Hey, Ron Paul folks, Rudy Giuliani pays tribute to your guy

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has been on the, uh, naughty list of all loyal, dedicated, fervent and vocal supporters of Rep. Ron Paul since he appeared to scoff at the Texan during one of the early Republican debates last year, gave a formal tip of the hat to the good doctor during his Florida concession speech last night.

As one result of that debate incident, which involved Giuliani taking offense at Paul's suggestion that Americans were at least partly responsible for 9/11 by their occupation and offensive actions against Arab countries, some Paulunteers have hounded many of Giuliani's public appearances with chants and sign-waving throngs. And they have often filled the comment section of The Ticket with scores of denunciations of the man who successfully turned life in New York City around.

These thousands have also reveled in the several times that Paul drew more primary or caucus votes than Giuliani in early states where the New Yorker did not seriously compete, starting with....

Iowa. Many will no doubt delight now in the expected end to Giuliani's campaign later today followed by his anticipated endorsement of Sen. John McCain. Ron Paul, on the other hand, has the endorsement of THE Jane Roe, is working on Tom McClintock. and has launched an eight-state ad blitz including California.

But Tuesday night as he was preparing to bow out, as first reported on the Ticket Monday noon, Giuliani gave a gracious concession speech in which he listed all of his Republican competitors and called them good men.

He added Ron Paul on the end, smiling, and said after all the debates he'd go back to his hotel room and watch television and how every time, according to the texted tallies, Ron Paul won all the debates, much, he did not say, thanks to the determined voting of his many busy-fingered followers. "Ron Paul won every debate!" Giuliani said.

Alas for Paul's followers, who have given many millions to his campaign treasury,--nearly $3.8 million so far this month, according to his website -- Ron Paul, a 72-year-old, 10-term House member who ran for president previously on the Libertarian ticket in 1988, did not win in Florida. In fact, Paul came in fifth, dead-last, well behind even Giuliani and Mike Huckabee.

In fact, the former ob-gyn received only about 3% of the vote, way less than 100,000 votes, which was about what pre-election polls measured as his support in the Sunshine State and what Paul supporters will argue was caused by a mainstream media conspiracy to run those fraudulent polls, to under-report Paul's support and to minimize his chances.

Under Florida winner-take-all rules, McCain now takes the state's 57 delegate votes at next summer's Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

So tonight's Republican debate at the Reagan Library near Simi Valley, co-sponsored by The Times and live-streamed here on this website at 5 p.m. Pacific, will likely have only four surviving Republicans -- McCain, Paul, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney. Paul will be the strict constitutionalist who opposes the Iraq war and proposes to slash the federal government. Chances are, he will be given less time to speak than the other three.

On CNN last evening Wolf Blitzer went way out on a limb about the future of the Republican race going into Super Tuesday, Feb. 5. He boldly predicted that the results next week were "anybody's guess."

And you can take that to the bank.

--Andrew Malcolm

Photo: Richard Sheinwald / Bloomberg News

Comments

[Gene]

Let Rudy have his last digs...he ran an historically bad campaign. Paul got zero press coverage, Rudy's was 24/7. The media will act like contortionists avoiding Paul now with just four left running.

[chrisinaustin]

If by "the man who successfully turned life in New York City around," you mean ensuring the FD had outdated communication systems, and forcing kids back to school before the air quality standards were met in and around Ground Zero then you're right on point. Also you failed to mention Paul didn't "seriously compete" in Florida. Next, just to clarify, we weren't reveling against Guiliani, we were reveling for our freedoms. The same ones that the Bush regime has suppressed, and the ones that Guiliani would continue to suppress. All in the name of "patriot"-ism, how's that for irony?

To Guiliani and his, MSM backers/pollsters, that since the summer have wanted so desperately for him to be the GOP candidate, I'd like to dedicate a song to you from the late, great Ray Charles:
"Hit the road jack and don't you come back, no more, no more, no more"

[Tony Andrews]

Why not mention that Romney spent millions on Florida, and WON'T GET a SINGLE DELEGATE out of the deal. That's a huge part of this story. Paul barely campaigned in FL. Giuliani, however, DID campaign in New Hampshire... he hosted the most political events in the state of all the GOP candidates! What did it get him? Jack squat.

Many doubt the accuracy of Florida's voting system. You might remember the hearings after the 2000 election when the programmer of the voting machines admitted the machines had code that could flip any election to 51-49%. Jeff Dean, the senior programmer and VP of Diebold was later convicted on 23 felony counts. But who cares about facts, or about criminals controlling our elections? At least we're 'safe', right?

