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Ron Paul will Win Virginia and it will transform the race

At the time, Romney probably thought it was good news that only he and Paul qualified for Virginia:  he was wrong.  Because no write-ins are allowed and because only Romney and Paul are on the ballot in Virginia, and because Paul has no chance to win the nomination,– voters in Virginia’s GOP primary will face a clear choice:  vote for Mitt Romney or vote against him.  Simply put, the Virginia primary is a referendum on Mitt Romney, and a chance for all Virginia voters to make their voices heard.

Should Paul beat Romney in VA, it would be Paul’s only victory in any state.  And, of all states, in one of the states with the largest number of soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen in the country.  The state with the Pentagon and with the home port for all east-coast based air-craft carriers.  Virginia is not and never will be Paul country — except on Primary day this year.

The story of Paul’s win will play out as a major news story for the day and will send shock waves though the GOP and the country.  When voters are faced with the choice of Romney — or anyone else — they choose someone else.  The message will be clear:  Romney is not acceptable.

I have heard some say that Florida is an important state.  Clinton beat Obama in FL by a landslide…. how did that work for her?  FL never won the nomination for McCain, SC did.  Yes, every state is important and FL is no exception.  It would be great for Gingrich to win, but even if he does, Romney will still be the in the race and just as formidable an opponent.   If Romney wins, Gingrich will still lead national polls and still have support of conservatives.  FL matters, but it not-as-much as Virginia.

On the other hand, if Romney manages to win Virginia — it will send a very unfortunate message that primary voters are willing to accept Romney.  The message will be heard this year, 4 years from now, 8 years from now, and forever.  In the future, candidates and the establishment will continue to stick it to conservatives on the belief that conservatives will support anyone with an “R” next to their name.

Every primary will matter, but Virginia will matter MORE, not less, because Gingrich and Santorum are not on the ballot and this makes is a simple choice between Romney and Not Romney.

I urge Virginia voters– and I never thought I would say this — to vote for Ron Paul and send a message to the GOP establishment that Romney does not have our blessing as the GOP nominee for President and we want a conservative now, 4 years from now, 8 years from now, and for every future election.

COMMENTS

  • aj_0000

    I live in VA, and if the choice is between Romney and Paul, I will vote for Paul, and I will encourage everyone I know to do the same. Unfortunately, VA Republicans are very conservative, not only ideologically, but also “small c”, temperamentally. They’re likely to hold their nose and vote for Romney, unless the Tea Party contingent and the Paul contingent overwhelm the low turnout of reluctant Romney voters.

    Hopefully between now and then, the implications will become more clear, that a vote for Paul is a vote for Newt. That kind of strategic thinking requires a pretty big leap for the vast majority of voters, though. One upside is that the primary requires only a pledge that you will not vote in the Democratic primary as well. So Paul should be able to get all of his usual suspects in there to vote for him. But he’s not huge in VA.

    • creinstein

      I wish I lived in Virginia now.

      I fully endorse this plan.

    • Common_Cents

      no sense in handing romney delegates in a state that screwed itself over. A big message needs to be sent.

      A not voting protest will still result in a romney win and won’t send a message.

    • iddavis

      although for no other reason than not casting a vote for Mittens, the multi-millionaire lying RINO. Paul is definitely the more conservative of the two,

      We are Rick Perry fans, now backing Newt, and believe we must send a STRONG message to the GOP establishment, Fox , the supposedly conservative talking heads, etc…that we will fight this battle to the end…that we will NOT allow them to choose our candidate again only to fail in the Nov general election. That would be doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result which is the definition of INSANITY. True Constitutional conservatives need to realize this before they pull the lever. We will NEVER get back to a conservative government if we continually allow others to pick the candidate for WE THE PEOPLE!

      With Newt still in the lead in national polls, and knowing he has the fighting spirit and enthusiasm to carry on til the end, common sense conservatives who want to win this battle must get behind Newt……it’s NOW or forever more regretting our ignorance in “going along” with the status quo.

      We are hoping Paul runs a strong ground and air/media campaign here in VA…with no other candidates in the race, it should be a slam dunk for Ron Paul to give Mittens a good scare! Can’t wait!

  • mikeymike143

    the republican party should never support a code pink loving anti semitic loon like paul under any circumstance.

    • snowshooze

      Tea Party should never support a big government elitist with a socialized health care plan already under his belt.
      Yeah, my Tea Party calls your Tea Party YELLOW. lol…
      Not too serious here now…

  • keepcoolwithcoolidge

    Paul won’t win at the convention, so a vote for him really isn’t a vote for him.. And I’m not going to vote for someone like Romney who ran to the left of the Chappaquiddick chicken and called for a renewal of the assault weapon ban, unless it’s in November.

    • daveoconnor

      “Chappaquidick chicken” brings a laff.

      I wonder if there’s a dish Chicken Chappaquidick. Let’s see:

      Marinate the young hen in salt water all night.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    Vote for the flip flopper. It’s important.

    • deVere

      Edwards v Duke was for election as Governor of Lousiana.

      Romney v Paul is for 49 delegates, which may help Romney get nominated, but are harmless in Paul’s hands, since Paul will never get nominated.

      Gingrich and Santorum supporters should borrow a page from Ron Paul’s playbook and offer to serve as Ron Paul delegates in Virginia. Then on the second convention ballot and beyond they can vote their conscience. As the sayng goes, turnabout is fair play!

      • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

        YMMV.

        • keepcoolwithcoolidge

          I’m not a Paul fan, but even I know that he doesn’t lean towards communism .

          • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

            Read up sometime on his rantings about how the Commies had to ‘clean up’ in Vietnam after our allies in the RVN were overrun.

          • aesthete

            for odious regimes, including the Communist states in SE Asia and their actions (stating that the NVA was democratic, that resistance to us was based on a popular, wide-spread, idealistic resistance, white-washing the actions of the Vietnamese government, etc), and characterizing all odious actions from the Soviet Union or other evil regimes as reasonable responses to whatever slights on the part of the US happen to be on hand.

            There is a difference between being consistently non-interventionist, and adopting the propaganda of our enemy. We are not the bad guys in Iraq; the guys blowing themselves up in crowded marketplaces are. We’re not the bad guys in Afghanistan; the people rubbing acid in the faces of little girls who want to go to school are.

      • daveoconnor

        Paul’s? What? And don’t try to pretend it’s strategy either! That’s the most nutty radical thing I’ve ever heard. Somthin’ wrong wit u? Paul? Political thinking my rabbits foot!

        • daveoconnor

          I forgot he’s a commie lover!
          Why he wants to put people in mental wards like in the old USSR because they support….uh oh never mind.

          • deVere

            And they are now even more dangerous than the commies.

            No one is perfect, but it will keep me from ever supporting Ron Paul, except as a short-term political tactic.

        • deVere

          When life gives us lemons, gotta make lemonade. LOL

  • David123

    without handing the general election to Obama.

    A Romney loss in Virginia should be a wake-up call that the Republican party needs to nominate a better candidate, and that Not-Romney beats Romney even when Not Romney is named Ron Paul.

    If Ron Paul wins Virginia, and Romney wins the nomination anyway, at least it can’t be claimed that he won it due to skullduggery in Virginia.

  • deVere

    Rom ney doesn’t care how he wins the nomination! He just wants very badly to win it.

    That said, I do not think Ron Paul will win the Virginia primary. The average Republican voter is just not sophisticated enough to carry out this plan.

  • SoFiMil

    A significant number of undervotes will also send a resounding message.

    • http://www.patriotpowerhour.com patriotpowerhour

      and no it does not send a message. They call it apathy.

    • sulmak

      nt

      • SoFiMil

        Romney hasn’t passed the threshold for my vote in the Republican primary. Ron Paul is a despicable old man. I believe it is very important to vote. So I’ll undervote and not select either of the two candidates on the ballot.

        If someone wants to put their own interpretation on it, go ahead. I’m not going to stop you.

  • SoFiMil

    .

    • http://www.patriotpowerhour.com patriotpowerhour

      the only honest man in the US holing office? faithful to his wife, never lies or cheats nor accepts money from lobbyists? Why? Because you are afraid? Freedom and cowardice cannnot abide. You have the nation you deserve when you reject honest men for liars, cheats and thieves and you do it for fear.

  • Patricia_C

    As a political writer for Yahoo! U.S. News and for Examiner I have seen just how far some Paul fans will go in their effort to silence anyone who dares to express ANY unfavorable facts about Ron Paul, including something as simple as reporting the fact that he lost the Iowa Caucuses and the primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina and the fact that he will not win the Florida primary.

    The primary in Virginia is two months away. With the escalation of this kind of behavior that’s plenty of time for his more militant supporters to erode any chance he might have to win.

  • Ender

    including VA. The plan promotes voting for a racist, and most regular republican voters will not do it.

    • http://www.patriotpowerhour.com patriotpowerhour

      You guys don’t understand Paul and you are getting more O this year because of it, so enjoy. You cannot be a libertarian and a racist. You simply do not understand the principles he works on. Research it for yourself instead of believe everything you hear from the paid for media. Look at what people do for a change, not what people say about them. What people do is the most accurate indicator. More O coming your way until you wake up!

      • sulmak

        His personal feelings on race in everyday private life have nothing to do with it.

        That said, I don’t believe Paul is a racist.

    • deVere

      to get their money and votes.

      Aside from that, ageism is now much more serious problem than racism in the USA, and letting Paul win a primary might be good for the morale of us old folks.

      But his foreign policy is still insane, so let’s not make a habit of voting for Ron Paul. Virginia is a special case.

    • sulmak

      No one ever mentions it , but the first step of the Iowa Caucus, the part that Santorum won, is basically a straw poll. This is why they got to keep the full delegate count even though they moved it up to January. The vote doesn’t have any direct effect one who gets delegates. News figures are just estimates.

      Delegates are actually selected in March by people selected at the original individual Caucus sites. They often select someone who has similar views on who should be the nominee as the rest of the caucus, but just as often it is just someone who expressed an interest in going, as the nominee is usually selected by march so many don’t think it matters.

      Paul drones could have easily taken advantage of this, as the usually do in places where they can game the system. I could easily see Paul getting more delegates than Romney or Santorum from Iowa.

  • Xasteius

    And now for something more intellectually stimulating….

  • Rudy

    Operation Virginia Chaos.

    I’m in.

    Newt should go around with Paul that week to top it off. :)

  • sulmak

    Even if it came between them for real it would be kind of a toss up, wouldn’t justify the gas to drive to the poll booths though.

  • rechts

    Not sure how I will vote yet.