After a super-majority of Ron Paul supporters captured control of the Republican state convention Saturday, state party officials abruptly canceled the event without electing delegates to the national convention.Early in the day, state delegates supporting Paul’s continued pursuit of the Republican nomination voted through a rules change that forced the state party to abandon its preset ballot of potential national convention delegates and open up the race to the rest of the state delegates.

The Reno Gazette-Journal

I like Ron Paul very much. I think he is one of the best Congressmen in Washington in regards to governing by our Constitution. However, these shenanigans by those who continue to support his failed Presidential bid need to stop.

I think Ron Paul would have made an excellent President and his candidacy was quite impressive, especially the amount of money he managed to raise, but it’s long past time to move on. There is absolutely no chance whatsoever that he will be able to get the Republican nomination and people like the ones who crashed this state convention are only attaching a negative connotation to the Congressman and making themselves look like a bunch of asses.

Republicans should sit back and enjoy the Democrats’ current chaos rather than drumming up their own.

No caption needed. H/T Redstate

I guess he has decided to drop out after all.

BC News’ Z. Byron Wolf Reports: Texas Congressman Ron Paul will become the final Republican candidate for President who is not John McCain to drop out of the Presidential race tonight, ABC News has learned.

It was a spirited run for Paul, whose follower’s called their support for him a “revolution” of non-interventionism and small government.

In a web video to be posted on Paul’s website he will tell supporters he is winding down his campaign, which had already taken a back seat in recent weeks to his simultaneous bid for reelection to his Congressional seat.

“The message of freedom is popular,” he wrote on Tuesday night. “And I will continue to trumpet it in Congress and across America as I fight on behalf of the conservative, common sense values which made our country so great. In conclusion, I would like to offer my thanks and gratitude to all of the wonderful people who supported me in this campaign. I look forward to representing all of the good people of the 14^th District of Texas in Congress in the years to come.”

ABC News

Rep. Ron Paul, the 72-year-old libertarian-like, 10-term Texas congressman who’s also running for the Republican presidential nomination, easily won his 14th District primary Tuesday and is set for easy re-election in November.

With about half the precincts counted (what’s the rush — it’s Texas) Paul was thumping Friendswood City Councilman Chris Peden by two-to-one.

Now, Paul can set his sights on this other old-timer, 71-year-old Sen. John McCain, who claims to have won more than the 1,191 GOP delegates for the Republican presidential nomination this September at the National Convention in St. Paul (no relation to the congressman).

The LA Times

Ron Paul easily won reelection in the Republican Primary this past Tuesday, which I never doubted. The neocons thought they could take him down, but they clearly don’t know the people of the 14th Congressional District. Thankfully we can look forward to a few more years of him standing up and protecting our Constitution, one of the very few that do.

I do believe it is time for him to leave the Presidential race, though.  I would rather him save up all of that money he raised and use it for a gubernatorial run in 2010.

Huckabee eeked out a win in Louisiana by about 2,000 votes:

1. Huckabee - 43%
2. McCain - 42%
3. Romney - 7%
4. Paul - 5%

Washington was just the opposite, with McCain just winning by 2 points. Notably, Ron Paul came within in 5% of winning the state.

1. McCain - 26%
2. Huckabee - 24%
3. Paul - 21%
4. Romney - 16%
5. Uncommitted - 13%

With 64% of precincts reporting, Romney has 52% of the vote, followed by McCain with 21%, Ron Paul with 19%, and Mike Huckabee with 6%. While the race hasn’t been officially called, I think it’s fairly obvious that Romney has prevailed.

It’s been made official now. He has narrowly beat out Mitt Romney, but Florida is a winner takes all state so to the victor goes the spoils. Rudy Giuliani made a speech that sounded very much like the one Thompson made in regards to tone after South Carolina. I believe, as do the Fox News pundits, that he will be dropping out of the race within the next couple of days, possibly tomorrow. The conventional wisdom is that he’ll endorse John McCain.

