HOUSTON, June 13, 2008
Ron Paul's Campaign To "Shift Gears"
Congressman Ends Presidential Campaign, But Announces Plan To Elect Libertarian-Leaning Republicans Nationwide
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Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, gestures while speaking outside of the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, Minn., Friday, May 30, 2008, prior to the start of the State Republican Convention inside. (AP Photo/Thomas Whisenand)
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Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, speaks to a group of supporters in Houston where the Texas GOP State Convention is being held Thursday, June 12, 2008. (AP)
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Paul formally announced he is ending his presidential campaign and starting a new effort to help elect libertarian-leaning Republicans to public office around the country. (AP)
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Interactive Campaign 2008 Profiles of the candidates, polls, fund-raising, blogs, video and more.
"The campaign is going to shift gears. It's going to accelerate. It's going to get much bigger," Paul told The Associated Press in an interview before a rally where he was making the announcement. "To me, it's a technical change."
Paul formally announced the move - his new "Campaign for Liberty" - in a speech to supporters attending the Texas Republican Party state convention. He said he expected many at his Thursday night rally and other supporters from around the nation to attend an alternative mini-convention he will host Sept. 2 in Minnesota to coincide with the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.
"Freedom is very popular. Not only is freedom popular, freedom works," Paul told supporters.
The group will "grow the grassroots effort" excited by the Paul candidacy and help elect candidates to various public offices who believe in limited government, campaign spokesman Jesse Benton told CBS News.
Benton added that the announcement was "not a disappointment at all. I think this is really exciting."
Hundreds of people rushed into a Houston hotel ballroom to hear Paul speak. They listened to a guitar player perform peace and freedom songs and gave loud cheers when Paul said the U.S. needs to bring home the troops from the Middle East. They also broke into applause when he spoke out for following the law and the Constitution.
He repeated his stances on other major issues, speaking against the United Nations and the income tax.
"Get more people," he urged. "They're paying attention, and it's across the political spectrum."
In the AP interview, Paul said his political message would not change and that he'll continue to speak out, just as he has since he first ran for Congress from Texas.
"It's just now that there's so much more enthusiasm, and so many more people involved," he said. "This last year has been astounding. ... We have to keep it going."
The announcement is a formality. The 72-year-old congressman won few delegates during the Republican primaries, but he raised large amounts of money online and developed a huge grass-roots following.
Benton said Paul is beginning a "Campaign for Liberty."
The presidential campaign still has about $4.7 million in the bank, which can now be used for the new effort, Benton said, describing it as a "permanent campaign."
"We're going to work with the grass roots," Benton said. "People are really eager to continue and grow these efforts."
Paul opposes the war in Iraq and is a champion of small government. His campaign also drew support from independents and Democrats opposed to the war. His supporters have been pushing for him to have a speaking role at the GOP national convention.
But Paul has refused to endorse likely Republican presidential nominee John McCain, and he told the AP that was unlikely to change.
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- Lets say NO to Obama Hussein!
Obama has the notion to have live baby abortion.
Posted by DarkSkyAbove at 11:21 PM : Jun 14, 2008
** What is your major malfunction? Do you realize that if Mccain becomes president we will all be forced to learn spanish?? Do you realize mccain wants to allow over 12 million illegals to get amnesty? Do you want to give up your job? Do you think when these illegals get amnesty that they will just take jobs that don''t already exist right now? NO! They will take our jobs! - Reply to this comment
- Who is Paul going to support for presidency ?
Posted by patriot12436 at 11:42 PM : Jun 13, 2008
*** He is definately smart enough to NOT support Juan Amnesty Mccain! Dr. Paul knows that a Mccain presidency would mean amnesty for over 12 million illegals! No to Amnesty! Vote Obama 2008! - Reply to this comment
- Sure hated to hear Ron Paul pull his good name out of the hat. Really tried in my own way of thinking to help woe and coax my neighbors here to wake up from their slumber in liberty,.....what little there is left. When you sleep with sloth during times of liberty, you will wake to the new master of servitude,.....SOCIALISM. When I started here, my intent was to bang on the Liberty Bell of Freedom the only way an un-educated simple American like me knew how. You see, I know how to grow things in a garden, so that was my angle in the steer. I planted all the good seed I could think of concerning the various issues of our day, while pulling out as many weeds as I could to protect the good seeds growth. Considering this method gave me confidence to succeed in making myself easily understood for clarity in truth. Putting things of complication into the "lowest common denominator" was my aiming point to the best of my ability. After all, don''t we all have to do this in our own lives for our own betterment even if it hurts? Folks, I love my country the way it was founded. I am not thirsty for another kind of country, especially the various kinds of tyranny in this world that have proven themselves to produce only unhappy citizens. Our Constitution and Bill of Rights is the FAIREST IN THE WORLD. Our problems are not from following these wise framers of our past,....they are indeed from following and embracing the very warnings our Founding Fathers spoke of.
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- Posted by LibH8er
Ron Paul''''s Campaign To "Shift Gears"
Yes, I intend on challenging Mitt Romney and Rudy G in town hall meetings and.....oh, wait.....where did everybody go? Hello????
