What is Ron Paul's end game?
Ron Paul may not go rogue because of the aspirations of his son, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) But that doesn鈥檛 mean he鈥檚 going to bow out of the presidential race quietly.
Last week, explaining why Rand Paul鈥檚 political ambitions inside the GOP will make it unlikely for Ron to mount an independent presidential bid.
However, an excellent piece from underscores Paul鈥檚 extensive organizational capabilities and his drive to capture as many GOP delegates as possible. With those delegates, Paul will be able to push his libertarian views into the party discussion at the national convention. If that鈥檚 the story, it lines up well with BuzzFeed鈥檚 reporting suggesting that Paul p猫re鈥檚 run this year is helping bring libertarianism into the GOP mainstream for Paul fils to mount a presidential campaign in several years鈥� time.
Back to the delegates. Take this 鈥渇or instance鈥� from Stein鈥檚 piece (with emphasis from Decoder):
Puerto Rico will award 23 delegates when its citizens caucus on March 18. New Hampshire, punished for moving its election into early January, will award only 12. On Tuesday, roughly 245,000 people voted in the Granite State鈥檚 primary. During the 2008 cycle, Puerto Rico鈥檚 caucus resulted in a total vote count of 208.
With that many delegates at risk over that few votes, it would stand to reason that the current GOP field would be making manic maneuvers to shore up support in Puerto Rico. But so far, only one candidate seems to be doing much, if anything: Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).
According to his campaign chairman, Jesse Benton, Paul has a coordinator in Puerto Rico. The campaign has a 鈥溾�� team that prominently features a Puerto Rican business-leader. A non-affiliated group, , has also been disseminating caucus-related information.
That the Texas Republican is investing any resources at all in Puerto Rico may strike some as wasteful. Few political observers take Paul seriously as a potential nominee, even after he scored a second-place finish in the New Hampshire primary. Primaries, after all, are won through momentum: a few early victories beget others, which, in turn, beget more donors, endorsements, excitement, and ultimately more victories.
The Paul campaign does not subscribe to that theory.
鈥淥urs is a delegate strategy,鈥� said Benton. 鈥淲e want to win the 1,100 delegates. If [former Massachusetts Gov.]Mitt Romney has secured 1,150 delegates, then it is game over. But we are going to contest that until the very end, and again we have a goal. We wouldn鈥檛 be doing this if we didn鈥檛 think we can win 1,150 delegates.鈥�
Who is Paul looking to for inspiration? It might surprise you: President Obama鈥檚 primary run. Here鈥檚 Stein:
It鈥檚 the Money Ball of campaign strategies and it鈥檚 rooted in, of all places, Obama鈥檚 2008 campaign.
鈥淵ou try to look at what models have worked in the past and Obama鈥檚 model worked,鈥� said Benton. 鈥淣ow we have different ideas about where we would like to take the country, but he ran a brilliant campaign. He unleashed his grassroots to work hard, get involved in their communities, and really fight for some principles and that鈥檚 what we are trying to do too.鈥�
And the endgame?
鈥淟et鈥檚 say they clean up in the caucus states,鈥� the source said. 鈥淟et鈥檚 say they control 20 votes out of 100 in those committees, then they can force votes on those issues. They can make a motion on the floor to amend the agenda, to amend the platform 鈥� They could force certain issues to be voted on. They could force the convention to consider certain questions and force the human beings on the committees to address certain things. How about a more robust version of the 鈥榓udit the Fed鈥� platform? All of a sudden you will get recorded votes on those issues.鈥�
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