Ron Paul plays the long game

AP Photo/Ben Margot, File

NEWS ANALYSIS

(CBS News) On a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, Ron Paul's campaign chairman Jesse Benton stressed that the campaign wants the Texas lawmaker's supporters who travel to Tampa in August for the Republican National Convention to be "respectful."

"We just can't emphasize that enough," said Benton, adding that the campaign wants to "make sure that decorum and respect are the name of the game, but we're going to respectfully show that our people are here, and we're the wave of the future."

The Paul campaign's desire to convince its loyal supporters to play nice in Tampa is grounded in the simple fact that his movement needs the Republican party. Paul, who has stopped active campaigning, has significant differences with his party. But he understands that it's very difficult to gain traction outside the two-party system. So he's trying to work within the system by moving the Republican Party in his direction.

The problem is that supporters of the 76-year-old politician aren't shy about showing their disdain for the Republican party or its current standard bearer, Mitt Romney. The Paul strategy for making a splash at the convention centers on building up delegates by exploiting the byzantine delegate selection process; Paul supporters have been successful in states like Nevada in packing the state delegation with supporters even though Romney won the state.

But they haven't always been civil about it: Romney's son Josh was booed by Paul supporters in Arizona, and Paul backers have created disturbances in Oklahoma, Maine and other states that have angered other participants in the selection process. That behavior has complicated Paul's efforts to leverage his support to extract concessions from Romney.

Benton noted that Paul supporters "are going to be under the microscope" in Tampa, and the campaign wants them to be remembered for helping push Paul's message into the GOP mainstream, not for causing headaches for the nominee by generating headlines about dissent in the ranks. This desire to make peace with the party is also why you shouldn't expect Paul to endorse a third-party candidate like Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson, who holds views closer to Paul than Romney does.

The Paul campaign is seeking to get its positions on "monetary policy reform, prohibitions on indefinite detention, and Internet freedom" into the GOP platform, according to a strategy memo released publicly, and has been in talks with the Romney campaign in an effort to do so. The Romney camp doesn't need to play ball - the candidate will have the nomination secured before anyone gets to Tampa - but it has reason to make concessions if it means helping to keep the Paul delegates from causing too much trouble.

Perhaps the most important impact the Paul delegates can have at the convention is in their votes on party rules. Many of the Paul supporters who travel to Tampa will be bound to vote for Romney on the first ballot, but they can cast whatever vote they want on the rules for electing Republicans in the future. Benton declined to get into specifics on the conference call on the rule changes the campaign is seeking, and follow up requests for clarification to multiple members of the campaign went unanswered. But Benton said broadly that the goal was to "open up the party" and keep establishment candidates from "locking the party down."

One person who has already successfully taken on the GOP establishment is Ron Paul's son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who defeated the establishment pick in the GOP primary in 2010. Though Benton said Tuesday that it's too early to speculate on a Rand Paul presidential run, his campaign has made clear that it is paving the way for Rand Paul to seek the presidency in 2016 or 2020.

In 2008, Paul was so estranged from his party that he held a rival nominating convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul while the GOP was selecting John McCain as party nominee. This time around, he and his supporters are poised to (grudgingly) rally around their party's nominee in an effort to position their movement for greater successes in the future. It's a pragmatic strategy perhaps best understood with a variation on a familiar phrase: "If you can't beat them, join them. And then change them."

[ewa06]

First I want to say that overall, Brian Montopoli wrote a fairly informed article about historical facts about Ron Paul. What he misses is the motivation of the movement and the people behind it. Overall, it's not an offensive article (except for the aforementioned shortcoming...) but a couple areas I would call into question:

1. You said, "Romney's son Josh was booed by Paul supporters in Arizona, and Paul backers have created disturbances in Oklahoma, Maine and other states that have angered other participants in the selection process."

I heard it was the other way around and the establishment used every trick in the book to hold on to their power.

2. You said, "The Paul campaign is seeking to get its positions ... Romney camp doesn't need to play ball ... but it has reason to make concessions..."

I heard that we're in it to win it and that we won't be the ones to compromise or make concessions.

3. You said, "...Ron Paul's son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a ... presidential run, his campaign has made clear that it is paving the way for Rand Paul to seek the presidency in 2016 or 2020."

I haven't heard that one... as far as I'm concerned Rand can make a name for himself and if he can't, he can't carry the torch (for now.)

Ron Paul 2012!

[andygiff99999]

ON the contrary, Romney does need to play ball with Paul. While he obviously will get the nomination, that by no way means that he will get elected. This will be a close election, and if he alienates Paul's supporters (including a lot of "Blue" republicans who would vote for Obama if they dont get concessions)either will stay home, or worse vote for someone else!

Do recall that the Paul camp while a minority is still a good 20% of GOP voters, which IS enough to throw an election.

