Ron Paul hasn’t won a single state in the 2012 Republican primary season. And yet Thursday’s rally in the shadow of the LBJ Library at the University of Texas rivaled any crowds Mitt Romney or President Obama could draw at a campaign appearance.
Paul fed off the crowd’s excitement. He seemed giddy at times just to have such a large crowd to speak to about ending foreign war, doing away with the Federal Reserve, returning to the gold standard and legalizing marijuana.
But Paul also addressed the 800-pound gorilla in the race: the fact that he’s far behind Romney and will not win the nomination.
“So it is going to be difficult,” Paul told supporters, “but it is always glorious to have success. And we will have success. Am I saying we’re gonna have success next week, next month, August or November? In some ways we will. We will have success.”
Paul said the spirit of what he calls his campaign revolution won’t go away. Supporter Alex Zhu plans to vote for Paul in the May 29 Texas primary. He knows Paul won’t be the nominee, but that doesn’t mean rallies like the one last night are pointless, he said.
“In order to achieve some of this stuff, you have to start high. If you don’t aim high enough, you’re not going to get to a certain point,” Zhu said.
Some of Paul’s supporters also hope he’ll be able to pick up enough delegates by staying in the race to have some power at the Republican National Convention in August.
Jim Henson, head the Texas Politics Project at UT and a pollster for the Tribune, says that based on his polling data, Paul does not have momentum heading into the summer.
“He’s lost a lot of support I think primarily because of his foreign-policy pronouncements and to a lesser extent some of the more controversial corners of his libertarian positions like drug policy,” Henson said.
Paul is still hoping to finish well in his home state. His campaign launched a new TV ad that ran on Fox News in Texas. But a recent poll has him trailing Romney by 31 points.
Uh… I dont know what qualifies as winning but in terms of delegates Ron Paul has so far managed to win both Iowa and Minnesota.
Read about it on International Business Times:
Ron Paul 2012 Wins Iowa & Minnesota Delegates, Demonstrating Possible Path to White House
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/332617/20120424/ron-paul-2012-delegates-news-iowa-minnesota.htm
Not to mention Washington state, a virtual win in CO, and Nevada and Maine on the short list.
However, the Texas Politics Project is a little behind the curve in its prognosis, very stuck in the 1980s.
A loss of momentum for waging peace?
A loss of momentum for getting the feds out of the narco-terrorism business?
C’mon, is Texas really that backwards?
What alot of Ron Paul supporters remain ignorant of is his large number of un-reported delegates, I am willing to bet he has at least half of the delegates required. We may even win on the first ballot. If not, then we go Warren G. Harding style, win the nomination and blow the Democrats out of the water. Plus, Paul HAS WON two states. Iowa and Minnessota, and projected to win in Maine, Washington and possibly Nevada and Colorado. The revolution will not be televised. Visit http://ronpaulflix.com/ to stay up to date with the revolution.
Hate to be the wet blanket, but Dr. Paul will not win the GOP nomination.
Thank god Ron Paul won’t win. This is nothing more than a fad. Then all the 9/11 toofers can go back to their mom’s basement.
Nope, he won’t win, got it. But, it seems there is much more national discussion of some of the ideas he espouses now. This is a healthy thing and I believe a good chunk of the credit goes to him and his supporters. Maybe we are a bit closer to getting rid of this BS dichotomy of liberal/conservative or (R)/(D) that does not seem to be serving our nation too optimally…and not to go off on a tangent, but even if you believe in central banking as a concept (and there is a legitimate case to be made here), I don’t see how you cannot view the way we currently run the Fed as anything but a scam on the American people…if Paul has gotten even a few percentage points of us talking about this it is good thing…