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

[Web Smith]

If Rudy were to appear in a New York police drama, it would be as a criminal. The cops would say, "This guy is wrong", well before they had the goods on him. Even in defeat, this blatant criminal who grew rich on the bodies from 9/11 took a sarcastic parting shot at Paul as the winner of the debates according to the post debate results from the polls where you key in the numbers on the little things. As his campaign efforts show, Rudy didn't want to be President. He made a token effort because the investment bankers who own him asked him to. Rudy is a decadent glutton who wants to spend his time pampering Rudy instead of helping the country. Rudy is wrong.

Come to think of it, many things are wrong. What the investment bank owned media is doing is wrong. What they are doing with our money internationally is wrong. What they are doing in Iraq is wrong. What they are doing to our soldiers is wrong. What they are doing to our borders is wrong. What they are doing to our rights is wrong. What they are doing to our currency is wrong. What they are doing to our economy is wrong. What they have done to social security is wrong. That we are allowing them to do these things is wrong.

All these wrongs won't make a right. It's well past time that we changed things. Vote for Ron Paul.

[puerto]

I am tired of listening to all the negativity that is going on in this race. I happened to run across a youtube clip of this radio talk show host Mark Larson interviewing Mitt Romney and thought that it would be a good interview. I will admit that I was going to vote for Romney on tuesday of next week simply because we are both mormon. Apparently Mitt Romney had pushed this host to vote for Ron Paul because of the answers that were given by Mitt. I myself have changed my vote towards Ron Paul after looking at both platforms, it is clear that Ron Paul is a strict constitutionalist. Ron Paul is a lot like one of the old Presidents of the LDS church "Ezra Taft Benson" . When I think about it, everytime Mitt Romney laughs at Ron Paul, he is laughing at President Benson. Mitt Romney, I no longer support you, by your actions and disrespect for Ron Paul I no longer see you as an example to our church. I am now supporting Ron Paul.

[Mason]

I finally saw my first Ron Paul ad on the history channel here in Colorado last night. Even if the MSM ignores him, Dr. Paul's supporters will continue to spread his message. Email, call, write and talk to everyone you can about Dr. Paul. Ask them to simply spend 5-10 minutes on the Internet reading about Dr. Paul and his stances, voting record and plan for the country. Keep on posting all over the net and don't forget to Yahoo and Google "Ron Paul"... bring his name and news stories up on those lists of most viewed. We have to be our own media! Go Ron Paul go!

[Paul Furlong]

With the exception of Ron Paul, each candidate is tied, one way or an other, to the CFR, or Council on Foreign Relations (Google it) , meaning (paranoid as this sounds) the end of our sovereignty and putting all the Americas under one large central government. Each candidate knows this, some are actually on this committee.

I'm not sure about Giuliani, but I'll bet there was a giant sigh of relief when he realized he was out of the race. When he knew he wasn't going to be the President to throw our nation away....when he knew he wouldn't be hated through history as the one who sold us out. It says a lot about the man that he recognized Ron Paul as a proper winner.

It also says terrible things about both Democrats and Republicans who are still willing to do that to us. Ron Paul believes with all his heart in our constitution and our sovereignty.

Please don't give up no matter what the polls say, no matter who says it's lost. Let's vote with our conscience, not to be on a winners side, or pick the best of two evils; but to be right in our hearts.

[Tess]

Thank you Mr. Malcolm for another write up on Ron Paul. Glad to see the Murdochs/Fauxnews media's guy Rudy gone. He should have done it before Florida, but he invested the little he had left in hopes of a win, unfortunately, he failed to realize he is not well liked or supported in Florida, or anywhere else in these great United States.

