Ron Paul may run as Libertarian after Iowa because of massive youth support

Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2012 at 03:26 AM

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Ron Paul

Beware of Ron Paul running as an independent.

He finished a close third in Iowa but is effectively out of the race.

He has proven, however, that young people will flock to him as he utterly dominated the under 40 vote in the Iowa caucus.

The enthusiasm gap is real for Republicans. Only 120,000 took part in the Iowa caucuses down from 180,000 four years ago.

That is a stunning drop.

That is also bad news for Mitt Romney who eked out a victory in Iowa but has that warmed over feel for many voters.
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--------------- Paul will be very tempted to run on the Libertarian line and could ignite a passionate following of young people like what Barack Obama did in 2008.

He has deserted the GOP before to run as a Libertarian. In 1988 he got close to a half million votes.

He would do enormously better this year were he to run.

The enthusiasm gap for Mitt Romney among not just young people but party conservatives generally makes it entirely possible that Paul will make a bid from the right.

The demise of Rick Perry has certainly opened a door for someone from that flank of the party.

Romney looks unstoppable now because of his money advantage,

But Paul could still play a powerful role going forward.

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donegalcali | Jan 21, 2012, 01:37 AM EST

What a bunch of morons, Who paid you to write this article Roberts?. RON PAUL 2012!!!!!!

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KathleenBerrio | Jan 10, 2012, 01:11 AM EST

A vote forPaul is a vote for 4 more years of Obama.

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AMWilson | Jan 04, 2012, 11:18 PM EST

George, I 100% agree with your analysis on the whole Israel thing, and it explains why so many so-called "mainstream" Republicans are complete whores for Israel. I lived in CA in 2008, and wrote-in Paul for the sake of my own conscience. Re: Iran, those who want war in the Middle East will always find an excuse, religious, political, or economic. But Paul's point can't be credibly refuted: "those people over there" wouldn't be so keen on blowing us up if we just left them alone. Iran wants to be a regional power; they don't want Mutually Assured Destruction.

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GeorgeDillon | Jan 04, 2012, 12:25 PM EST

"his thoughts on Iran are way off beat and dangerous". What's dangerous about wanting peace ? You think war is less dangerous than peace, you dope pflynn?

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Rebelforce | Jan 04, 2012, 12:15 PM EST

Ron Paul managed to win 22% of the vote in Iowa. The "frontrunner" Mitt Romney won just 25%. Just imagine how many votes Paul could have won if the newsmedia hadn't "blacked-out" his campaign because he was styled a "fringe candidate". Well nobody can call Ron Paul "fringe" anymore. And thankfully, Ron Paul has the money, supporters and organization to take his "anti-War" and "America First" message from primary to primary in the forseeable future.

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pflynn70 | Jan 04, 2012, 11:00 AM EST

Ron Paul seems to be a good guy, his thoughts on Iran are way off beat and dangerous but his take on big spending and government waste is right on,however he has no chance of winning and if he decides to run as a third party he just enhances the chance of more of the Socialistic Obama agenda and this has got to cease.Obama" One BIG ASS MISTAKE!"

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GeorgeDillon | Jan 04, 2012, 07:43 AM EST

I voted for Ron Paul in the Republican primary in 2008. However I have no illusions about his chance of getting the support of mainstream Republicans in the Old Confederacy, where I live. The average Republican around here--and a large slice of the Democrats--have never seen a foreign war or military adventure that they didn't like. Plus they think Israel is the Promised Land, and many hope to wind up there when the Rapture comes. Keep watching those skies! A lot of Americans, primarily Bush Baptists and Bible Bums, are more loyal to Israel than they are to the USA. They'll never vote for Congressman Paul. I sure hope Paul runs as an Independent--he'd expose a lot of the disappointments and flops of the Obama administration. No progressive should support Obama at this stage.

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gamerandy | Jan 04, 2012, 04:57 AM EST

Oh and my favorite quote from Santorum during a campaign stop on Monday "I may have voted for those things that went against my morals, but I didn't believe in them"

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gamerandy | Jan 04, 2012, 04:56 AM EST

Patrick, Your analysis is a bit off... Ron Paul is 2nd in NH currently, and his numbers have been trending upward this whole cycle. Mitt Romney has a consistent 25% ceiling to his support, and every other candidate has ridden a wave of "Not Romney Fresh Fish Spotlight" - Not something you want to smell after a few weeks. Rick Santorum is the latest bubble candidate, he makes claims on the campaign trail "I'm the only one who can win a swing state like Pennsylvania" while failing to mention that the most recent election he ran there, he lost by more than 20%. His last year in Washington he was included on a list of the 20 most corrupt members of congress by Citizens for Ethics due to his record of taking campaign contributions and quickly returning favorable tax treatment to donors. The real story is that Ron Paul turned out 2.5x the number of voters he did in '08, while Mitt Romney wasn't even able to reach 1x his '08 numbers on a year with record turnout. And that's right, this was a record turnout year. Your article is flatly wrong - You have confused the Democratic caucuses of '08 which are run by a different organization, have a larger constituency in the state, and operate using a different set of rules. the 2012 turnout is the all time high for Republican Iowa Caucus at 123,000 beating out 2008 which was the previous high at 119,000 I appreciate you covering our race in America, but please try to get your facts correct before you declare candidates "out of the race"

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