Stuck in the Middle With You

In a strange seven-and-a-half minuteaddress to supporters worldwide, Ron Paul said it was time to scale backthe campaign. He’s not quite quitting, but he’s not quite optimistic, either.He admitted that he can’t achieve “victory in the conventional politicalsense.” President Bush may want to steal that line for his next speech on Iraq.

Presumably, Paul supporters are taking this semi-withdrawal even harder thanthe candidate himself. Throughout the campaign, it seemed his netroots thoughthe could win even more than Paul’s campaign did. We thought it only fitting togive him a Trailhead send-off by tapping into the pulse of our friends over atthe Ron Paul Forums . What follows are real comments by real Paul fans. (Peopleare identified by their usernames.)

BillyDkid : AllI can think of is that smug ass George Steffenopollis smirking and feeling selfsatisfied with his “rightness”. I am sick and furious about thiswhole thing.

Actpulsa : Arewe through throwing blame yet? Can we stop and remember that this is aboutliberty yet? Do we want us and our kids to be free? Can any one of us do italone? Are we on the same side of this war or aren’t we? [ Note: actpulsa is a frequent commenter on Trailhead’sFray .]

Pacelli :”Regardless of what we want to read into Ron’s message, or don’t for thatmatter, nothing has changed in terms of our duty as Americans in the past fewweeks. I, for one, could care less what is released by the campaign. Thecampaign doesn’t speak for me, nor does it need to.”

Nodope0695 : Ididn’t hear the word, “END” or “DROP OUT” anywhere in Ron’svideo. I heard “WIND DOWN”. He clearly stated that the campaign is”SCALING BACK”, that this is a NEW PHASE - that we ought to continueto collect votes and delegates.

Dianne : Ifsomeone has the ability to contact Ron Paul personally, I would reallyappreciate you putting this in front of him. I for one am not ready to give upthe fight. Paul always said this campaign is about his supporters, not him. Inthat case, Paul should allow us to make the decision as to whether we are readyto support him as a third party candidate. [ I’ll spare you the rest, but Dianne goes on tocreate a ballot she wants Paul’s campaign to send out to donors ]

If you’re feeling Paulstalgia tap into Trailhead’sRon Paul archive . Some select choices: Our journeyinside the Ron Paul blimp and our attemptto understand his fervent fan base .