What's Ron Paul up to?
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(CBS News) Mitt Romney is largely accepted as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, but he's not the only candidate left in the race. Texas Rep. Ron Paul continues his quest for delegates.
The three-time presidential candidate is committed to staying in the race until the Republican Party's convention in Tampa at the end of August.
Paul is spending his time in two states with upcoming primaries. On Sunday, Paul will hold a Tea Party rally in Austin, Texas, which holds its primary on May 29. Before then, he is spending the week holding a series of rallies at or near college campuses in California, which holds its primary on June 5. He's also hosting multiple fundraisers.
As Paul continues to campaign on his message of small government, his passionate supporters are helping him influence the delegate count.
"The goal is to work as hard to get as many delegates as possible to see what happens," campaign spokesperson Gary Howard told Hotsheet. "The plan as it has always been is to work hard in the caucus and convention states."
A look at CBS News' estimated delegate scorecard would suggest Romney, with 865 delegates, has eclipsed Paul, who has 78. But the Paul campaign disputes those numbers, arguing the initial delegate estimates don't give the whole picture. Even in states that have already voted, the campaign is still working the process by "reaching out to state delegates" and persuading them to support Paul.
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The Paul campaign knows very well that the Republican primary is a race for delegates and not a race for votes. For many states, including those that hold caucuses, delegate allocation does not necessarily correlate to voter preference.
Howard points to the campaign's efforts in states that undergo a lengthy, multi-step convention process to allocate delegates. Paul's supporters are are involved at the grassroots level. They have learned the system and have engaged in Republican Party infrastructure.
For instance, in Louisiana, Paul's campaign said he won 74 percent of the 150 state delegates at Louisiana's state convention last weekend, despite placing fourth and obtaining only 6 percent support in Louisiana's primary on March 24.
The libertarian-oriented candidate is also out-performing in the delegate race in Colorado, Iowa and Minnesota. And in Romney's home state of Massachusetts, state delegates backing Paul picked up a majority of slots.
Howard said the campaign won't know its true delegate count until next month, when the states complete their conventions and finalize their delegate count.
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Please vote for Ron Paul in your Republican Primary or Caucus for President in 2012.
And I ask all the Republican National Delegates to vote for Ron Paul in the 1st round of voting at the convention in Tampa.
When you correct for these two factors, Dr. Paul already leads Romney in delegates. There are some 926 delegates yet to be assigned in upcoming primaries. 926! in a race that requires 1144 to win! And that is to say nothing of changes to the delegations of states that have already held their straw votes!
The air of "inevitability" has been set up by the fact that this election was front-loaded with contests in pro-Romney states like MA and other New England states. The second half includes many states that are much more conservative, independent, or anti-Establishment to think much of a glib huckster with liberal roots.
It is the journalistic duty of CBS and others to resist this put-up job and report that this is still very much a race. Otherwise, the "presumptive nominee" spin will be allowed to unfairly influence the upcoming primaries in IN, NC, WV, CA, TX, etc. It's a scoop! GO with it!
Vote Ron Paul!!
No more wars!!
Romney can NOT ever be our president .... he can NOT win!
In a three way race Mitt would run THIRD .... wake UP ... GOP old guard.
Only the most "yellow dog" old guard, dedicated republicans will back Mitt .
Reliable polls show that 22% of AMERICAN voters will NEVER vote for a Mormon.Probably a unfair prejudice BUT life is not always fair.
ONLY Dr Paul can attract voters outside the GOP and win the General election.
If Mitt ran on a third party ticket he would not get enough votes to hurt anyone.
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The GOP has TWO choices
1. RON PAUL
2. LOSE the general election by margins worse than anyone can remember PLUS lose numerous Senate and house seats.
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A new and better ( much better ) way to elect a president ....
Check out www . americanselect . org ..... THIS CAN WORK .... if Tampa doesn't!
Are you really so blind that you can't see that Obama and Romney are all the same thing?
YOUR rights are disappearing in front of your face, YOURS MAN! Wake up. This isn't a popularity contest, it's not some 5th grade I want the popular guy on my soccer team crap. This is real and it is right now! Get on board, do something for your country. We have to stick together, all of us.
Ron Paul 2012!!