9:00PM with 47% in:

Nothing has really changed. McCain at 35%, Romney 32%. The others are the same. Huckabee is already making his “concession” speech for this primary. It’s between McCain and Romney the rest of the night and if it stays this close we may not know until very late or even tomorrow.

8:20PM with 31% in:

1. McCain - 34%
2. Romney - 33%
3. Giuliani - 15%
4. Huckabee - 14%
5. Paul - 3%

7:50PM with 10% in:

1. McCain - 34%
2. Romney - 31%
3. Giuliani - 18%
4. Huckabee - 13%
5. Paul - 3%

7:34PM with 1% in:

1. Romney - 31%
2. McCain - 30%
3. Giuliani - 18%
4. Huckabee - 15%
5. Paul - 3%

As RedState puts it, “The Craptacular Capitulation of a Lame Duck.”

WASHINGTON — President Bush is unlikely to defy Congress on spending billions of dollars earmarked for pet projects, but he will probably insist that lawmakers provide more justification for such earmarks in the future, administration officials said Monday. (story here)

Translation: “Don’t do it again! But I’m going to let you do it just this once…” (Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle snicker with glee)

Fiscal conservatives in Congress and budget watchdogs have been urging Mr. Bush to issue an executive order instructing agencies to disregard the many earmarks listed just in committee reports, not in the text of legislation.

More than 90 percent of earmarks are specified that way, not actually included in the texts. White House officials say such earmarks are not legally binding on the president.

Emphasis mine. The next logical step for a real conservative President would be to gut these non-binding earmarks, right? Well, yeah, but Bush isn’t exactly a conservative President.

Congressional leaders of both parties, who are scheduled to meet on Tuesday with the president, said Mr. Bush would provoke a huge outcry on Capitol Hill if he ignored those earmarks.

Waaaaah! We want our pork and we want it now!

Lawmakers, including the House Republican whip, Roy Blunt of Missouri, have cautioned the White House that a furor over earmarks could upend Mr. Bush’s hopes for cooperation with Congress on other issues, including efforts to revive the economy.

Moreover, Republicans shudder at the possibility that a Democratic president might reject all their earmarks.

Again, all emphases are mine. Heaven forbid a Democratic president striking favors earmarks from a bill! Why? Well, because there’s an “R” next to that legislator’s name!

So it goes. Fiscal conservatism, who needs it?

Fred Thompson was the ONLY candidate (well, serious candidate, Ron Paul did as well) to say outright that he would issue the executive order against these “air-dropped” earmarks.

Ridiculousness like this is why people like me aren’t taking the “but you’ll let Hillary win!!” line when it comes to the “Republican” candidates.

What’s the difference, honestly?

Sen. McCain will interfere in the market (and give taxpayer dollars to people who lose manufacturing jobs - so why would they look for another one?), be against tax reform, embrace Al Gore’s Global Warming Government Expansionist argument, and appoint judges who will side with him on McCain-Feingold - meaning not judges like Alito, Scalia, Roberts, and Thomas. He’ll close Guantanamo Bay and argue that intense interrogation of terrorists to save American lives is actually “torture.” Not to mention, he has a temper and a vindictiveness similar to that of the Clintons.

Gov. Romney still supports the federal “assault weapons” ban. He’s an advocate of government mandates for healthcare (see RomneyCare). He recently said he was disappointed that there wasn’t a federal program to help Detroit automakers, and basically pledged to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to “save” Detroit if he becomes President. Michigan voted for him, so they will expect results. He’s a friend of Ted Kennedy. I haven’t even touched his convenient “conversion” to social conservatism - he turns me off enough today with stuff he’s saying now, so his “change of heart” is just icing on the cake.

Huckabee? Do I really have to go to the John Edwards wannabe? Yeah, he’ll be a real strong advocate for fiscal conservatism and limited government, let me tell ya! (snark off). Not to mention he’s one of the most immature, unserious candidates on either side of the race.