[Justin Zane]

"Those who cast the votes decide nothing.
Those who count the votes decide everything."

quote attributed to Joseph Stalin

[Guesswhotoo6]

Thank you Europe for noticing we are in a bit of a fascist pickle here in the USA. A place where the paradigm of thinking for ones self has been traded in for mindless TV and trips to the peoples republic of WalMart, We managed to elect Mr Bush the 2nd time even with blatant lies about WMD etc.... Sorry I can not report we are making any progress over here. Ron Paul has the only intelligent message out there. However, the bankers and their friends will control the situation to what ever extent necessary to secure their multi trillion dollar per year cash flows from our pockets to theirs. I am sure, where Fl is a winner take all state for the GOP delegates, it made no sense for Ron Paul to spend dollars there without really good odds to capture the delegates. Hence I think he made the correct moves. The censorship of our media is so obvious, it speaks to the extent of the issues here. Go Ron 2008!

[Free Arthur]

Florida was a difficult state for Dr. Paul. Florida's was the first primary where only Republicans could vote. Many of Ron Paul's supporters are Democrats or independents. Moreover, Dr. Paul seems to do better in caucuses than in primaries.
One needs a computer and access to the Internet to obtain an adequate coverage of election news. The mainstream media often pretends that Dr. Paul does not exist. Are the media afraid of the Ron Paul Revolution? Are they afraid of limited Constitutional government, ending the Iraq War, ending American military involvement in foreign countries, restoring our civil liberties, ending the income tax, balanced budgets, and money and banking reform?

[Mike Knapp]

How nice of the LA Times, who is co-sponsoring this debate, to let us know ahead of time that it will be unfair and biased against Paul by not giving him equal amount of airtime. Us Dr. Paul supporters are used to getting snubbed in real time, we appreciate being told that our candidate is going to get screwed ahead of time. THANKS SO MUCH LA TIMES!!!

www.ronpaul2008.com

[tom brown]

I would hope to see Ron Paul given fair treatment in the press and the next debate. It wont happen. Our media "pundits" lack the least awarness of our countries plight. They live in the other America. The elite ,over paid, im not responsible for anything America. Lap dogs of the media empire. When did pursuit of the dollar and power replace responsible journalism? Thomas Paine where are you? The mindless crude they produce sucks the brains out of the bubba, what are you going to give me populace. Instead of rebate checks how about granite counter tops? Just an old Marine on a mission.

[Nicholas]

It' is freightning to those of us who are not americans when we hear presidential candidates like giuliani speak about terrorism and why they attack america because america is a free country. The world needs an american president who logically understands the world outside america and the real causes of terrorism. giuliani's hopes at a presidential run ended months ago when he and ron paul exchanged views on terrorism. rudy thinks that america was attacked because terrorists hate freedom. rudy should tip his hat to ron paul, for educating him.

[Sandra]

The results in Louisiana have not been tabulated yet. The second place announcement was made before the votes were even counted which is not done in a race this close not to mention most of the McCain delegates were not eligible to run. The Paul campaign has contested the caucus and caucus results are still open.

[Joe McFarley]

The mainstream media is a disgrace. I need to get news about the election so I can cast my vote. When I go to the likes of CNN or Foxnews or MSNBC, they only post videos 3 minutes or less in length or pathetically short articles that 'analyze' essential nothing important happening in the race. They barely discuss issues. They never get into details. They never do full overviews of the candidates' records and positions. They never treat the candidates the same. There is a complete disconnect. The election is covered as if it's a game of football not something that can actually affect the people's well-being.

Look at this article! Candidates name here. 34.56% there. Some million dollar amount raised over here. Another endorsement over there. I DON'T CARE! I want to vote for the candidate based on his ideas. The mainstream media fails us by making the campaign everything but ideas. American democracy has a lot of evolving to do.

[Steve Grycel]

Mr. Malcolm, I'm an RP supporter and I send kudos for you article. Out of all the opinions expressed on the net, I really do enjoy reading yours. I would have added more frills and dressings, but overall, compared to your competition out there, your opinions are fairly well written and non-biased. Thanks for the good work.

[Egosumabbas]

Bah, Ron Paul didn't try very hard in Florida and for good reason. If it's a winner-take-all state, and McCain and Romney are clearly leading, there's no point in even trying, since a 2nd or 3rd place showing won't win any delegates. It's all about the strategy in maximizing the chance for a brokered convention.

[Steve Dasbach]

It was gracious of Rudy to remember to mention ALL of the candidates, including Ron Paul. That's more than news channels have been doing recently.

However, contrary to Rudy's insinuation (and yours) you can only vote once per cell phone in those text message polls. Ron Paul didn't win the debate polls because his supporters voted multiple times -- he won because we cared enough to vote.

