This space is supposed to be reserved for serious political material like foot-tapping senators, planted public forum questions, broken candidates' buses -- or make that candidates' broken buses -- satirical magazine covers that most people don't get and Rep. Ron Paul's chances of stealing the Republican nomination from John McCain.
We're going to make an exception under popular demand and publish late the latest JibJab cartoon video. It's just great. Wonderful. Don't miss it if you can.
The best part is what Hillary does toBill when he says a certain word.
We hope you die laughing. If you need more information on this stuff, our colleague Mark Milian over at Web Scout has more than you need. Go there. But do come back; they don't know anything about the electoral college over there.
Former pro wrestler and former Minnesota Gov. Jesse 'Come Over Here and Say That' Ventura has decided not to run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican Norm 'I Used to Be Mayor, You Know' Coleman and now desired by Democrat Al 'Big Fat Comedian With a Work Comp Payment Problem' Franken.
Unless he changes his mind before the filing deadline of 5 p.m. Tuesday.
That woulda been a wonderful "Smackdown 08." Picture the televised debates, Jesse ranting and pointing his finger at the camera after smashing a chair over the moderator's head. Franken trying to be funny again. And Norm, the former St. Paul mayor, consulting his notes on fiscal numbers.
Jesse was made for the media. Huge guy. Deep voice. Outrageous opinions. Sounds good. Who would you want with on your side in a bar fight, even if he started it?
So, naturally the big guy chose to end the speculation that he started himself a week or so ago by going on the staid traditional forum of "Larry King Live" to make his non-announcement because that show didn't have any missing blonde high school cheerleaders to interview the parents of tonight.
Jeese's speaking fees must be fading for him to gin up this 10-day publicity dust devil.
Jesse said he was sick and tired of both parties. All they do is spend other people's money, he said. He also said he might not even vote, there's so little difference between them. He said they denounce each other and then make backroom buddy-buddy deals with each other, just like pro wrestling. And he's angry about it.
And in a move that could have created Minnesota residency problems if he'd run, Jesse let slip that he's moved southwest and now lives at least half the year in Mexico. Which is understandable given Minnesota's surfing conditions and the summertime bug supply in the Land of 10,000,000 Lakes or however many they claim up there.
Come to think of it, the Lakers did the same thing.
The Ron Paul revolution marches on this weekend, literally, but the latest manifestation of the movement no doubt will be tinged with sadness for the erstwhile presidential candidate due to the death of one of his top aides.
Kent Snyder, 49, who worked for Paul's 1988 White House campaign (when he ran as a Libertarian) and chaired his surprisingly fiesty bid for the 2008 Republican nomination, died in late June of viral pneumonia in a Virginia hospital.
An obituary in today's Washington Post noted that without Snyder, the Paul phenomenon might never have occurred -- the Kansas native and martial arts enthusiast helped presuade the Texas congressman to enter the fray last year.
At a website soliciting donations to pay for Snyder's extensive medical bills (he was not insured), Paul says in a prominently displayed statement:
Kent poured every ounce of his being into our fight for Freedom. He will always hold a place in my heart and in the hearts of my family. ... Without Kent Snyder, the fight for liberty would not be where it is today. We all owe him a great debt.
Paul is scheduled to speak at a rally of his adherents that follows a Saturday morning march in downtown Washington. As spelled out on the revolutionmarch.com website, the aim of the event is to express support for "restoring constitutional government as the founding fathers set forth."
For some in attendance, the gathering will be a prelude to the much-publicized get-together Paul plans at the University of Minnesota on Sept. 2 -- not too far away from where the GOP will be convening the second day of its national convention.
That rally -- and other efforts by Paul and his crew during the convention week -- will be tracked by the media for clues about the potential long-range influence of his backers within his party. But evidence of such clout already has surfaced in some states -- perhaps most vividly in Idaho.
When the state GOP met last month, its head did his best to hang onto his job. As reported by the Idaho Statesman, Kirk Sullivan handed out Rice Krispies treats as part of his wooing of party activists. But he got bounced anyway. Replacing him was Norm Semanko who, the paper wrote, "was pushed to victory largely by an eclectic group consisting of supporters of [Paul] and social conservatives who want to shift the party to the right."
Paul and his forces also grabbed attention recently when they teamed with liberal groups to raise money to express their opposition to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that cleared Congress this week.
And, yes, we know Rep. Ron Paul isn't going to be anybody's nominee. But he could be.