If we’re going to give this country to statists, by all means do it under the Democratic banner, not the Republican one.

UPDATE: Stop The ACLU has more of this line of thinking, referencing Stephen Bainbridge and even Rush Limbaugh.

UPDATE II: The Club for Growth has more details on the fallout from this move by the Bush Administration, and a round-up of conservative response around the blogosphere and in the media.

UPDATE III: Michelle Malkin has an excellent round-up of McCain’s ridiculous position on illegal immigration, which I failed to mention originally.

With 82% in this race is still too close for the media to call, but I think we are looking at a McCain victory.

1. McCain - 33%
2. Huckabee - 29%
3. Thompson - 16%
4. Romney - 15%
5. Paul - 4%
6. Giuliani - 2%
7. Hunter - <1%

With 60% in:

1. McCain - 33%
2. Huckabee - 30%
3. Thompson - 16%
4. Romney - 15%
5. Paul - 4%
6. Giuliani - 2%
7. Hunter - <1%

With 40% in:

1. McCain - 34%
2. Huckabee - 30%
3. Thompson - 15%
4. Romney - 14%
5. Paul - 4%
6. Giuliani - 2%
7. Hunter - <1%

With 27% in:

1. McCain - 35%
2. Huckabee - 28%
3. Thompson - 15%
4. Romney - 15%
5. Paul - 4%
6. Giuliani - 2%
7. Hunter - <1%

With 16% in:

1. McCain - 34%
2. Huckabee - 30%
3. Thompson - 15%
4. Romney - 14%
5. Paul - 4%
6. Giuliani - 2%
7. Hunter - <1%

As predicted Fred came up short. He’s either going to place third or a close fourth, not at all what his campaign was hoping for. I also heard a blip about Duncan Hunter dropping out of the race, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet.

Nevada has a caucus, not a primary.  The delegates to the caucus voted as follows:

1. Romney - 236
2. McCain - 79
3. Paul - 79
4. Thompson - 74
5. Huckabee - 47
6. Hunter - 15
7. Giuliani - 14

Today is South Carolina’s Republican primary and I went and cast my vote about an hour ago.

I have said before that my number one issue in this election is fiscal policy. I believe that our national debt and runaway government spending is the number one threat facing our country right now, more so than terrorism. Because of that issue I have leaned in the direction of Ron Paul all election season. I decided not to go with him today, however. Paul was always a long shot bid, but it began to look like that he might have a shot at pulling it off when the campaign money began rolling in and the media began giving him his due attention. However, his showing in New Hampshire was poor and that was a state that should have been a gold mine for him. It’s clear that after that primary any small chance he may have had was now in the past and I didn’t want to bother casting a vote for someone I know is not going to win at this point.

I then turned to John McCain, again for his fiscal sensibilities. True, he voted against the tax cuts in ‘01 and ‘03, but I feel his reason for doing so was justified. He has a proven track record of reigning in government waste, even in the military sector which Congress seems to give a free pass to on anything they want. McCain has repeatedly stated that he will oppose pork spending and make the authors of those pork barrel bills famous.

Secondly, McCain can win in November and he may be the only one. We are the underdogs in this White House race thanks to George Bush soiling the name of the Republican Party over the past seven years. McCain is well respected by independents and centrist Democrats and he could be capable of rebuilding the now fractured Reagan coalition that gave him a 49 state landslide win in 1984. Furthermore, I could easily see McCain smacking around a Barack Obama in every debate because McCain is experienced and knowledgeable whereas Obama is nothing more than an empty suit that has been created by the American media.

The problem with McCain is that he is still pushing for this guest worker program which I am vehemently opposed to as long as our unemployment rate is anything other than zero. Plus, there is the issue of McCain-Feingold which still gets under my skin. Would McCain appoint a Supreme Court justice who would disagree with him on CFR? Probably not and such a judge that would legitimize CFR is not likely to be a judge we can trust to be a constructionist.

