Monday, June 25, 2012

Is Ron Paul Headed For The Republican Party's VP Nomination?

THE CAPITAL COLUMN | June 24, 2012
Texas congressman Ron Paul has a shot at becoming the GOP’s vice presidential running mate due to a rule change made by the Republican Party in 2008, according
to The Huffington Post.

The rule states that the Republican vice presidential nominee must also pass the nomination process at the national convention in August. Mr. Paul has acquired a strong pool of delegates during the 2012 Republican primary race so he has a good chance of winning enough votes at the upcoming convention.

In an email to supporters earlier this month, the Texas Republican said that he expects to have as many as 200 delegates backing him at the national convention. In Iowa last weekend, despite coming in third in the Iowa caucuses back in January, Mr. Paul won 21 out of the state’s 25 unbound delegates.

It seems Mr. Paul’s delegate strategy, the one he touted throughout the 2012 presidential election, may be working. He didn’t win any of the state elections and stopped campaigning in May, but amassed enough delegates to become a strongly supported voice at the national convention.

While it is unlikely that the GOP would force Mr. Romney to run with him, a Romney-Paul ticket would be interesting, considering the substantially different political platforms that each of the candidates ran on during the primary race.

Mr. Romney has run based on a jobs plan that he touts as better than President Barack Obama’s, because of his career working in the private sector. Mr. Paul, on the other hand, wanted to make major spending cuts during his first term in office.

Mr. Paul’s libertarian agenda calls for balancing the federal budget in three years, a reduced federal government and a drastic reduction to America’s military presence abroad. Many Ron Paul supporters see him as the anti-Romney candidate, because of his unique views and brutally honest political opinions that differ greatly from Mr. Romney’s more calculated political rhetoric along the campaign trail.

During an interview with CNN earlier this week, Mr. Paul refused to endorse Mr. Romney, stating the he felt that the former Massachusetts governor has not yet convinced Republican voters that he is the right candidate.

“Well it looks like he has the delegates yes, but he doesn’t have the control of the hearts and the minds of the people,” said Mr. Paul. “Right now a lot of delegates that have pledged to vote for Romney, are actually strong supporters of ours and will be strongly supporting us when we want to put things onto the platform and say hey we don’t need another war, yes we do need to audit the Federal Reserve, yes we ought to cut spending.”





No comments:

Post a Comment