We are sincerely indebted to loyal Ticket reader Travis for this morning's week-ending chuckle.
He found a website that lets you nominate anyone for president (insert name here) and incorporates their name in a most realistic TV news video report.
You can see how ridiculous the site is by watching this version -- before you start pranking family and friends. (It might take a minute or so to load if busy.)
And thanks again to Travis. If anybody else comes across good/fun/unusual political sites, just send them to The Ticket please. We might highlight yours.
Mike Huckabee says that while he'd love to be asked -- and would accept -- he doubts John McCain will pick him for his running mate. And on the other side, he figures Barack Obama isn't likely to ask Hillary Clinton, either.
Huckabee gave his predictions to Reuters during a trip to Japan (the video is below), and it could be he's just warming up, spring training-style, for his new gig as a political commentator for Fox News. But a voice from the trenches is always worth a listen.
On McCain, Huckabee sounded like a true loyal party figure. "I want him to define how he's going to win, and I want to help him win," Huckabee said. "That may not involve me [as a running mate]. And I'm not sure that I'm the right fit for him. That's something only he can know."
Huckabee, you'll recall, was the last speed bump McCain hit on his way to sealing the Republican nomination-- well, except for Ron Paul. And Huckabee was the favorite, for a time, of the party's once-powerful social-conservative wing, despite some misgivings over his tax-and-spending policies as governor of Arkansas.
So why doesn't Huckabee think Obama will pick Clinton? "There's some real tension, not just between the two principals, but between their inner circles and down in the ranks of their supporters that would be very hard to overcome in a short period of time," Huckabee said. "People who voted for Hillary will end up voting for Obama generally, but I'm not sure that they're ready to just have the wedding and, you know, cut the cake."
-- Scott Martelle
Photo credit: Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times
Ralph Nader irrevocably earned a spot on Democratic "don't invite him" lists when, in the view of virtually everyone except himself, his 2000 presidential bid cost Al Gore the White House and delivered it to George Bush.
Nader will go to his grave scoffing at such complaints; whenever asked, he insists that Gore has no one but himself to blame for the loss and presses his case that there's virtually no difference between the two major parties because both are beholden to corporate interests.
He's running for the umpteenth time again and, as he made clear in an interview this week with Denver's Rocky Mountain News, there's little worthwhile he sees in the latest Democratic pick for president.
Summarizing the interview, reporter M.E. Sprengelmeyer writes that Nader accused Barack Obama of "downplaying poverty issues, trying to 'talk white' and appealing to 'white guilt' during his run for the White House."
The "talk white" and "white guilt" comments, of course, ensure Nader a burst of attention that his latest candidacy has been lacking up to now.
Here's one of the Nader quotes from the article:
There's only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He's half African-American. Whether that will make any difference, I don't know. I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What's keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn't want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We'll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards.
The full story and a video of the interview can be perused here.
Appearing on MSNBC a few minutes ago, Obama aide Robert Gibbs called Nader's comments "reprehensible and basically delusional."
They also are an interesting contrast to remarks Nader made about Ron Paul when pitching himself to Paul's supporters earlier this month.
[UPDATE: At an afternoon news conference in Chicago, Obama was asked about Nader's remarks and he responded cooly and without anger. "What's clear is that Ralph Nader hasn't been paying attention to my speeches" because, he said, he frequently has addressed the issues Nader charged he had been ignoring. He dismissed the inflammatory language Nader used as a bid to try to get attention for a candidacy that has been mostly under the radar. "It's a shame," he said, given Nader's "extraordinary" legacy as a crusader for consumer causes.]
[UPDATE II: In a stroke of good timing, the Washington Post today published this lengthy feature piece that covers his struggles to stir up interest in his campaign, the grief he still takes about the 2000 election and, in general, where he's coming from.)
This is the seventh and second to last chapter in our video conversation with former Times writer, Matt Welch, who's written a new examination of the personal and political personnas of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
In this episode Welch discusses what he calls "McCain's Ron Paul problem," a smallish but very dedicated splinter group of libertarian Republicans who back the 10-term congressman from Texas. Paul captured about 1.1 million GOP primary votes this season while collecting nearly $35 million, more than McCain had for a while.
Welch sees McCain's policies of a strong federal government, though with curbed spending, combined with McCain's enduring support for the Iraq war and Paul's antipathy to what he sees as empire-building as prohibiting any kind of real rapprochement between the two camps for the Nov. 4 election.
