Ron Paul's Rally: Hot Rumor of the Day

MINNEAPOLIS - The big hubbub in the hall of the Target Center is that the GOP will suspend the rules in St. Louis and hold its presidential nomination right now, while the small number of Paul delegates are tied up. Jason Littlejohn of Lives in the Balance ran over to the press table to inform us that a Hope for America Coalition director was in the XCel Center, frantically calling about the rule change and screw-over. "They don't want any 'nay' votes," said Paul Nevada delegate Arden Osborne.

As I was typing, an announcer took the stage mic to warn the delegates about a possible rush to the XCel Center.

UPDATE: At RP's war room, the word is: Calm. The delegates are staying here. "We think it's a political trick to clear out the rally," says Paul ally Doc Meder. "We're staying put."

That was a fun six minutes, though.

UPDATE: Doc steered me wrong! John Tate of the Campaign for Liberty says that the delegates and alternates just went to the XCel Center to cast voice votes. Tate headed up to the main stage to announce the availabilty of "about 500 floor seats" in the front of the arena.

Comments

[John C. Randolph]

So, Nevada was just a warm-up, eh?

Two election cycles or so from now, there are going to be a sizable number of Ron Paul Republicans holding elective office, and this kind of crap is going to get much harder for them to pull off.

-jcr

[J]

Sigh, I cant get much on cfl website and i dont get cspan.

[Bramblyspam]

Heh, I think pulling a stunt like this makes for worse publicity than simply letting the Paulites vote and then dismissing them as fringe loonies.

[joe]

That's exactly the type of dirty trick the RNC would pull.

This Doc fella sounds like a sharp cookie.

[joe]

Faking the vote in order to clear Paul's rally, I mean.

[J]

Not really surprising though.

[obi juan]

The GOP seems to be making lots of rule changes between changes because of the hurricane and now this. Is it possible for them to screw up such that McCain isn't legitimately nominated? And then that fubars his ballot access?

[jmd]

so in other words, it was typical paulite paranoia. what does paul have anyway, like only 14 delegates? if they really wanted to get rid of them all, just throw some fake gold currency down the hall and watch them go running. or maybe some racist newsletters.

[?]

Just 500?

[affenkopf]

Wow, Paul just thanked Agnostics and Atheists. Lew Rockwell must be foaming.

[jkp]

David, I respect you for following up on this, but between Palin and Gustav, the Paulite mini-convention isn't accomplishing even a bucket of warm spit.

[Dern]

Is Paul still vying for the Republican ticket? Why hasn't he sought independent status and ballot access? Why did he not seek the Libertarian Party nomination?

I'm sure the reasons are procedural or something to with his position in the Republican Party, but it seems to me that someone with the pull that Paul has could sufficiently generate enough interest to have some real impact on the election.

At any rate, I'd love to hear from someone running for president who doesn't spend half a convention paying homage to a pretend man in the sky.

[Mo]

jkp,

There are more Paulites than there were PUMAs and PUMAs got tons of attention.

[shrike]

If you haven't seen the Ron Paul/Love Train vid on the YouTube internets tube shuttle (Ted Stevens) - I highly suggest it.

[Potts]

Dern, I agree... Paul should have seen the writing on the wall and sought the Lib nomination. He would have at least peeled off enough Republican votes to help hand them their walking papers, and maybe sparked a little backlash against the neo-cons. I guess he thought he'd be more valuable clinging to his seat for another term instead. Now he's just kind of a sad footnote.

[jj]

I came to reason looking for some serious reporting on the Ron Paul proceedings, only to find snobbiness. I'm kinda disappointed. I'm sure there's more that can be said about the event (attendance, content, future direction, personalities) than that Lew Rockwell was a rambling speaker?

[Tad]

Ron Who?

[Stephen the Goldberger]

The Republican Party doesn't think of the Ron Paul supporters as so much of a nuisance that would do something so radical to avoid them, they don't even think of them at all. This rumor clearly originated from Paul supporters' inflated sense of self importance over anything else.

Disclosure: I supported Paul.

[?]

The Republican Party doesn't think of the Ron Paul supporters as so much of a nuisance that would do something so radical to avoid them...

See also: Nevada.

[Tulpa]

I don't think the GOP is afraid of Paul or his supporters per se...I just think they have an obsession with creating the appearance of unity.

We know that state and local party officials have gone out of their way to exclude the possibility of Paul winning straw polls (San Fran) and delegates (Nevada) when neither posed any sort of threat to McCain. We shouldn't assume they're going to act rationally.

[John]

"[S]uspend the rules in St. Louis?" You meant St. Paul, right?