[RonPaulKicksAss]

Mitt Romney supports the Project for the New American Century and the Foreign Policy Initiative the think-tank which promotes: diplomatic, economic, and military engagement IN THE WORLD. Romney even named his foreign policy plan a new American Century. Iraq was all lies, so is Iran. The media has a war to sell you are you buying it?
I am voting for Ron Paul! End the wars!
Video of Romney & PNAC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYEsfXqHeck

[mt3355]

I can't believe that the rep. party is going with Romney! Are kidding me? Ron Paul was clearly the best man for the job. The people wanted him but the RNC didn't. Only if the RNC had rightly reported the results of early primaries Paul, and not Romney, would have been the one the sheepple would have gotten behind. I left the Dem. party so I could vote for Ron Paul. Now we are left with Obama. He's a good man but unfortunately too many bigots still today for him to shine. He had all the right ideas only to be confronted on all sides halting any progress we could have made.
And now after going through the "flavor of the month" parade of Cain, Beckman, Perry and don't forget Trump and Newt it's Mitt, and not Ron Paul, that will represent the Rep. come Nov. Am I the only one who sees the lost opportunity here? Come on Mitt Romney? Are you planning to lose?
One last thought, It may be true that Obama might not have been born in the right place to be running for Pres., but read what Mormons are about, their teaching and history,and you will find that Mitt wasn't born in the right place either. The real world!

If God is watching, She must be pissed.

[NinthSt78]

Sometimes the adoptee is found in the other church's manger because it makes them feel better at confession with a socially acceptable sin.

[Mscheezit]

I saw for myself this past weekend at the Georgia State Republican Convention just what JERKS Ron Paul supporter's are! I've read and heard stories of their antics and I saw them up close and personal this past weekend. I don't think there's a lick of common sense between the whole bunch put together. They are purposely loud, contentious, aggressive, and totally rude to everyone. In the beginning of this particular Republican primary, I did have a certain level of respect for Ron Paul the person. He came across as a caring, concerned man that wanted to help do good things for our country, however I NO LONGER BELIEVE THAT!!!! These paulbots that are popping up across the country, turning everyone against Ron Paul is unfortunate. If I were Ron Paul, I would denounce any ties to these rude, crude, obnoxious people that are obviously not very well mentally balanced. I no longer respect Ron Paul at all--as a matter of fact, I don't even think he's a nice, gentlemanly person any more. I think he and his sheep are destructive to this country! I know Obama is bad, but by the same token, Ron Paul and his idiotic followers are bad and destructive...it wouldn't hurt if they looked like they'd taken a shower within a few days of meeting them either! There is certainly a commonality among the paulbots, and it's not a thing I would be proud of...it's kind of like when you were younger and you saw the "special" kids that ride the half bus, and they were out on a field trip. There was a look to them that let you know they definitely had some troubling issues...same thing as the Ron Paul supporters! They are needy, troubled people that just want to blindly steamroll over a process through everything inappropriate that they do. Shame on Ron Paul for not telling these jerks to cease and desist...he's stopped running--could someone please tell the paulbots and make it register with their limited ability to understand logic?

[mt3355]

I would not judge all Ron Paul people by the actions of a few. Maybe you should walk a mile in their shoes to see where they are coming from.
We Ron Paulites feel that Ron Paul is the best man for the job. We started back in 2008 with all the right ideas but were underhanded by the big boys. We learned what we needed for the next time in 2012. Well we played the game right this time only to have the scores no reported correctly by the Republican party. The MSM had no intention of ever doing their job of reporting the facts. So if you think Ron Paul's people seem to be lacking common sense your wrong. What your seeing are the actions of a group of good people left only with rudeness as the tool for being heard. But the MSM branded Ron a nut so we all must be.
Mitt? Really? Talk about lack of common sense........

[jdetuncq]

You're a lying troll, nice try.

[NinthSt78]

"The desire to make peace with the party"-- I like that one. The key there might be to "balance" the ticket with two people who may not be so much alike--a northeasterner with a southwesterner, a few surfers sharing the beach with the Florida retirees, someone who says lets try a few new ideas when the other one says "I never thought it would work, but you were right".

[NinthSt78]

Disdain is a good way to put it. They tend to get stuck in a rut on a lot of things looking at them too much from a corporate exec point of view. They need to loosen up a bit and enjoy a big barbecue with the other guy from Texas.

[schnackdog]

Brain you mentioned his monetary policy and I get that, but quoting his prohibitions on indefinite detention and belief in internet freedom without mentioning his non interventionist foreign policy is kinda odd. I personally feel his foreign policy is what really sets him apart from all other regardless of party. Read his book the revolution, it's awesome!

[theintelligentsolution]

i cant believe their trying pin those "disturbances" on us! thats some ******** right there, they're the ones who were passing out fake ballot's, their the ones partitioning of supporter's and their the ones assaulting us! and guess what, NO DELEGATES ARE BOUND! DELEGATES ARE INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS ACCORDING TO RNC RULES, THEY HAD TO CLEAR THAT UP IN 2008 IN IDAHO FOR A ROMNEY DELEGATE WHO DIDN'T WANT TO VOTE MCCAIN. AND SCREW THE ESTABLISHMENT REPUBLICANS! their time of corruption and bowing down to the military industrial complex and other corporate headmasters IS OVER!! we're takin our nation back and bringing back common sense to our government policies, and if the establishment doesn't like it then to bad, they shouldn't have been acting like democrats for the past 60 years and helping screw our nation instead of doing the will of the people!!
so vote ron paul!!