Also McCain could risk loss of support among independents and moderates if he was to taxi too far to the right to accommodate Paulites. In a close election the Paul group's votes or their absence could make the difference between a McCain or Barack Obama presidency, as some of them are likely to drift over to Bob Barr and the Libertarian Party, although that too is split.
O.K., it's the first day of summer. There's still something like 134 days until The Election. No tornadoes in sight. The annual hurricane controversies have yet to form wherever they start. Lots of lakes and sunshine outdoors. And blizzards of blabber on TV.
Hope the traffic wasn't too bad getting home. Here's a reverse birthday gift from The Ticket: What you didn't miss today:
SO MUCH FOR SUMMER IN MONTANA: Tom Brokaw will pause in writing his next book on our grandfathers and take over moderating "Meet the Press" through the election. Not Tim Russert, of course, but wise and he won't talk about the Bills who are hopeless until poor Jim Kelly returns. (See video below.)
If NBC is not going the blonde-in-short-skirt route like over at Fox and since Bob Schieffer is under contract elsewhere, our top permanent nominee is Chuck Todd, (not pictured here) who clearly knows everything about politics and says it succinctly. Seriously.
WHY NOT JUST ARM EVERYBODY ON AIRPLANES? Our blogging colleague James Oliphant over at the Swamp has joined the periodic chorus wondering about Virginia Sen. James Webb as the running mate for Barack Obama.
Webb, you'll remember, is the guy who packs personal heat everywhere, which does tend to diminish disagreements on the street. Obama does need a military mate because he's talked so much about opposing war and the simple peacemaking power of sitdowns with dictators. Also, he seems unlikely to pick Geraldine Ferraro.
Being a turncoat Republican and former Reaganite will surely....
According to the latest campaign finance reports filed Friday, Rep. Ron Paul, the 72-year-old libertarian-like Republican congressman from Texas who ended his hopeless presidential race recently to focus on a long-shot, long-term revolution, still managed to spend $321,983 on his White House campaign in its last month.
Paul, a Republican who refuses to acknowledge Arizona Sen. John McCain as the winner of the GOP nomination, ended May with $4.5 million in the bank after all expenses, according to The Times' diligent Dan Morain, who combs through all these political numbers each month.
Paul's fund-raising slowed significantly in May, at least into his presidential account. He reported receipts of only $133,215, a sharp drop from the nearly $20 million he raised in the fourth quarter of 2007 to lead all GOP presidential candidates.
Altogether, Paul has reported net contributions of $34.34 million since early 2007 and campaign expenditures of $29.97 million. He ended the effort with about 1.1 million primary votes, perhaps 24 delegates, no debt and refused to accept federal matching funds for his primary campaign.
If the 10-term congressman holds on to those delegates for the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., in early November, that works out to about $1.24 million per delegate, more than moneybags Mitt or New York Rudyspent per delegate won in their losing causes.
Click on the Read more line below to see a detailed accounting of Paul's May spending, which includes $236 for a security hotel room, $14,305.74 for an unidentified credit card payment and $60 for a consultant, which means he wasn't employing Mark Penn.
In the wake of the decision by the 72-year-old Paul to, via his website, officially declare an end to his presidential quest, the 74-year-old Nader showed a political agility that has not always marked his many, many runs for the White House. Today, he released the following statement:
"Ron Paul was a lightning rod for millions of Americans against the war in Iraq and for the protection of personal liberties that the two major parties have turned their back on -- by continuing to support the illegal criminal war and the PATRIOT Act.
"Now that Dr. Paul has formally withdrawn his candidacy for the G.O.P. nomination and is no longer seeking the Presidency, there is a clear choice for those who want to support a candidate who will stand up against the war and stand up for personal liberties and privacy that have been trampled by the notorious, misnamed, PATRIOT Act.
"The people want the next President to immediately withdraw our soldiers and corporate mercenaries from Iraq in the safest manner possible.
"I would veto any attempt to extend the so-called PATRIOT Act or anything else that came across my desk that was designed to circumvent the civil liberties of the American People.
The PATRIOT Act grants excessive power to the government to abuse civil liberties through wiretaps, monitoring internet usage, authorized 'sneak and peek' of our homes, and forces libraries to turn over records of the books read by their patrons -- and those abuses of power have been used repeatedly by Bush and his Justice Department.
