Defiant Ron Paul promises "revolution" will continue

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, speaks at a rally at the University of South Florida Sun Dome on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., on Sunday, Aug. 26, 2012.

/ AP

(CBS News) TAMPA, Fla. - Ron Paul, who turned down an offer to speak at the Republican National Convention here because he would not allow organizers to approve his speech, addressed several thousand supporters a few miles from the convention site on Sunday.

Paul's likely final speech as a presidential candidate was an opportunity for the libertarian-leaning Texas congressman and his followers to send a message to the politicians, delegates, and media gathered here this week to take them seriously.

Speaking at the Sun Dome basketball arena at the University of South Florida, Paul opened with a quip about the Republican refusal to let him speak without a filter. Convention organizers, he claimed, "changed their mind" and decided to allow him to speak for "a whole hour and I can say anything I want - tomorrow night." Tomorrow was supposed to be the first night of the convention, but the program was cancelled due to Tropical Storm Isaac. Added Paul, with a laugh: "Just joking."

Much of the crowd stayed standing throughout Paul's speech, which centered on his longtime themes of "personal liberty" and smaller government. Thunderous applause erupted into chants of "End the Fed" when Paul called for the Federal Reserve to be eliminated.

The rally, titled "We Are The Future," comes at a critical juncture for the Paul-led movement to shift the GOP in a more libertarian direction. Paul, the three-time presidential candidate who pushed his once-fringe ideas into the Republican mainstream, is retiring. He has left the movement with a successor waiting in the wings - his son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul - but it is not clear what direction the movement will take when Ron Paul leaves the national scene.

Rand Paul was highly touted in a three-minute video at Sunday's rally. When Rand Paul took to the podium to introduce his father, chants erupted of "Paul '16" - a reference to a possible Rand Paul presidential run in 2016. During his short speech, Rand Paul praised his father for popularizing the libertarian message and discussed some of his top concerns, including the Transportation Security Authority (TSA).

"You can go to the airport, If you don't have health insurance you can get a free breast exam...and if you mention the [Ron Paul] revolution, you can get a free colonoscopy," Paul quipped. 

Pau told the crowd a story of the time he held he up a picture of a girl from Kentucky being patted down by a TSA agent. He said the TSA justified past searches of children -- which have now been banned - by citing a girl from Kandahar who was caught with explosives. "This girl is not from Kandahar, she's from Bowling Green, Kentucky," Paul said.

Some in the crowd said they would not support Mitt Romney in November in part because the way Ron Paul and the movement had been treated by the Republican establishment. Paul was denied the chance to offer an unvetted speech despite the fact that numerous states sent delegations to the convention dominated by Paul supporters. (Rand Paul does have a speaking slot.) One woman wore a shirt that read "Let Ron Paul Speak."

Calvin Lee, who traveled to Florida from Los Angeles to hear Paul's speech, said he felt "betrayed" by the Republican Party. "Every time you get betrayed by the party, it makes you want to stand up," the 26-year old added.

"They didn't earn my vote or my respect," Erick Cardona, who just moved to Florida from Arizona, said of the GOP.

Paul, meanwhile, seemed undeterred.

As the giant video screen behind him showed images of the Constitution, he criticized the war on drugs, government regulations limiting access to raw milk and the fact that it is illegal to use hemp to make rope. He said people "in a free society" can make decisions about "what things you smoke, drink or eat."

People "have to assume the consequence of their actions," he added.

Paul also criticized the United Nations and American intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The American people want us out and they want to bring the troops home," he said.

Paul added that his critics have suggested that "the revolution will not be happening."

"Don't they only wish," he said.

[srmmedia]

Correction ... In this article you said "some of Ron Paul supporters attending the rally would not support Mitt Romney " The Truth is NOT ONE SINGLE SOUL in that entire Arena is going to support Mitt Romney .. NOT ONE .

[kevjustice]

gop civil war?????

[jnostromo]

Time to face it..America is done...We no longer produce statesmen as leaders..Instead we get puppets controlled by various extremist groups....Democrat, Republican, Libertarian will never be able to repair the damage that has been done....Foreign interests now control our businesses, our politicians our finances, our lives...

[johnlockesghost]

"They didn't earn my vote or my respect," Erick Cardona, who just moved to Florida from Arizona, said of the GOP. I agree with Mr. Cardona, but then, neither do the democrats. The voting public is tired of being offered hash when they seek steak on the menu.

[GOP-R--Con-Men]

Republicans are rigging the elections trying to steal it with these unnecessary VOTER I.D. LAWS and they had yet to pay the appropriate price for subverting our constitution and democracy. The media print, video and digital are complicit in allowing this. The media and our government would be shouting what republicans are doing at every chance if this were going on in country of one of our enemies. But it's accepted because it's happening here in America?

HELL NO! Republicans must be held to account for this attack to subvert our democracy. Republicans should be attacked by libertarians, liberals, conservatives, tea partiers and other groups in addition to the media for subverting our right to vote.

[kevjustice]

if i were obama i would call on the army to supervise voting on election day and allow all people to vote with signs posted that illegal voting is a felony. he is commander-in.chief and should arrest anyone stopping legitimate voters. he should dare to gop to impeach him for standing up for voting rights and hope the dems support him. voting is a right wheather you want to vote dem, republican, etc.

[pcfpgarty]

People of this country have a cockeyed concept of revolution . Revolution requires a large group of people fighting for a common purpose . The squawk and talk I hear are various groups looking to shatter the unity of the United States with a variety of governing concepts that would result in the dissolution of the word "United" and replacing it with just "States" . The "States of America" is not what the the writers of the Constitution had in mind and neither did the President of the country during the Civil War . What many are fighting "FOR" here in the U.S. today , is exactly what we are fighting "AGAINST" ,in the Middle East . The American Continent was a collection of tribes before the coming of the Europeans . I guess it is poetic that those we addressed as savages and bulldozed into uninhabitable corners of this land are now the ones we are beginning to emulate .

[fredm6900]

Ron is too good to be in the GOP. I wished he could start his own party. I would proudly support him.

[unclebernies]

teapublicans are going to make the republican party go down in flames. Period.

[daffy64]

Can't wait till "Mitt the Twit" loses the next election for the Republicans and a new party is formed. A party of morons wearing silly "tricorn" hats and claiming that "nobody ever helped them".

Make you own party so you can clean out the Republican party of these yahoos and give America a REAL second choice (a centrist party).

[PedroHanson]

The biggest mistake Ron has ever made is trying to get libertarians to take over the Republican Party. He should have used this election as a starting point to build the Libertarian Party into a genuine contender, so that voters have a REAL choice on election day. Put the irrelevant Republican Party out of business. If libertarians take over the Republican Party, where will the Fed supporting, IRS supporting, perpetual war supporting conservatives go? Create their own party? This is a libertarian revolution, not a conservative revolution (if there could even be such a thing).