Third Party Watch

Shortly after Ron Paul announced that he was scaling down his presidential campaign to concentrate on his congressional race, a welcome mat appeared on the front page of the Libertarian Party website.

Most of the Paul supporters I talked with at CPAC who had read the e-mail (many hadn’t read it yet) plan to vote third [...]

Dear friends,

As many of you know I have been registered with the Independent American Party for several years. With mixed feelings I finally decided in December to temporarily register with the Republican Party in order to support Congressman Ron Paul’s presidential campaign. I also admit to fond feelings towards Governor Mitt Romney’s presidential bid. Though [...]

CPAC 2008 CHAPTER EIGHT: Ron Paul Benefiting from Romney’s Withdrawal?

Yesterday, I reported:

I was told by some local Paul supporters that Romney’s staff turned their table in the exhibit hall over for Ron Paul’s use. According to one of of these supporters (his name tag read Kevin O), the guys at the Romney booth, who only [...]

CPAC 2008 CHAPTER SIX: The New Ron Paul

I missed the first portion of Bob Barr’s introduction of Ron Paul yesterday because some whacked-out independent presidential wannabe ran into me in the hallway. However, I took copious notes during the intro and the speech, notes which are no longer needed, because it’s now on [...]

CPAC 2008 CHAPTER FOUR: The Ron Paul Angle on Romney

I’ll be writing an article on Ron Paul’s speech as I get the time, but thought I’d first provide a few quotes from the Ron Paul wing of CPAC about Mitt Romney’s suspended race.

People who care about “fiscal issues should start looking at Ron,” said Lauren [...]

Eric Garris and Anthony Gregory have co-written an article over at LRC which provides a compelling case for Ron Paul to consider running for the Libertarian Party nomination. Here’s the main thrust of their argument:

Ron Paul should run as a third-party candidate. He has already done an immeasurable amount of good and he could [...]

I haven’t been back in DC for a few months, but day one is already a lot of fun. While EJ Moosa was calling the GOP DOA, the Libertarian Party was acting on it.

Since it’s now likely that John McCain will be the eventual Republican presidential nominee, Shane Cory and I thought it might [...]

William Westmiller wrote an interesting article comparing the recent election results of Ron Paul and former Libertarian Party presidential candidate Ed Clark. For a variety of reasons (i.e. 28 year separation, different political parties, different electorate, primary vs. general election), I don’t think any comparison can really be made, however, the thought [...]

For the past few years, I’ve become increasingly agitated every time I see one of the ubiquitous “Support the Troops” magnetic ribbons on the back of a vehicle also sporting a “W” sticker. Most veterans and active duty people I know never believed, or no longer believe, that the U.S. military should be engaged [...]

Back during the Badnarik presidential campaign, supporters utilized the Internet to put Michael Badnarik’s book up at the top of the charts at Amazon.com. With a considerably larger Internet presence associated with the Ron Paul campaign, such an attempt should have a pretty likely chance of success.

LP activist and Ron Paul supporter Chris Brunner [...]

There has been a lot of internal debate within the libertarian movement between “Beltway Libertarians” and those not so attached to the DC political machine. Some have accused certain institutions of being pro-war or anti-Ron Paul. This interview of Cato President Ed Crane sheds a bit more light on both issues.

A bit of [...]

Texas has some complicated rules with respect to primary voting. This is of particular importance in the March 4 primary for Libertarian Party and Constitution Party members who might also wish to cast a vote for Ron Paul.

Here’s the word from the Texas Secretary of State:

If you are a registered voter in the state [...]

There’s another Republican presidential debate tonight, and I’m sure viewers once again will be underwhelmed by the leading GOP candidates.

People are often critical because “they” rarely ask many questions of substance in major party debates. Since handling issues like understanding the difference between isolationism and non-interventionism seems beyond the capability of the mainstream media, [...]

It looks like Ralph Nader is looking more strongly at jumping into the presidential race. From Ben Smith at Politico:

I just now spoke to Ralph Nader, who said the launch of his exploratory Web site wasn’t timed to Edwards’ withdrawal, but that Kucinich’s withdrawal had made space in the race for him.

“We’re testing the [...]

Rasmussen Reports is looking at the impact of Michael Bloomberg and Ron Paul as potential third party or independent candidates in the 2008 elections.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that roughly 15% of voters would currently vote for one of these two candidates in general election match-ups.

When the two candidates are mentioned as [...]

Free State Project founder Jason Sorens took the opportunity of the Ron Paul vote in the recent New Hampshire primary to gauge the preliminary impact of the FSP. Here’s the general background he provided:

In the more recent study, I argued that attaining 1% of the local population constituted a critical mass.

Until now, however, we [...]

Markos@DailyKos just challenged Libertarians and the Ron Paul campaign for not going after one of the more important civil liberties issues of the day.

Where are the Libertarians on FISA?

For all the talk of “freedom” that the Paulbots claim to believe in, they sure as heck have been silent on the horrible FISA bill we’re fighting [...]

Old-time libertarians will recall a lot of the names dropped in this 1988 High Times article about then Libertarian Party presidential candidate Ron Paul: Andre Marrou, Ed Clark, Dick Randolph, Murray Rothbard, John Hospers, Roger McBride, Tonie Nathan, David Bergland, Eric Garris, Paul Jacob, Tim Lewis, Norma Jean Almodovar, Mark Ford, and Ed Crane. [...]

Ron Paul provided a video assessing the past campaign performance which also allows a glimpse into the future of his presidential bid. He also detailed two key new additions to his staff.

With respect to Paul’s current political journey, his starting point of being a self-described “reluctant candidate” around a year ago has advanced to [...]

I had heard whispers that this might take place, but was holding off until I had better confirmation. However, Tex McRae is now reporting this at LRC, so I’ll cut-and-paste:

Ron Paul is scheduled to speak at CPAC on Thursday, February 7 at 4:30 in the Regency Ballroom of the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, [...]

Here’s the press release:

RON PAUL ENDORSED BY THE ALABAMA REPUBLICAN ASSEMBLY

Texas Congressman also wins organization’s public straw poll

BIRMINGHAM, January 26—The Alabama Republican Assembly today announced the winner of its Presidential Endorsing Convention held on January 26, 2008 at the Birmingham Marriott.

Delegates from ALRA clubs around the state attended the endorsing convention to select their choice [...]

During a portion of last night’s Republican presidential debates, each candidate was allowed to ask another candidate one question any question of his choosing. Ron Paul chose to target John McCain on fiscal policy, forcing McCain to obfuscate in his response. I’m not sure if there is now a new campaign strategy to [...]

The Fresno City College Sociology department hosted a 2008 Presidential Campaign Forum Jan 13. Several minor party candidate participated, as well as representatives from some of the more mainstream campaigns. An interesting article is describing the debate is located here, and I’ll capture the actual debate highlights below:

Missing from the media interview were [...]

A poster at Ron Paul Forums got the general story straight, but missed on a minor detail with respect to Ron Paul and ongoing allegations of racism. The posting below describes a source as being “disgusting, vile, and repugnant;” I’ll provide additional graphic examples. Here’s his take [I’m cutting-and-pasting verbatim, formatting translation [...]

Unedited program transcript below:

GLENN: Will you run as a third candidate if you done get the nomination?

PAUL: No, I don’t want to do that. I have no plans of doing that. This is a tough enough job right now.

GLENN: Really? Well, why is that? You don’t think — I mean, if it was McCain and [...]