Weigel

Ron Paul’s Never-Ending Campaign

I wrote about it last week, before a slew of state conventions that were – as Republicans feared – overtaken by the Forces of Paul. The great Dan Popkey writes about their plans for Idaho, with a detail that proves how far we’ve come since 2008.

“If two-thirds of the delegates to the Idaho State Convention are Ron Paul supporters, they can vote to suspend the rules, overturn the results of the caucus and award all the national delegates to Ron Paul,” [organizer Ryan] Davidson says on YouTube. In recent days, he shut down access to the training video because Romney supporters were using it to counterattack.

In 2008, Paul supporters schlepped DVDs to Republican delegates, informing them of their freedom to pick a candidate that they weren’t pledged to. And nobody much cared. (The press, at least, was distracted by the more real threat of Hillary Clinton supporters taking votes from Barack Obama.) This year, contigencies are being planned to respond to Paulians. And one reason the campaign is quiet about the strategy (multiple reporters told me last week that they were having more luck with scared Romney supporters than with proud Paul supporters) is because it can be thwarted with enough warning. In Idaho, Paulians have eight days to win district delegates.