politics
Ron Paul Draws Record Crowd to Montana GOP Convention
By Kaylee Porter, 6-21-08
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| Ron Paul speaking at the Hilton Garden Inn in Missoula. Photo by Brandon Gonski | |
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Enthusiastic Ron Paul supporters waited through a $45 a plate dinner, multiple GOP speakers and an auction conducted by former Sen. Conrad Burns to hear their candidate speak Friday night at the 2008 State Convention Banquet.
They say it was worth it.
“He was fantastic,” said Elena Gagliano, a retired Philipsburg Mont. resident. “He believes in freedom and I’m sick and tired of infringement on my life.”
Paul, a tenacious, long-shot former Republican presidential candidate who has found considerable support in Montana with his message of small government and constitutionalism, received a warm welcome from the large crowd at the Hilton Garden Inn in Missoula. Montana GOP chairman Erik Iverson said nearly 470 people were in attendance—a record for the summer convention.
“I tell a lot of folks that I like speaking outside Washington because I hear less applause in Washington when I give a speech there,” Paul said in his opening remarks. “We have a lot of friends here in Montana.”
Despite Paul’s loss in the Montana primary, he does retain strong support in the state. He took second to Mitt Romney in Montana’s Republican caucus in February and in the primary he won some Montana counties, including Missoula and Flathead.
But the results of the delegate vote that came in shortly after the banquet ended were all in favor of McCain.
Though Montana GOP delegates generally all go to one candidate, some Paul supporters were surprised McCain claimed all 22.
“Every single one of the delegates? Really?” Shawn Bailey, 32, said with surprise. “It reflects the tendency to vote along party lines. Everybody thought that was the safe way to vote so enough people voted that way.”
“That’s horrible,” Newman Ryan, 20, said after a few speechless moments of head shaking. “I think it reflects that the American people don’t understand what’s going on with America. I also think it’s because the media has been pushing McCain from the start.”
Ryan, from Plains Mont., had hoped that a portion of the delegate would go to Paul.
“It would be awesome of Ron Paul won some of the delegates,” Ryan said. “He’s a better candidate for the younger generation because he wants to help get us out of the system we are in, like social security. I mean, none of us really have that to look forward to. And he understands how the Federal Reserve is corrupt and we need to get rid of it because there is so much debt that us young people are going to suffer for a long, long time.”
Although there are few ideological ties, many have compared Paul to Barack Obama because of his appeal to young voters like Ryan. These young supporters are similar in their newness to the political process and their passion.
Paul spoke directly to this group during his speech saying, “The young people who have joined our campaign are rallying to the cry of self-reliance and getting out of the control of government and getting their independence back.” The comment was met with cheers and a standing ovation.
Other people at the banquet, however, were skeptical of Paul’s electability.
“I don’t necessarily agree with McCain 100 percent, but the important thing to me was electability. When I was taking a look at putting a Republican in the white house I thought he stood the best chance,” said McCain supporter Ron Devlin.
Other McCain supporters at the banquet did not view Paul as a candidate.
“The choice is between Obama and McCain,” Col. Sam A. Roberts, an alternate delegate, said. “Ron Paul is not a candidate.”
But Paul supporters are unlikely to give up easily. Of Friday’s loss in the delegate vote, Bailey said, “it shows the Liberty Caucus has a little more ground to build. But our power’s growing. We aren’t going anywhere.”
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Comments
Too bad for America! Time will tell just how bad of a choice this country has made in this election. No matter which of the two candidates are elected, nothing major will change. For the last 50 years we have witnessed, but seem to forget, the fact that every election contains basically the same issues about the same problems with the same promises and solutions that never come. The problem that the American People don't seem to realize is that most of the issues, most of the problems facing this country are a direct result of our government. So, these politicians create the problems and then promise to solve the problems.
Today, the American People are still relatively comfortable, but, due to the government's policies, that will rapidly change. Dr. Paul is the only candidate that raises the extremely important issue of the hidden inflation tax that has siphoned off most of the wealth away from the People of this country. Consider this: a person making, say $50,000.00 per year in 2008 only has the effective purchasing power of $9,030.69 in 1970 dollars; so, in other words, a person who makes about $24.00 dollars per hour in 2008 only has the purchasing power of $4.34 per hour in 1970 dollars. Now, when you consider the same $50,000.00 today compared to the purchasing power of 1913, the year the Federal Reserve Act was rammed down the throats of the American People, then that 50K only has the purchasing power of $2,304.22 in 1913 dollars…pretty sad, wouldn’t you say?
That is real wealth that has gradually been stolen from the American People, our labor today is basically free in terms of real money, or what was real money prior to 1913 and then the real blows of 1933 and especially 1971 when the dollar was made by total fiat. Is it any wonder why the government must mandate the minimum wage? A person making a minimum wage of $5.85 today has the effective purchasing power of $1.06 per hour in 1970 dollars or $42.40 per week in 1970 purchasing power.
