Paul's strategy flagrantly violates the spirit of the law but not the letter. He's scamming in the sense that he's gaming the system. Voters have spoken and said that they want the delegates to go to other candidates, but Paul doesn't care. What's worse is that he's lobbying delegates who are required by party rules to vote for other candidates to get out of their obligations. He's wanting them to abstain from voting on the first ballot. Then they are free to vote for anyone they choose. Again, this is a flat out underhanded tactic IMO.
As I said, it would be one thing if Santorum was doing it. Santorum was running very close with Romney. If he could sway some delegates he would have a very real chance of having a huge impact on the platform if not being nominated himself. Paul has no chance at all. Why is he doing all of this if not out of spite? Even if he does manage to get nominated, he can't expect the party to back him at all. There's no chance he gets elected. I find the way Paul is conducting his campaign to be spiteful.
The GOP set up their rules, RP is a GOP member, he is following the rules that his party put in place. That is the long and the short of it, no matter how much you disagree with it or despise it, it is not a scam.
Who are these voters that have spoken, and why does anything they say have any relevance?
You probably already know this, but perhaps the conversation merits a quick recap;
In States with a primary the delegates are assigned based on a percentage of votes (unless its a winner take all State like Florida) the delegates RP collected are his. Further, delegates can state their support for a candidate
or remain uncommitted.
Caucuses are simply meetings, open to all registered voters of the party, at which delegates to the party's national convention are selected. When the caucus begins, the voters in attendance divide themselves into groups according to the candidate they support. The undecided voters congregate into their own group and prepare to be "courted" by supporters of other candidates.
Voters in each group are then invited to give speeches supporting their candidate and trying to persuade others to join their group. At the end of the caucus, party organizers count the voters in each candidate's group and calculate how many delegates to the county convention each candidate has won.
As in the primaries, the caucus process can produce both pledged and unpledged convention delegates, depending on the party rules of the various states.
As I stated earlier, the voters are inconsequential once delegates are chosen and those delegates can choose to remain uncommitted. In other words it wouldn't matter if 100% of the primary and caucus voters wanted RP to win the nomination, if the delegates choose to remain undecided they can pledge their support for Romney at the convention. The voters have no voice, just as in the general election.
There must be a reason why the GOP made their rules this way, I'm sure it wasn't an accident, in fact I'd wager its so that delegates can be bought if need be, reap what you sow.
I hardly think he's doing it just for spite, he gains two things by doing this; he gets more free publicity / media coverage and gets his message out. If he'd dropped out back when Perry did...well, are we talking about Perry anymore? He also sends a message to young people with political aspirations...one man with very little money, no party support and a brain, can make a difference. What good is publicity if its negative you say? Better than no one knowing you even exist, many people have walked to the bank from negative PR.
Romney and the GOP have known about RP's plan for months, either they aren't worried at all or they're idiots for not sitting down with RP and making a compromise to avoid a brokered convention.
I hope he is able to make it a brokered convention, that will effectively end the Republican bid for the White House and I'd much rather deal with the known factor of another 4 years of Obama than the uncertainty of Romney. People that vote for a candidate based on his party affiliation rather than his qualifications are as much a part of the problem as the two parties in power are.
I'm tired of politics as usual, I want real change and I'll support anyone that can do it legally. (at some point I'll probably support a physical revolution, right to overthrow a tyrannical government and all, defining tyranny is the problem)
Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is not only insane, it's just plain stupid.