My hat off to Romney for his win. I do not see McCain as a winner, he received liberal and neocon votes, along with the wanna be Republican Cuban rejects. We all know the truth, we are not dumb. I wonder if any of you realize that McCain was at the bottom of his class in Navy flight school, that he wanted to grant Amnesty to all illegals, and will not deport, that he played a major role in scamming some folks out of their savings by being one of the Keating Five, he also had the POW records sealed because he did not want his record revealed showing how he gave information to the enemy and lied to the other POWs while in captivity, and threw our country under the bus, his tax record is horrible, he would jump at the chance to increase our taxes and WOULD continue funding war adventures for greed of corporations and the media for the next 100 years, and those are just a few things McCain has done, just imagine him as President, I can't, can you? 100 more years in war? NO THANKS. I will take Ron Paul or Mitt Romney anyday. My vote and support is for RON PAUL, I will vote with Integrity and for our Constitution. I hope you print this Mr. Malcolm and L.A. Times, let the truth be told, I have done the research. If you question any of it, google it, and find out. Ron Paul for the Win!!! Let's get the U.S. stable again, and start by bringing home our troops, securing our borders, deporting illegals, cutting government spending along with lowering taxes, and returning our Liberties and Freedom to the United States citizens again. Wake up America, and start making our law makers follow the Constitution of the United States, and the Laws of our Land before it is too late, and we are taken over by other nations, corporations, and a government that will own you, no joke, please remember we are still WE THE PEOPLE, AND WE CAN DO THIS..

[John Reading]

The bullies, parasites, cowards, and armchair war-mongers are never going to give anyone a fair shake. Ron Paul and his supporters should really stop thinking that if they do well in this poll or that caucus, the MSM will finally start to play fair. On the contrary, the MSM will redouble its efforts at dismissing and dissing Ron Paul if he shows any signs of succeeding.

Americans are obese slobs who worship TV. They are not revolutionaries any longer. They will do what they are told as long as the junk food and entertainment keeps flowing. When the economy crashes, they will scream for more handouts and more war to give them jobs.

They don't care about Ron Paul. They care about Britney Spears.

[David]

Are you sure about the winner take all in Florida? I think you are incorrect. No national delegates have yet been won in Florida. Those delegates will only be awarded between February 6 and April 30 at delegate selection caucuses, and many of those delegates will be supporters of Dr. Paul.

Please check your information - thanks, David

[bread111]

Well, im one of the 3 percent here in Orlando, and the was a NEAR COMPLETE media blackout here. Proof? Go to orlandosentinel.com and search rom paul.
The media blackout was sickening in our area, and nationwide for that matter.
I went to the polls near me at 8 am, and there was no line...i seen about 4 people inside voting, and alot of ron paul signs. I was a bit shocked by the low turnout.
But, then again, we had early voting here too, but that was all on diebold machines. If you wanted the old style paper ballot where you fill in the broken arrow you had to wat until the Jan 29th final date to vote.
Seeing my home state of Florida voting for 100 more years in Iraq , and "bomb bomb bomb Iran" John McCain really is a slap in the face to the boys in our military who know this war was a mistake, as well as OUR children, who could face a future DRAFT to keep this military/industrial complex`s business earnings up.

[William]

The Louisiana Republican Party has provisionally declared Ron Paul the number two candidate in the state.

An estimated (based on numbers released from the LAGOP) 500 to 650 Ron Paul supporting voters who had registered by the Nov 30th deadline were forced to file provisional ballots because the Louisiana GOP was using a printed list of voters from November 1st.

The "Reagan Delegate Slate" aka the "Pro-Life/Pro-Family Delegate Slate" which was comprised of uncommitted delegates won out over all Republican candidates.

Given that there are 105 delegates and McCain did not win the majority and there are still another 20 or so up for grabs from provisional ballots, if Ron Paul could total 25 and the Pro-Life/Pro-Family delegate slate won over 55 then Ron Paul could have tied or even won the Caucus.

[Steve R]

Andrew, mockery doesn't become you and seems a tad out of step with the territory you've tried to stake out.

Your 'many busy-fingered followers' comment respecting Paul's debate wins stops just short of echoing the oft-repeated absurd suggestion that Paul supporters somehow rigged the voting even though the text messaging technology used checks and allows but one vote per cellphone. Surely all those millions in the campaign kitty weren't used to buy multiple cellphones to rig polls, since most people I know have but one. Or maybe it was rogue Democrats using the classical 'crossover' strategy to pump up the vote totals of opposing candidates deemed to be easier to defeat in the general election. Got to be some explanation. Just ask Fox.

When other candidates choose not to materially contest a primary -- especially a winner-take-all primary that at this stage Paul could not possibly win, everyone regards their poor showing as simply reflective of that choice. Why once again would the spin on identical events be different only for Ron Paul?

As each neo-clone drops off the perch in turn, the contest of ideas and the ongoing internal struggle for the soul of the GOP becomes more visible.

