Topic: Republican Convention Ron Paul Battle
Paul - McCain negotiations reported The Washington Times reports that John McCain's campaign is negotiating for Ron Paul's support. But Dr. Paul says he is still being frozen out. by George Dance
(libertarian)
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
The Washington Times reported early Sep. 2 that "The McCain campaign, acting through the Republican National Committee, has been negotiating with Rep. Ron Paul to win his support and acquire the names of his sympathizers among the 4,607 delegates and alternates at the Republican National Convention, according to a senior aide to the Texas congressman."
Paul has refused to endorse John McCain to date; in retaliation, "McCain's operatives have refused to let him address the Republican National Convention."
Citing Paul campaign spokesman Jesse Benton, the Times revealed that:
Paul is negotiating with convention officials -- who are in effect McCain campaign representatives -- for permission to make the rounds on the convention floor Wednesday in the company of his personal security guard, communications director and political aides.
Mr. Paul has said he will speak respectfully about Mr. McCain in return for the convention granting the entourage access to the floor of the Xcel Energy Center. Mr. Paul, as a member of Congress and a member of the Texas delegation, automatically has floor access for himself.
Earlier negotiations to have Mr. Paul address the convention fell through because the congressman would not change his position on the war in Iraq, which he opposes as needless and self-defeating for the United States.
He also was denied permission to address the Republican Platform Committee last week in Minneapolis, Mr. Benton said. He said Mr. Paul wanted to discuss the foreign-policy planks in the platform, but the McCain forces who controlled the platform proceedings, as well as the Rules Committee and the Credentials Committee, objected.
In a separate interview, Dr. Paul told the Washington Post that "the RNC has also limited his access to the convention floor, and his movements at the hall will be monitored by the party."
Paul confirmed that in an interview with CNN later in the day, but downplayed the significance of his campaign's talks with the RNC:
I don't even know where [the Times] got a statement like that! I mean, we've been reaching out -- we were requesting whether I could come to the floor -- and really, we've been just up against a wall.... They had one individual come talk to us and said, what would we like? We listed a lot of things, and didn't get anything. We said can we go to the floor? They said yeah, you can come, under very, very restricted conditions. A Republican congressman should have a pass to the floor, but they said your pass will be at the gate and we'll pick it up when you leave, and you can't take anybody with you. I mean, my staff -- they said we would have three guest passes that I could take on to the floor with me, but they never confirmed that.
On the part of the RNC, says the Times, "The aim is to try to win support for the John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket from Paul sympathizers." According to the paper, "Sen. McCain and national party strategists worry that Mr. Paul's sympathizers will vote for Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party candidate and former Republican congressman who shares many of Mr. Paul's views."
Barr has been polling as high as 6% nationally, and the worry is that he could cost McCain the election by drawing off enough votes in key states to swing them to Obama. One state of concern is Nevada, where the Republicans shut down the convention after it looked like Paul would win a majority of delegates and subsequently appointed a delegation, while Paul's supporters organized their own convention in June. (Barr's running mate, Wayne Root -- like Barr an ex-Republican -- is from Nevada.)
The McCain campaign's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who backed Pat Buchanan in the 2000 GOP primaries, as his running mate has been widely seen as an attempt by his campaign to forestall Barr's appeal by reaching out to conservatives and small-government Republicans. Palin also has a following among Ron Paul's supporters, which stems from a February interview she gave with MTV in which she described Ron Paul as "cool."
"He's a good guy," Palin said of Paul at the time. "He's so independent. He's independent of the party machine. I'm like, 'Right on, so am I.'"
That led some Paul supporters to begin promoting Palin as a possible running mate for the Texas congressman. .
The Times quoted Benton as saying that his campaign "has a donors list of about 180,000 people" which "would do the McCain campaign no good because the loyalty of those donors is not transferable."
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Sources
Ralph Z. Hallow, "McCain in talks with Ron Paul for backing," Washington Times, Sep. 2, 2008. http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/02/mccain-negotiating-with-paul-to-win-backing-suppor/
Matthew Mos, "Paul Is Here, and the RNC Isn't Happy," Washington Post, Sep. 2, 2008. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/01/AR2008090102461.html?nav=rss_print/asection
John Nicholls, "Palin on Ron Paul Right On!' Campaign," The Nation, Sep. 1, 2008. http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/352094/palin_on_ron_paul_right_on_campaign
Matthew Yglesias, "Paulmania," Yglesias, Sep. 2, 2008. http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/09/paulmania.php
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