So, I went to the voting booth today and cast my vote for Fred Thompson. In all honesty, I have been disappointed with the organization of Thompson’s campaign. I don’t think anywhere near the appropriate effort has been made to market him and while he did finally come to life in the Myrtle Beach debate last week, I think it was too little too late. That also concerns me as to how he’ll perform for the general election were he to make it that far. I don’t think Thompson is going to win today’s primary. He could pull it off, but I wouldn’t bet my money on it. I decided to help him out though with my vote this morning and maybe we’ll have a surprise tonight. He is the only candidate left that I see eye to eye with enough to support so I am keeping my fingers crossed and I may even head down to Columbia tonight as the results are coming in.

I will certainly support John McCain if he becomes our nominee, but I am much more comfortable with Fred and his Federalist views.

I wanted to write about this last night, but I was freezing my bum off in Green Bay in a hotel with a crappy wireless network that kept disconnecting me. So as everyone knows by now, Romney was the big winner last night and by more than I expected.

1. Romney - 39%
2. McCain - 30%
3. Huckabee - 16%
4. Paul - 6%
5. Thompson - 4%
6. Giuliani - 3%
7. Uncommitted - 2%
8. Hunter - <1%

I kind of figured come late afternoon that Romney would win because I heard on the radio that McCain and Huckabee had already left and headed down to South Carolina. And what the hell is Duncan Hunter still in this race for?

Romney has surged ahead in number of delegates now:

1. Romney - 46
2. Huckabee - 19
3. McCain - 15
4. Thompson - 6
5. Paul - 2
6. Hunter - 1
7. Giuliani - 0

I don’t think Giuliani’s super duper Tuesday strategy is going to work. He is putting himself way in the hole now. I think his time may be done.

The Nevada Caucuses and the first in the south, South Carolina primary are coming up on Saturday.

There was a little creaking and cracking heard, a shot of some blown dust and loose cobwebs and shazaam!  We saw an animated Fred Thompson tonight.  He was great.  I think a lot of people have been waiting for this.  I wish he would have came out of the shell a bit earlier, but better late than never.  I hope this debate will help him here in South Carolina.  The latest Rasmussen reports the following:

• McCain - 27%
• Huckabee - 24%
• Romney - 16%
• Thompson - 12%
• Giuliani - 6%
• Paul  - 5%

Final Score:

1. McCain - 37%
2. Romney - 32%
3. Huckabee - 11%
4. Giuliani - 9%
5. Paul - 8%
6. Thompson - 1%
7. Hunter - <1%

8:12PM - Fox News has just declared John McCain the winner!

8:10PM - With 11% in:

1. McCain - 37%
2. Romney - 28%
3. Huckabee - 12%
4. Giuliani - 9%
5. Paul - 8%
6. Thompson - 1%

7:48PM - Most of the polls in New Hampshire are closing in 15 minutes. I’ll try to keep this post updated with what I find out. Some polls closed at 7:30.

With 9% in:

1. McCain - 37%
2. Romney - 28%
3. Huckabee - 12%

The Republicans just finished their part of tonight’s debate and the Democrats will be starting their’s in a few minutes. I am going to stay up and watch that as well. As the saying goes, keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

I can honestly say that I enjoyed this debate and this is the first time I can make that claim. The format was the best of any of them, more than likely because there were only six candidates now and they had ample time to make in depth, detailed answers as to their positions. There were no 30 second sound byte answers.

I think all of the candidates tonight performed well with the exception of Romney. He was on defense the entire debate and took a lot of hits from the other candidates. He was visibly flustered by it and I think it made him look bad. The others were very much on point with their message and did very well at relaying that message to the audience.

This is a hard one to choose a “winner” on, but if I had to rank it from best performance to worst I would give McCain the win, followed by Huckabee, then Giuliani, Thompson, Ron Paul, and Mitt Romney.

