Today, there was a March on Albany, organized by local and state Tea Party types to bring thousands of people from all over New York to the steps of the Capitol.
Back on April 15, there were dozens of Tea Parties across the state, and the Albany event was quite successful, attracting a crowd of a couple three thousand.
Today, not so much, more like a couple three hundred.
Truly creepy in so many ways, yet also pretty cool. Check out this user generated video for Ron Paul showing him raising NYC from the bottom of the sea. Look for the Flatiron building to break the surface first as well as glimpses of creepy CGI lower Manhattan and a finale in Times Square of all places.
The demise of the Romney campaign has meant that the legions of Ron Paul supporters have had to face a sobering fact, namely that without the chance of a brokered convention, Ron Paul, the man who lapped the rest of the GOP field in fundraising, has absolutely no chance of becoming the Republican nominee. Now Ron Paul himself is conceding as much, though I doubt he'll announce it on his blimp.
In a message to supporters sent just before 11 p.m. Friday night, Representative Ron Paul, a long-shot G.O.P. candidate from Texas, basically conceded that he's not going to win the party's nomination.
That said, he's scaling back his campaign - but not entirely.
He said:
"With Romney gone, the chances of a brokered convention are nearly zero. But that does not affect my determination to fight on, in every caucus and primary remaining, and at the convention for our ideas, with just as many delegates as I can get. But with so many primaries and caucuses now over, we do not now need so big a national campaign staff, and so I am making it leaner and tighter."
Mr. Paul clearly stated that he will not run as a third-party candidate. Right now, his priorities are serving the residents in his Texas congressional district and winning re-election.
"If I were to lose the primary for my congressional seat, all our opponents would react with glee, and pretend it was a rejection of our ideas."
From what we can make of the letter, Mr. Paul is staying in the race on a peripheral level, just so he can keep participating in policy discussions (and maybe use up all that money he's amassed?).
"In the presidential race and the congressional race, I need your support, as always," Mr. Paul wrote. "And I have plans to continue fighting for our ideas in politics and education that I will share with you when I can, for I will need you at my side. In the meantime, onward and upward! The neocons, the warmongers, the socialists, the advocates of inflation will be hearing much from you and me."
Given that I always wondered just what the hell Ron Paul would do with $20 million bucks, I'm curious to know what exactly he means by making his campaign "leaner and tighter." Regardless, the Ron Paul phenomenon deserved more coverage this cycle. I personally think they guy is nuts and he had some pretty awful ties to some pretty awful people, but his steadfast calls to get out of Iraq and against the maintenance of a global American empire resonated rather profoundly with a not insignificant number of folks, folks who responded by raising buckets of cash for their guy. It should also be mentioned that much of this activity was self-organized outside of the Paul campaign and that is significant. Say what you like about Ron Paul and his ideas, but the movement that coalesced around him was a beautiful thing to watch, people outside of the party power structure, a power structure that was overtly hostile to them, taking it upon themselves to see that their ideas and concerns were heard.
Granted, they ultimately failed, but it was inspiring in many ways to watch. There's a term for what they were trying to do. They call it "Crashing the Gate".
Though it has tightened somewhat in the last half hour or so, with 61% reporting it looks like John McCain pulls this one off. In other news, Fred Thompson announces that he is definitely...going to take a nap and Ron Paul wipes the damn floor with Rudy Giuliani AGAIN, for the second time TODAY.
Let's face it, if Rudy were a Dem, he'd have been hounded out of the race two weeks ago.
Though Rudy is losing 2-1 to Ron Paul and is even being beaten by the somewhat animated corpse of Fred Thompson, he is indeed beating out "uncommitted" by about 5,000 votes. Good for him.
Though I appreciate Ron Paul's stance on the war in Iraq, it's pretty obvious that he holds some rather kooky ideas on other subjects. Anyone for a return to the gold standard? But there is definitely something going on here with Ron Paul and his supporters.
Ron Paul has raised over $2.45$3 million$3.5$4.2 million bucksTODAY. (Note: Paul's supporters raised a million dollars in the 2 hours since I Posted this.) To put that in perspective, Ron Paul has raised more money in a single day, a day that is far from over, than Mike Huckabee has raised ($2.34 million) all year long.
Even here in NYC, I see Ron Paul supporters all over the place. Hell, I actually know one of his biggest boosters here in the city. He's a regular poster over at DailyKos. Really.
I think Paul is a nut, but his support is genuine and it's a movement that is making plenty of noise today.
Giuliani: "I rebuilt 9/11 with my bare hands and personally raised the children of all the fallen heroes in New York, in addition to lowering crime by 400% and giving every New Yorker a thousand dollars and a Christmas card."
Romney: "Hillary Clinton wants to give terrorists keys to the White House. In Massachusetts, I personally stopped the marriage of a man and a horse, and secured our borders by ensuring that Massachusetts remained at least one state away from any other country. Hillary Clinton wants you to abort your child even if they've already been born!"
McCain: "When I was in 'nam-- that's right, I was in 'nam as a P.O.W.-- we had Charlie all around us. Two of my buddies went down in the rice paddies of Da Nang, and I was still able to command the U.S. Navy and win World War II retroactively. Also I was in Vietnam, did you know that?"
Ron Paul: "Keep the government away from my tax dollars! What was the question again? I can't hear you because I'm farking a hundred years old."
Huckabee: "Jesus is Lord. Praise his name. Did I mention Jesus is Lord? Also, I'm changing my party from Republican to the ForJesus party."
Everyone else: "Hey assholes, we're running too. Ask us some questions!"
Nothing from Grandpa Fred, but I'm assuming it went much the way that SNL had him last week:
How much do I want to be your President? Well, on a scale of 1 to 10...I'm about a 6.
