Ron Paul’s Trojan Horses

By Kleinheider Posted on April 22, 2008 at 8:07 am

Patrick Ruffini discusses the affect that Ron Paul supporters efforts to elect delegates at various GOP state conventions could have:

Short term, county convention delegates elect state convention delegates. In many cases, the state conventions elect delegates to the national convention. The end result could be a lot of Ron Paul people sitting on the floor in St. Paul, pledged to vote for John McCain but free agents otherwise.

Little will be decided by the delegates. Outwardly, their goal is to get Paul a speaking slot, which I imagine he’ll get, at 8:05 p.m. on Tuesday night.

But by far the biggest impact delegates can have is through floor demonstrations. In some ways, their reactions to the speeches set the tone for the convention, amplifying messages from the stage. Remember how Pat Buchanan enraptured the floor at the 1992 convention but lost the country? Or how the Texas delegates turned their backs on gay Republican Congressman Jim Kolbe in 2000? Now, imagine, Paul loyalists get 20-30% of the seats on the floor in St. Paul, controlling delegations like Missouri, with a significant presence in Minnesota, with closest promixity to the stage. Can the speakers safely voice a pro-victory message in Iraq without a significant amount of boos and catcalls? How will this look on television? And don’t forget, national conventions are also heaven for reporters trolling for off-message quotes from delegates.

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Tags: Republican National Convention, Ron Paul  

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