from Paul since he started being asked these questions. I think he was pretty miffed at being excluded from the Fox forum on Sunday and now he’s thinking that running in direct opposition to the GOP candidate may not be such a bad thing.
Just wild speculation on my part, but if his campaign is really about the message, not the man, he knows he has to mount a 3rd party bid in order to keep that message going. He knows if he starts polling in the double digits nationally that he can get into the national debates.
So, If you keep dropping money bombs in his lap, he’s much more apt to go 3rd party. The ball is in your court…
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January 7th, 2008 at 9:29 am
If every primary is going to be like Iowa, where the majority of his base is independents,then he should go for it.
January 7th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Justin likes turtles.
January 7th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Do it.
January 7th, 2008 at 10:02 am
We don’t want it. We want our party back and the hijackers excorted out of the country.
January 7th, 2008 at 10:07 am
We must take care to not look too far ahead just yet. The GOP is the goal as of right now. He will have a much better chance for the White House. If he goes independent then he may split the vote and who knows who would be presedent. Look at what happend to Ross Perot. Just focus on the job at hand and we will burn the other bridge later when were on it. Ron Paul ‘08
January 7th, 2008 at 10:09 am
I would say thats a pretty wide window to him being open for a run. We’ll see hwo the nationwide primaries do, but I’m guessing he’ll do at least 15% in NH, just because there won’t be all those bible thumpers there to inflate the votes for huckabee.
January 7th, 2008 at 10:13 am
If Paul supporters leave then the GOP doesn’t stand a chance in Nov. Many/Most of his supporters won’t vote for any of the other GOP candidates and Ron Paul will spend that $20 Million helping the Democrats make the GOP look like war mongerers. If he goes 3rd party he won’t pull from the Dems.. he’ll pull votes from the GOP. Hide and watch.. the GOP either gets behind him or goes down in Nov.
January 7th, 2008 at 10:16 am
We don’t want it.
We recognize there is no possibility of Paul winning the presidency running as a 3rd party, but more importantly, we recognize there is no possibility of a Republican president if Paul doesn’t get the nomination.
January 7th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Why does all the pundits continue to harp on this issue. True Republicans want their part back from the neo-conservative movement. The neo-conservative movement does not follow the true conservative position as evidenced by excessive spending at the federal level. Just look at how much the debt has increased under the reign of Bush. We are going to take back our party!
January 7th, 2008 at 10:35 am
I don’t know the Democrats are warmongers too. This could be our chance to take the country back. The Democrats are also drugwarmongers too.
If Ron can not save the Republican Party it just might be time to paint the 2 party system as the police state power hungery socialist war pigs they are.
January 7th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Is any 3p campaign really ever “about the message”? At best, the message is, “Look at me, I’ve bought into my own press!”
January 7th, 2008 at 10:37 am
I hope he goes for it, regardless of how unlikely it is that he’ll be elected. Paul has the potential to be a trailblazer for a strain of political thought that has been underrepresented in the American mainstream for a long time. Forcing the media to acknowledge his ideas during the general election campaign might do some intermediate and long term good for libertarian causes.
January 7th, 2008 at 10:43 am
My bet is he will run undy because as long as he has the money to run, he will.
January 7th, 2008 at 11:02 am
[...] Donklephant [...]
January 7th, 2008 at 11:21 am
As a long time GOP voter, I would prefer Paul to win the GOP nomination as I don’t see any success for any other Republican in the general election. But I am pretty ticked off about FOX excluding Ron Paul given all of his support and right now feel like sticking it to the GOP. At least the NH GOP had the decency to pull its support of the FOX forum. I will vote for Paul and support him no matter what party he is running in. Obama and Hillary are horrible on fiscal policy and the Republicans beside Ron Paul leave a lot to be desired. Ron Paul is the best of both worlds to me.
January 7th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Ron Paul cannot win the GOP nomination. That game is over. All this good $$$$ being spent on Ron Paul will be squandered if he makes a run for the GOP.
Money doesn’t put anyone in the White House. You get into the White House because people voted for you. People can’t/won’t vote for you if your name is not on the ballot.
In 1988, Dr. Lenora Fulani became the first African-American woman to gain ballot access in all 50 states. Every ballot in every state had her name printed on it, along with George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis.
In 1992, H. Ross Perot achieved ballot access in all 50 states, as well.
Both of these people achieved ballot access without the power of the Internet. They did it without text messaging. They did it without cell phones. They did it without blimps. They did it without “viral marketing.” They did it without YouTube. They did it without “money bombs,” “meetups,” Facebook, or contributions charged to your credit card at 5 a.m.
RONIACS, WAKE THE FRACK UP!!! Abandon the broke-down GOP bus, with the drive that makes you sit in the very back, next to the stinky, overflowing toilet.
Break out, and get moving!!!
January 7th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
There is no reason for Paul to run 3rd party. Republicans that are afraid of the movement he is starting; Democrats that don’t want him to take any more of their base; and independents that want to see drama are the only ones harping on a potential Paul 3rd party bid.
I’ve always voted Republican, and I am excited that my party has decided to focus on the real issues; I always knew we Republicans had it in us to point America in the right direction. The loss in value of the dollar is HUGE and is representative of the flight of capital away from dollar denominated assets. Ever wonder why our jobs are going overseas? - Jobs follow capital not the other way around. It’s not the high cost of labor here. Labor is expensive here because Americans are still the mst productive workers on the planet. The reason our jobs are going overseas is because capital flees risk for safety. The capital markets are starting to fear the dollar and dollar denominated assets. Why? I’ll give you a hint, and it has nothing to do with mis-managed international trade agreements; it starts with the letters ‘T’ ‘H’ ‘E’ ‘F’ ‘E’ ‘D’.
The dollar falls because people are choosing to put there money somewhere else; the jobs then follow the money. To reverse the trend we have to make our country investor friendly, we must bring down our debt, pass a balanced Federal budget, and quite wasting so much money overseas. We must prove that we will not attempt to simply print our way out of debt. We owe 9 Trillion dollars, and our creditors are not going to be happy accepting our inflated money in the stead of the REAL wealth that they are owed. Ron Paul is the ONLY politician I trust to stop the financial bleeding that is driving our inflation, loss of purchasing power, and loss of jobs.
January 7th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
In 1992, Ross Perot announced his “independent” candidacy on CNN’s “Larry King Live.” Happened sometime in February.
Ron Paul is appearing on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”
Will there be a big announcement?
January 9th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
He’s made other comments lately which give the impression he might run third party.
Don’t necessarily assume it would be the Libertarian Party, especially considering how non-libertarian Paul’s views actually are. There’s rumors he’s also considering the Constitution Party. It would be a much closer fit. Just like Paul, the Constitution Party is a conservative group which interprets the Constitution in a matter quite different from what the framers intended.