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LOL!! I didn''t know that neocons had a sense of humor! Best post ever. - Reply to this comment
- I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain. John Adams
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- "The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." Albert Einstein
%u201CAdmittedly there is a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson in history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face--that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight and surrender.%u201D (President Reagan, 1964. Rendezvous with Destiny) - Reply to this comment
- USA''''s PLEDGE 2 THE WORLD GIVEN BY JFK!!
"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty." - John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1961
"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." - John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1961
"Today we need a nation of minute men; citizens who are not only prepared to take up arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as a basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom. The cause of liberty, the cause of American, cannot succeed with any lesser effort."-- President John F. Kennedy, January 29, 1961
One ought never to turn one''''s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Winston Churchill
"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." Albert Einstein
All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing. Edmund Burke - Reply to this comment
- Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves. ~D.H. Lawrence, Classical American Literature, 1922
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- 1.4 million people 30 million the most money raised in the 4th quarter,troops supported RON PAUL more then all the other dems and repubs COMBINED so yea i guess he is a political nobody that fights for the constitution and was the bravest man of our era!so we remain who was your guy ?lol.Barak and mccain are the same side of the globalists coin and that coin is in the bankers/special interests pockets!Ron paul raised 30mill for small people not 1 cent from a corperation look at the other canidates donation all the bankers and big money the proof is in the pudding!we continue the revolution for freedom for all OUR CHILDREN surely you cant say that is crazy?for some reason i think a few dont like america calling its own shoots not un or any foriegn country hint middle east or britain!
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- Thanky you CBS for a 100% accurate story !finally some truth with no spin on the true message!I am going to tell all my "kooky"friends about this event!i mean wow i am shocked too bad he had to drop out to get an honest strory printed!thanks cbs
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- Who is Paul going to support for presidency ?
- Reply to this comment
- Is "Park" really considered a gear?
Posted by taddles3 at 11:20 AM : Jun 13, 2008
LOL...not bad, for a lib! :) - Reply to this comment
- Ron Paul''s Campaign To "Shift Gears"
Yes, I intend on challenging Mitt Romney and Rudy G in town hall meetings and.....oh, wait.....where did everybody go? Hello???? - Reply to this comment
- YAWN. This is news? A political nobody launched a loony campaign that everyone ignored. Well except for a few bitter senile white geriatrics like Paul and young losers with pimples and bad teeth who kept yelling revolution.
- Reply to this comment
- TAKE NO PRISONERS,,,
we have defeated fascist nazi terrorislam before,,,
after america became a country,,, fascist nazi terrorislam demanded that america pay protection money or they would attack americas ships and enslave all on board,,,
thomas jefferson and james madison was having non of that,,, and they sent americas military to kick fascist nazi terrorislams arses in barbary war one and barbary war two,,, why two wars,,, fascist nazi terrorislamists break treaties,,, sound familiar??? can you say iraq,,,
It is a settled policy of America, that as peace is better than war, war is better than tribute. The United States, while they wish for war with no nation, will buy peace with none. President James Madison - Reply to this comment
- Why are Americans so fickle? Why do they not honor the Constitution? A man whose platform is built from that and you won''t give him the time of day....
It''s no wonder our country is going to he11 in a hand basket.
The revolution spoke of earlier won''t happen until our country resembles something of old France and our leaders say that we can eat cake!
I''m afraid there''s a long road ahead of us to the redemption this country so desperately needs...
Just think...
We wouldn''t pay income taxes, our government would shrink (for me that would would be ideal, maybe you want the government in your life?)
Our liberties would be restored (no patriot act)
Our government and the elected officials held accountable for their actions to name a few... - Reply to this comment
- "GET Rid of the Primary.. Give the people a choice..
Posted by cornbiker at 09:54 AM : Jun 13, 2008"
Isn''t that a contradiction in terms? Getting rid of the mechanism for choice so the people can "have a choice"?!?
Your party had several choices, you chose McCain where''s the lack of choices? - Reply to this comment
- Is "Park" really considered a gear?
- Reply to this comment
- THE NATION WILL LIVE TO REGRET WHAT THE COURT HAS DONE TODAY,,,
VOTE DEMONIC-RAT AT YOUR PERIL,,,
DEMONIC-RAT UN-SUPREME COURT JUDGES TRASH THE CONSTITUTION,,,
Scalia asserted that the decision will have dire consequences. He warned that some detainees will be freed and return to war against America: "The nation will live to regret what the court has done today."
Supreme Court maintains post-9/11 course on Gitmo
The Supreme Court''''s 5-4 decision Thursday declaring for the first time that Guantanamo detainees have a constitutional right to a hearing in U.S. courts is a milestone. It also reinforces a familiar court pattern in the post-9/11 world of insisting on judicial review of detainee cases.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2008-06-12-court-pattern_N.htm
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/12/supremecourt/main4175226.shtml - Reply to this comment
- It''s about time somebody in the Party told him to sit down and shut up. Ugh!
- Reply to this comment
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