Dr. Paul seems to be the only person in Congress who realizes that the American People, by slight of hand, are being made into serfs who are trapped as debtors, held in the servitude of a modern day feudal peonage. The American People labor for pennies and then are made to pay continual rents in the form of taxes, fees, penalties, licenses and a multitude of legal distortions intent, not only to take away our financial independence, but our individual independence and liberty. I must wonder if the American People have lost all the historic characteristics of common sense and revolutionary outrage that once graced this land?
A few days ago, the Royal Bank of Scotland warned its clients of a likely global crash in both stocks and the credit markets. The warning was to prepare for a very, very bad period, but Americans, in particular, seem to avoid "negative thoughts" or potential "bad news". We still have the mentality of "A Chicken in Every Pot", that will change.
By 2012, people will look back on the elections of 2008 and wish they would have voted for Ron Paul instead of the entrenchment candidates of this "two-party" system that has so embedded itself into the flesh of this country that it has just about sucked the life-blood from it.
The fact that they both attract young people is where ANY similarity in the two candidates ENDS.
No Ron Paul supporter in his right mind would vote for Obama or McCain.
I'm sorry you all had to endure the corrupt Conrad Burns.
NOW, to what we can do. I am an independent - have been for over 30 years. BUT we are conservative and agree wholeheartedly with Dr. Paul. SOOO when you vote, write in
Ron PAUL - REPEAT -write in Ron Paul! Get the word out every where. Electability is NOT an argument. We can scare the pants
off the RNC and the DNC. If we work hard enough to get this word out, we might get enough electoral votes to throw this into the House of Representatives as the Constitution provides.
If you don't remember, let me refresh your memory. We were told
NAFTA was the best thing since sliced bread. Now the pundits have been saying for the last two years that it is a bad deal for the American worker and this economy BUT McCain is all for it.
HOWEVER, no one breathes a word about how Ross Perot told us
in 1992 there would be "a giant sucking sound" taking jobs and money.
He got no electoral votes in 1992 BUT he got nearly 20% of the vote and scared the heck out of the R's and D's. Witness: they kept him off TV and out of the debates so that in 1996 he got 8%
of the vote. This will be a National campaign to write in Ron Paul.
There are many issues but McCain will push North American Union
giving up our soverignty!! He just went to Canada --talking the Prosperity Partnership that was signed with Mexico's Vincente Fox in SECRET. Of course it got out but it was signed.
George Bush should never have gone into Irag IMHO but he did say in his first month in office that he would not sign the Kyoto treaty on so-called "global warming" because it would ruin our economy. If you have been propagandized by our public schools (as two of my grandchildren have) you may think there is something to the idea that we have caused this. 31,000 top scientists signed a letter to the President stating facts refuting this idea. Those who are pushing it want CONTROL and MONEY. McCain and Obama are "on the bandwagon" as well as Al Gore, Michael Moore, etc. etc. etc.
Write in Ron Paul and TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS even ENEMIES!
Sincerely,
I have been a member of the gop for over 20 years and Paul's vision is growing then the media blacked him out from TV and when FOx booted Paul from a presidential debate that was the end of Fox for me.
Two months ago I began to study the Income tax issue. They take and take for after countless hours I presented a working plan to eliminate our cities personal property tax. I presented it before city leadership and showed how my plan could get the monkey off the backs of the people.
I suppose you have to begin to ask questions such as Why, do I have to pay taxes on my home? I need only 2000 signatures from people who live in my city to put it on the ballot and the city planners are scared it might pass.
Needless to say that while I studied the annual budget i found to much waste of our tax dollars. I even presented a plan of action to maintian our schools but make minor cuts with city schools. I also presented a plan for a elected official pay cut of 25%. After all they are here to serve the people not rape the people with a high salary.
As I see it we need to double the revolution within the next two months... So, spread the message of Paul's liberty minded actions and lets take our city back, our state back and lets fire 95% of washington. But may we do all things with class and respect.
No self-styled "Colonel" is going to dictate to ME, or anyone else, who is a candidate and who is not. No one is going to tell ME who my "choices" are, especially when they are really no choices at all.
Now, and at every election until the day I die, I am bringing a pen. I am writing in Ron Paul's name, as he is the only one out there that reflects my values and hopes. I will also write in people for state and local offices, if the "official" choices don't cut it. I may even write in my own name, at the local level!
The more write-ins there are, the less chances Diebold has to hack the vote.
He wrote the book in 2006 and accurately predicted the housing crash, and basically has the truth nailed down.
All you brainiacs contributed money, effort and legitimacy to an event that was headed to an otherwise Gigli-esque fate, and what are you walking away with? Twenty-two delegates for a guy who is practically a dictionary definition of what Ron Paul says is wrong with our government.
But what do I know, I'm just an "airhead."
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results..." - Rita Mae Brown
"One day soon, the power will return to its sole owner, the People" – Anonymous
O.W.
Baldwin/Castle 2008
Sam Harnish
We don't have time from our business to research this. Could one of the commentators check the 50 states and chart it for us? We are desperate for a REAL LEADER for our country.
As I said in my previous post, if all of us can choose one candidate -Barr, Baldwin, or Paul- the electoral college may not reflect a majority and thus throw it into the House. That would
scare "the bejesus" out of the R's AND D's! If the write-in wouldn't
so it then what?