My prediction for who will win the New Hampshire primary is John McCain.

U.S. congressional representative and Republican presidential contender Ron Paul has been called “Dr. No” because he repeatedly votes against legislation he believes gives government too much power. If it’s not in the Constitution, he says, the federal government has no business doing it. He even votes against appropriations to his constituents. Here’s Part 3 of my edited interview with Rep. Paul.RealClearPolitics

I recommend reading the responses of Congressman Paul to Stossel’s questions. His answers are dead on. I truly believe that Ron Paul is the only candidate running who will make a serious concerted effort to take us back to the Constitution. Some of the others may make some small changes in that direction, but I don’t think that any of them will make it as high a priority as Paul would.

In 2004, on the day John Kerry accepted the Democratic presidential nomination, the Boston senator raised $5.7 million on the Internet, the biggest online fundraising day on record.

Yesterday, Ron Paul, the Republican congressman whose rock star status on the Internet has singlehandedly fueled his campaign, broke that record, raising nearly $6 million in 24 hours.

On Nov. 5, which was Guy Fawkes Day, a symbol of rebellion in British history, Paul hauled in $4.3 million in 24 hours. And yesterday, the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, the day that helped spark the American Revolution, Paul’s Web-savvy, intensely loyal supporters completed another “money-bomb,” raising nearly $6 million from more than 50,000 donors, half of whom were new donors. With 14 days left in the fourth quarter, the Texas Republican has amassed more than $17.5 million.

The Trail

The money just keeps flowing in. I know Paul is not likely to win the nomination, but I am anxious to see how he does in the primaries. A couple of states have him in double digits which I think is impressive considering he was barely a blip on the radar when this whole thing started.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, aided by an extraordinary outpouring of Internet support Monday, hauled in more than $4.2 million in nearly 24 hours. Paul, the Texas congressman with a libertarian tilt and an out-of-Iraq pitch, entered heady fundraising territory with a surge of Web-based giving tied to the commemoration of Guy Fawkes Day.

Fawkes was a British mercenary who failed in his attempt to kill King James I on Nov. 5, 1605. He also was the model for the protagonist in the movie “V for Vendetta.” Paul backers motivated donors on the Internet with mashed-up clips of the film on the online video site YouTube as well as the Guy Fawkes Day refrain: “Remember, remember the 5th of November.”

Paul’s total deposed Mitt Romney as the single-day fundraising record holder in the Republican presidential field. When it comes to sums amassed in one day, Paul now ranks only behind Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton, who raised nearly $6.2 million on June 30, and Barack Obama.

Breitbart

That is some serious cash for someone who “conservatives” say is just a fringe case.

Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Ron Paul have little in common politically, except their opposition to the Iraq war.

Both top a new list of presidential candidates receiving campaign contributions from people who work for the four branches of the military and National Guard, according to a study released Thursday by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics.

The center tallied money from donors who list the Air Force, Army, Marines, Navy and National Guard as an employer. Overall, these donations are miniscule: Obama got 44 contributions worth about $27,000 and Paul 23 for about $19,300. Republican John McCain, an Iraq war supporter and Vietnam prisoner of war, was third with about $18,500 from 32 donors.

ABC News

I guess the military doesn’t think he’s a nut either.  Each passing day shows us that the neo-con policy of nation building isn’t as mainstream in the GOP any longer.

This is a down year for the GOP but it looks bleak in terms of money raised.

Democrats

GOP

Of the top 3 GOP candidates Thompson did not start fundraising until June and spent less money than he raised. Giuliani and Romney were in the red for the quarter. Giuliani raised $11.5 million but spent $13.1 million. Romney raised $9.8 million and spent $21 million. Ron Paul continues to show he is the Howard Dean of this election cycle with $5.4 cash on hand and $5.2 million raised in the 3rd quarter.