[James]

In a winner take all state that only allows registered Republican party members to vote in the primary, Florida would have been a waste of time and money for Dr. Paul. His campaign's goal is to accumulate delegates in a cost effective manner. Does anyone really think Hillary would have trounced Obama in Florida the way she did, if Obama had actually campaigned in the state?

What's really interesting to me is what will happen if, after Tuesday, Mccain truly has the nomination locked up, and Hillary wins the Demo nomination. I believe more than half the electorate would be highly motivated to vote against both parties.

[patty]

I wonder why you tried to make us look bad in this article when you've been so gracious towards us lately? Such a tiny fraction of Paul's supporters would even dream of barging in on one of Giuliani's speeches. And I join the chorus in pointing out that you underplayed Ron Paul's victories over other candidates and second places finishes (but I guess it would have been too much to ask that you look into the egregious vote fraud in the Louisiana GOP caucuses, which stole an outright victory from Ron Paul.) But no hard feelings, you do good work. Cheers.

[Daniel from Winder]

Funny, I didn't see it as a "tribute" or homage or even a good-natured "okay, you got me" - sounded to me like one last time to ridicule Ron Paul and his supporters. Maybe I read him wrong and I'm just used to being laughed at for supporting Ron Paul. Either way, I'm glad he's out of the race.

[Alan]

Andrew - Ron Paul was crushed in Florida, but this was to be expected. The campaign ignored Florida, because it is a winner-take-all state, and would have been a huge financial drain. How much money did Romney, McCain, and Giuliani spend on Florida? TONS. Romney ran an aggressive, expensive campaign there, and he comes away with no delegates... Rudy staked his whole campaign there, in what will come to be known as the worst campaign strategy EVER.

Instead, Ron Paul has been campaigning in states where he can pick up delegates even without coming in first. Sure, First place finishes would be nice... In fact, they are necessary heading into the national convention, but skipping Florida was the right thing for Paul, allowing him to put his time and resources into states where he might be competitive.

John McCain appears to be hitting critical mass... If he gets the nomination, it will result in a landslide defeat in November. He does not have the chops to stand on a debate stage with either Hillary, or Obama, and he doesn't have the conservative credentials to consolidate the Republican base. His stances on immigration, his dedication to the war in Iraq, and his complete bewilderment on economics and monetary policy will result in disaster come election time.

Say what you will about Ron Paul - It cannot be denied that he's the real agent of change in this race. He recognizes that the 9.5 trillion dollar debt is going to be America's undoing. He recognizes that America's absurd foreign policy is the primary motivation of our enemies abroad. He recognizes the de-stabilization of our currency, and the ready supply of cheap money, are the root causes for our current financial situation, and that it cannot be remedied by lower interest rates (more cheap money), and a $600 rebate check that will no doubt be spent on more imported goods.

Ron Paul is the candidate of ideas, and of principle. If the Republican Party doesn't wake up to that, they are sowing the seeds of their own destruction.

As for Giuliani... Goodbye, and Good Riddance. Paul has a better chance of becoming President than Rudy does - he's still in the race.

[stephen]

Hey why not mention that as the lone candidate, republican or democrat, who opposes the Iraq war Ron Paul has brought in more funding from troops, both retired and on duty, than any other candidate?

[Nate]

After reading articles about the candidates, or watching them on television or other media, ask yourself one question: do I know anything about this candidate's positions that I didn't know before? Did this reporting help me to understand what this candidate stands for or what his record is? In almost every case, I think the answer will be an emphatic "no". We are not told anything about the character, the positions or the records of the candidates that we are voting for, and I think that is a horrible thing. Instead, we are told who is "crazy", who is "unelectable", who "has an edge", who is talking trash about whom, and many other worthless details that are really only fit for tabloid celebrity reporting. Who cares what hillary clinton is trying to imply about obama, or whether she meant something insulting when she said such and such? Let her say what she wants, but don't report on it constantly! Tell us her POSITIONS! People, we have to disconnect from this media circus and think for ourselves or this experiment in democracy is OVER!

[John B. in Florida]

Just wanted to clarify something Andrew. You stated "Paul supporters will argue was caused by a mainstream media conspiracy to run those fraudulent polls, to under-report Paul's support and to minimize his chances". However, this is not the opinion of most supporters.

What we believe is that BECAUSE the media did not give Congressman Paul fair time in their coverage, they have essentially given millions of dollars worth of advertising to the front runners (one of whom has benefited greatly from that "free media"... Mr. McCain who has no money and is only winning because of that free media).