The Republicans are torn between historical Old Right roots (non-intervention abroad, civil liberty, small and constitutional government, balanced budgets, low taxes, and a very big stick quietly carried), and the New Right heresies(world policeman, shredding the Bill of Rights to buy temporary safety, cancerous growth of government programs, deficit spending enough to make LBJ and FDR blush, the inflation tax, 'signing statements' federal mandates and a very big stick swung indiscriminately).

Likely it will be a brokered convention for once, not a coronation. And recall that what was with some difficulty brushed aside at the 1976 GOP convention, became the Reagan steamroller in 1980.

In any event a torch is being passed to a generation of people which, like those in the ex-Soviet Bloc, was the product of two generations of doctrinaire 'political correctness' and attempted brainwashing. And like those fine folk, this new generation given an opportunity has dropped the propaganda line almost instinctively.

Celebrity endorsements don't count for much -- some of the entertainers in particular have all the critical thinking capacity of a bag of rusty bolts -- but something strange and wonderful is happening when both Arlo Guthrie and Barry Goldwater, Jr., find themselves enthuisiastically backing the same horse.

[clr]

The duration of this evening's debate is two hours. The rebroadcast is only ninety minutes. The last couple of times that the Republican debates have been rebroadcast, some of Ron Paul's commentary had been edited out (i.e., FOX, CNN). I am not being conspiratorial. But I did locate the missing segments, albeit short but substantial, on YouTube as well as RonPaul2008.com after reading concerns about his exclusion.

I am a little put off by the diction of this article. It too seems to hit at exclusion and the unlikeliness of Ron Paul's candidacy.

Although I do thank the LAT for reporting nevertheless.

(You're welcome and thanks for coming back. The full duration of tonight's debate is 90 minutes give or take a coujple, not two hours. So the rebroadcast is the full deal. You can also watch the debate live-streamed on this website and time it yourself.)

[Mike]

I think a good point that people need to look at is this whole nonsense of 'a wasted vote.' Isn't saying that in and of itself non-democratic? Each election SHOULD be like a race. One vote counting as one vote out of the total number of votes; the person with the highest number of votes coming out victorious. This way even all those who are 'exclusion-edited' will still have a voice in the end.

It's things like this that beg for the restructuring of the government and the USA.

[JeffnDallas]

I find the more amusing fact to be that the "declared winner" of the GOP (Rudy) has now fallen by the proverbial wayside while the "fringe candidate" (Ron) is still in the race!

Make no mistake, those who support Ron are not abandoning him as with the other candidates. Ron has said as long as we support him with volunteer work and money that he has no intention of dropping out. Well guess what? We're standing with him--even to a brokered convention!

Time and TRUTH are on our side!

[Seth M]

To say that McCain will receive all of Florida's 57 delegates is inaccurate. Just like the MSM's awarding of delegates in Nevada.

Ron Paul could still garner many of those seats. The MSM knows this, but doesn't want to report it.

[1antonio]

To the writer, you were one of this week kids who hung aroung the bullies just to be cool, and didn't stick up for anything you believed in. You are a follower with no morals, principles or integrity.

Bye the way I haven't decided who I will support.

[Ian]

I'm not sure what your insinuating, but one person can only vote once in the text polls. As for the main stream media "conspiracy" (as you call it) there is no conspiracy. The media ignoring Ron Paul is a statement of fact and it's out in the open for all to see.

If you really want to make waves, why don't you gather all these facts and write about how the media skews the public perception.

I will point you in the right direction...

Did you know there are media monitoring services tracking how many times the candidates names are mentioned? Do you know that the results of their survey? Do you know what comes first, the uptick in reporting numbers or the uptick in polling numbers?

[Connie]

I got to vote for Dr. Paul in a telephone poll today! I live in Oklahoma.

[Dino]

Anybody seen McCanes locked up war documents? The commies didn't do favors at the Hanoi Hilton without a payback. What did he sell to them?

I ask this not to degrade his service to his country,but as a security reason.

The highest office of the land is about to be given to someone who may be brain washed as a P.O.W.

Shouldn't Americans see his sealed records before his CFR buddys put him into the highest office?

[ET]

The proof that the non-internet media is completely biased against Paul (as well as anyone they believe couldn't win) is how this column from the LA times does not in any way appear in the paper edition of the paper.

However, as an RP supporter, and an LA times paper subscriber (but I'm thinking of stopping that), I would point out that the couple page spread in the last few days have completely ignored Paul.

