Ron Paul Supporters Become the Thorn in Mitt Romney's Side

Impact

Paul supporters don't understand the rules of the game. When running for office, stronger candidates offer you and your executive staff cash and well-paid jobs to cajole you to start saying all kinds of nice things about the candidate who you were bad-mouthing the day before. Without any leadership, your supporters soon disband. What was once a formidable threat and a formidable candidacy disappears literally overnight. 

Paul supporters don't get it. Neither does Paul. They evidently have all the money they want, all the job offers they need, because they sure aren't involved in the political process to enrich themselves. If that were the case, they would have long ago backed another candidate. 

"They are a loose cannon in the political process. Idealism is dangerous for career politicians because ideological politicians don't have a price," commented a seasoned Romney supporter on Ron Paul and his supporters. "In a game where everyone has a price it's always clear, you always know how to win – you just need access to more money and win opponents with it until you are the last man standing ... this idealism stuff is an unwelcome element."

Romney's campaign has a hard time understanding the rationale of Paul supporters and their rigid insistence on following their ideals. 

Instead of welcoming Paul supporters to help influence the Republican Party and electoral process, Romney's campaign has reportedly hired private investigators in Michigan to stalk state delegates, specifically keeping an eye out for Ron Paul supporters, presumably in an attempt to marginalize their influence over the electoral process. 

This attempt to marginalize Ron Paul supporters does not fit the media narrative. We are to understand that Romney has already won the nomination and shifted focus to beating President Obama. So instead of alienating Paul supporters, Romney should logically want to grow his voting base by befriending his former opponents. To the contrary, Romney, instead of behaving like a winner, is behaving like a candidate desperately trying to avoid losing. There may be a good reason for this. 

An unnamed Romney staffer recently made the claim, "We don't know who has the delegates, but we know who the media claims has all the delegates ... and that's what matters."

Interestingly, Romney has not won the Republican nomination. All evidence indicates that his campaign is dragging and simply struggling to maintain face against the numerous, well-trained, and dedicated supporters of Ron Paul. Is it possibly that the Romney staffer is right, that the Romney delegate count reported in the media is nothing but conjecture and posturing? If so, it wouldn't be the first time that a journalist had lied.