Ron Paul Not Quitting: Will Have Hundreds of Delegates at GOP Convention in Tampa

Impact

Whether you like him or not, libertarian Ron Paul is likely to continue to be a political force in election 2012, all the way up to and through November.

Ron Paul has been a phantom-like candidate in election 2012, amassing and army of young and eager supporters behind his unconventional standard while also shying away from (erbeing shunned by?) the mass media.

But Ron Paul always seemed to have a plan, a direction he was moving in (even if the rest of us didn’t quite get it), and now that plan looks as air-tight as ever.

Here’s the kicker: Ron Paul will be a household name by November. His strategy is proving to be massively successful, and he’s only gaining influence (rather than losing it, as we’ve seen with other former GOP presidential candidates like Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, etc.) as this election drones on.

Ron Paul, one could say, has already won, in his own unique sort of way.

And here’s why:

It’s the Delegates, Dummy

On Friday and Saturday, Paul — who has quit spending on his presidential campaign and admitted that he won’t be the GOP presidential nominee — had yet another victory in his “It’s the Delegates, Dummy” nomination strategy. Paul notched 23 out of 28 delegates from the Iowa GOP convention to the Republican National Convention in August, all of which will be “unbound” to official Iowa caucus winner and former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum, and should be emphatic Paul supporters.

The Iowa win matches other state victories (See: Minnesotta, Nevada, Louisiana) where Paul has procured delegates using his extensive grassroots, bottom-up delegate system. Instead of filling the airwaves and spending loads of cash on ads campaigning in primaries, Paul has focused instead on the behind the scenes workings at Republican state conventions, influencing state and local candidates to these meetings who the help to nominate pro-Paul delegates to the national convention.

Paul is counting on having 200 delegates on the Tampa RNC floor who can vote for him (“unbound,” as they are called, and who won’t be forced to pledge support to official Republican nominee Mitt Romney), and a few hundred more who are bound to vote for Romney but are his supporters.

So what does this all mean?

Expect Ron Paul supporters to indeed made a big impact at the RNC and in the coming general election. Ron Paul — a libertarian who is seeking to reshape what he calls the old ways of the Republican Party — will force himself onto the biggest Republican event in the nation, acting perhaps as a speaker or just watching as his supporters spread his “liberty movement” message for him. Either way, Paul’s presence at the 2012 RNC could be comparable to then-Senator Barack Obama’s “Red State, Blue State” 2004 Democratic National Convention speech … a speech which propelled him onto the national stage and set in motion his eventual presidency.

Will Ron Paul become president? No, but using the RNC as a national loud speaker for his liberty movement can help the fortunes of other libertarian candidates, most notable Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, Ron’s son.

This delegate strategy has propelled Ron Paul and his message to astronomical heights.

You know what, I bet Ron Paul knew all along he would never be president. This was his plan all along.

And this is a win for him.

Money Bomb Success

Surprisingly, though he has "actively quit active spending" (that's the mouthful definition any Paulite will give you) on his 2012 presidential campaign, Ron Paul continues to rake in money … not boatloads of cash, but he does have a steady flow of money coming in.

In May, Paul raised $1.78 million in fundraising, ending the month with $3.3 million in the bank, more than he had in April. 

(Side Bar: In typical libertarian fashion, Paul has been efficient with his fundraising earnings and has no debt to pay off — former GOP presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum owe creditors millions of dollars.)

Ron Paul isn’t bringing in “Romney Money” in terms of the size of his fundraising, but his steady earnings do show that his passionate base will continue to fund his R3volution through thick and thin.

Here’s a more visual explanation: RP money bomb x ∞ $ x RP supporters² - campaign spending = More RP in 2012.

As Ron Paul 2012 morphs into some new campaign, expect these financial contributions to only go up. And as fundraising goes up, influence goes up.

Ron Paul believes in free markets. He knows that an efficient industrial machine leads to prosperity. His campaign — if you can still call it that — has become this uber efficient machine. 

Picture Ron Paul 2012 as a start-up company; we’ll soon enter into the next phase of the company’s evolution, and that one should be more profitable than the last.