As to Rudy, I can’t really tell from the blog what Rudy really said. Maybe he's just trying to get the RP supporters to stop following him. The only thing I feel for certain about Rudy is that he regrets his little 9/11 match with Ron. That was likely when his downfall began. And he thought he was so clever to wave the 9/11 flag.

[Barney]

RP received 0% MSM coverage according to journalism.org Jan 1 - Jan 27

Media Exposure by Candidate
Main Newsmaker

Barack Obama (D) 27.9%
Hillary Clinton (D) 22%
Bill Clinton 13.2 %
John McCain (R) 7.1 %
Rudy Giuliani (R) 7.1 %
Mitt Romney (R) 4.9 %
John Edwards (D) 3.9 %
Mike Huckabee (R) 1.2 %
Fred Thompson (R) 3.7 %
Dennis Kucinich (D) 2.4 %
Ron Paul (R) 0 %
Bill Richardson (D) .2%

Source: http://www.journalism.org/node/9512

[Timothy Bledsoe]

I hope many people read this. Most people are good people and want the same basic things. The left wing and the right wing have different ideas about accomplishing things. It is far past time, and probably too late, for the American people to understand that there is no difference between the major parties. In a gradual process, the left works to destroy the country just as the right works to destroy the country. The American people are fooled into discussing how the pictures on the Titanic should be arranged. Politicians take advantage of this for their own selfish interests. Ron Paul is telling you that we have hit an iceberg.

Let's suppose the iceberg wasn't so bad. Let's suppose how those pictures are arranged really are the most important things to discuss. The irony is, is that Ron Paul is the only candidate that truly supports, and has the record to prove it, almost all of the right's issues. In addition, even though Dr. Paul often speaks of a futuristic and ideal world, Ron Paul is the only candidate whose policies can save the social programs that the left wants.

People have failed to understand that international bankers are consolidating the wealth (stealing out of everyone's pocket books) and eliminating the middle class. People are too interested in reality television, football and golf. People are helping to destroy the country because of their reckless and uninformed, although good intentioned, opinions.

People like to laugh and snicker. I hope they enjoy thier money losing its value, their taxes rising, their pension funds being taken, their television-induced comatose state, and fluoride lowering their IQ between 10 and 20 points. Their televisions won't save them from what is coming. Whether it will be 10 months, or 10 years from now, things are going to get very bad.

Thanks so much you stupid idiots for playing your part in creating this mess. Thanks so much for getting angry at my comments because you are still too stupid to wake up an make your ancestors proud. Remember that me, and others like me, HATE YOUR LACK OF ACTION right down to the bones for the part you have played in all of this. The elite know what they are and what they believe. You people though are all together different.

God help us all.

[Cristina McDonald]

please publish more articles about Ron Paul! he's our only chance to make changes in this country!

[TheWhatNow?]

We don't expect anyone like you to televise or report on the revolution, this would be counterproductive to your bosses' ambitions, which have more to do with ratings and sales than objectivity. Of course, you're ready to scream from the top of a mountain when the doctor gets 3%, then address us in a condescending article as "Ron Paul folks", in which the ex-mayor praises our "guy". You could have easily entitled your article "Rudy Giuliani pays tribute to Ron Paul," but that is not degrading enough, is it? In any case, I'm not mad at you, keep making your money before your medium completely rots away. The US is a country by and for the people, and it has been those people conscious of this country's values and principles, who have watched people like you corrupt and subvert said values and principles, that will have the last say. You may or may not be in the dirt by then, but your newspaper surely will. In the meantime, keep making your money, gangster.

Oh shoot, you were press secretary to Laura Bush, pffffff!
Smell ya later.

[Shelly]

Ron Paul didn't suggest Americans had caused 9/11. He suggested that our history of interfering in middle east politics, including financing the Taliban and Saddam Hussein, removing the Shah from power, etc. had contributed to a general feeling of hatred toward our country. It is our government's foreign policy that is to blame. He believes that the amount of money we spend conducting CIA operations and illegal wars would be better spent taking care of our obligations here at home.

I hear a lot about "American interests abroad," but don't hear too much about American interests here at home. I bet if you didn't give so much money to the IRS, you would be able to make better health care choices for yourself. If you could give more money to your California State government instead of the Federal government, the schools, infrastructure and emergency services would all be better funded. Ron Paul makes a lot of sense.

[John]

Why not use your position as a sponsor of this debate to demand journalistic integrity and an equal time for all candidates?

Stand up.