Our issue all along has been this. In this country people make their decisions based on what they see... as sad as that may be. Many (if not most) Americans today have gotten lazy. They don't want to read... or do research... or have to go looking for a candidate. They want that little box that sits in their living room to tell them who is running and what they stand for. This inherently is one of the major problems with our country and why in my humble opinion our Republic is dead.

When people have to go on YouTube to find out the views of a candidate because the mainstream media doesn't give him any play on ANY of their controlled stations... something is wrong. It's like that James Bond film where the villian wanted to control all of the worlds media stations... because control the news... control the world.

Time after time Dr. Paul was basically ignored in debates, given questions completely off topic and given 1/3 to 1/4 the amount of time other candidate were given, including ones he had beated several times in a row in other primaries. How can this be considered fair treatment by the media? When he wins text polls the hosts of the show say... ahhh, he's hacking it... it's not real... they're voting more than once. I doubt they would say anything like that if one of their crowned "front runners" won the poll.

Bottom line is Dr. Paul is basically running for President solely on the advertising dollars his campaign has raised. No other candidate in history has raised the kind of money Dr. Paul has... but that is basically ignored ONCE AGAIN by the media. Meanwhile, they have McCain, Guliani and Huckabee on their newscasts EVERY NIGHT... GIVING THEM MILLIONS IN FREE PUBLICITY.

What it comes down to in the end is that most of these primaries are being voted by the older generations. Older folks who only get their news from the TV and newspapers. Most I have talked to don't even know who Ron Paul is. How can this be... with the fundraising success he has had and the poll victories he has taken? "Well (they tell me)... I have never heard of him on the news".

Ding ding... Most of the articles I read online are all Blogs... and what senior citizen do you know is surfing the cusp of blogs across the globe? Answer... none.

Now... let's talk about how Dr. Paul is going to win this thing. It's not going to be because of you Andrew, and certainly not because of the Times. It is going to be because people are fed up. They are tired of this garbage and the same old crap. So we win... even if we don't win... because people are awake... and waking up even more every day as we spread this message of freedom. And we THE PEOPLE will have this country back... whether through democracy... or by other means... we are a resiliant people... and we will take nothing less.

[stephen]

Ron paul got more funding from troops, both on duty and retired than any other candidate who does not want to withdraw troops, i posted this before but i can't see it i think it might not have gone through.

[Darel]

Mr. Malcolm,

Having read your column prior to the election cycle I have noticed many times you have either provided incorrect information by accident or lie about the subject matter, the case in point is based on Florida's delegates.

Perhaps you should contact Florida's Secretary of State and receive a short education regarding Florida's states delegates. The fact is the states delegates are only awarded early February - April 30 at delegate selection caucuses-so why didn't you explain this fact? Ron Paul does have a very strong chance of winning delegates...

As far as a mainstream media conspiracy to underreport Paul's support.... For sure even the left is aware of this fact. My uncle who is a well known writer for a major media source has been told not to write about Ron Paul based on his editors direction for sure word have been handed down to every major media source to surpress Paul's campaign. According my uncle they were told to underreport Paul's success but present any negative news starting 4 days prior to the Iowa. We have witnessed Mel attempt to remove Paul from the debates and actually noted Fox news removal of Paul prior the NH debates. CBS news doesn't even list him on there guide and even James Dobson's foundation has omited Ron Paul. Mr. Malcolm there is no conspiracy at all but rather based on fact that the media isn't fair to Ron Paul at all. Do you need more examples?

Just watch CNN of FOX today and I'm sure they will mention Mr. 9-11 and not even mention Paul's name other then to suggest he doesn't have a chance or his last place finish which still looks like he received over 100,000 votes in a pro neocon state.

Mr. Malcolm I'm going to deem you as part of the MSM issue who does not report the truth nor are you interested in reporting the truth.

[Jeanette Doney]

The Ron Paul rEVOLution has been marginalized profoundly in CA where MeetUp groups reported papers refused to publish paid ads for Ron Paul, and yet, I see Ron Paul everywhere I go. My own Ron Paul bumper sticker has turned road rage into a thumbs up, hand waving, big smile e- ticket with a few one finger salutes, but not often. This has been a great race, a incredible experience. I'm PROUD to be a Ron Paul rrEVOLutionary!

[steven orrange]

WOW! Ron Paul has climbed from 11th place to 4th place in the last few months.
No I did not read that in the news. unfortunately I had to do the math myself. (I must have attended private school as a kid.)
After Super Tuesday, I expect Dr. Paul to take it up another notch, quietly inching into 3rd place.
It will be so entertaining to watch the two remaining fat RINO's slinging the other guys voting record around like the liberal mud it is, trying to make the other seem more liberal, while our beloved STATESMAN slowly moves into 2nd place, all the while keeping his powder dry.