GOP Hasn’t Reached Out to Paul Supporters
Rep. Ron Paul complains to the Washington Times that neither Sen. John McCain nor RNC chairman Mike Duncan have talked to him about how to get his supporters to work for the Republican Party. Yet in the same article he says he won’t support McCain “unless he changes — bring the troops home, believe in the gold standard, reject all the votes he ever had for all his entitlement spending. He needs to come back to the roots of the Republican Party.” Gee, I wonder why no one from Team McCain has talked to him.
Also, as McCain advisor Charles Black noted Paul still is running for the GOP nomination. He’s still raising money a few drips at a time.
At some point McCain and Republican Party leaders need to reach out to Paul supporters. I agree with John Hawkins. There isn’t a strong chance of getting many of them into the party, but we’ve seen first-hand how their energy and creativity gave Paul a chance to get his message out. They’re not all crackpot, conspiracy nuts. Many of them are normal people who think government is too big and are mad the Republicans haven’t done a lot to shrink it. Much can be learned from them.
“Paul Slighted by the ‘Neoconservative’ GOP” [via memeorandum]
UPDATE: Allahpundit writes:
In fact, my sense is that Paul’s supporters are even more avidly anti-intervention than he is: He did, after all, vote for war in Afghanistan, a detail not often mentioned amid his many indictments of “empire” and force-projection. If we’re hit again by Al Qaeda, will he support some sort of operation in the Pakistani tribal areas? Doubtful, but maybe. Will the Paulnuts? Almost certainly not.
I think the “America as empire” folks make up a considerable portion of Paul’s support, but I know of plenty who just want a smaller government that taxes us less. They got fed up with the free spending of President Bush and the GOP Congress. How big a portion of Paul’s support is that? I don’t know, but these people did do some amazing things online. Their activism would be very good for a McCain campaign at an online disadvantage to both Clinton and Obama.
[picture via VictoryNH]