We need more politicians, like Dr. Paul, who are not afraid to stand up for our civil liberties."
Nader isn't quite as assertive on another of Paul's prime issues, the Federal Reserve Board.
Paul, much to the delight of many of his supporters, has pushed for wiping the board off the face of the earth; Nader's focus has been on prodding it to do its job with greater vigilance and more openly.
(UPDATE: Though Ron Paul stopped short of telling supporters in Texas Thursday night that he was quitting, his campaign website posted a statement overnight that he is indeed packing it in. "It is time now to take the energy this campaign has awakened and channel it into long-term efforts to take back our country," Paul said.)
Throughout yesterday afternoon and evening news reports flashed all over the Internet that Republican Rep. Ron Paul was going to officially end his hopeless presidential campaign.
ABC News said the campaign, "a pugnacious, ideological crusade against big government and interventionist leanings in the Republican party, will officially end Thursday at a rally outside the Texas GOP's convention."
A European wire service that we won't identify (we'll call it AFP) said: "Maverick Republican White House candidate Ron Paul, a rival to his party's presumptive nominee John McCain, announced late Thursday he is dropping out of the U.S. presidential race."
A certain Washington blog about the campaign Trail reported last night: "Texas Rep. Ron Paul is officially ending his presidential campaign." Even keen observer and enthusiastic Ron Paul supporter Lew Rockwellappeared to give up hope.
But just you wait one Texas minute! We know better than that here at The Ticket.
Once before, three months ago, Paul put out a video message to his hundreds of thousands of supporters saying he was "winding down" his campaign. And we fell for that one, hook, line and libertarian sinker. We wrote that the 72-year-old, 10-term congressman "appears to be....
On this, the first anniversary of our Top of the Ticket blog, we are reminded of the mercurial, unpredictable nature of U.S. politics -- part of what makes what we do so fascinating.
Our goal -- one of us on the East Coast and the other on the far more important or at least less humid West Coast -- was to write about Campaign '08 virtually around the clock.
Our second-ever posting, 12 months ago today, previewed an upcoming L.A. Times/Bloomberg Poll; later in the day, we detailed the results of the nationwide survey. The findings were in line with other polls of the time.
In the Republican presidential race, which then seemed the most likely to last deep into the primary season, Rudy Giuliani was perched in first place. His lead wasn't overwhelming, but it was strong enough that he appeared certain to remain a major contender.
His liberal record on social issues loomed as an obvious liability within his party, but his tough-on-terrorism message was attracting substantial support from moderates and GOP-leaning independents.
His major headache among rivals last June was an as-yet-undeclared candidate who was riding a wave as the great conservative hope -- Fred Thompson. He ran a strong second in the poll.
Lagging far behind were John McCain and Mitt Romney, each barely with double-digit support. In our preview posting, we were especially scornful of McCain, noting sarcastically (and foolishly, as it turned out) that in the poll, he found himself "in heated competition with the 'Don't Know' category."
Meriting no mention from us was Mike Huckabee, one of several back-of-the-pack candidates barely earning any support across the country.
The Democratic race, at that point, seemed so much more cut-and-dried.
Nobody's complaining here, but did anybody else notice a couple of unusual things about Hillary Clinton's weekend "event" where she suspended her own one-time, sure-thing presidential campaign and endorsed her more successful Democratic presidential rival, Sen. Barack Obama?
Obama himself couldn't make it to the Washington unity event. The victor had the day off in Chicago and was seen heading out with his golf clubs. Aides said he watched the speech on a computer.
Who knows, maybe he wasn't even invited. Clinton and Obama have exchanged some pretty sharp barbs in recent months and that's going to take some time for each of them to pretend to get over. They'll no doubt have some kind of friendly joint media event in the near future. Ten gallons of gas says they raise clasped hands.
Clinton said all the right things in her speech, mentioned Obama 15 times by name. It was, not surprisingly, a moment for her people and mostly about her campaign. You can read The Ticket's account of her remarks and the full text here. (There's also a new retrospective photo gallery of her historic campaign available here.)
"Today, as I suspend my campaign," she said, "I congratulate him on the victory he has won and the extraordinary race he has run. I endorse him, and throw my full support behind him. And I ask all of you to join me in working as hard for Barack Obama as you have for me."
The clear words were delivered dutifully with a strong voice and we'll all no doubt see them repeated many times in coming weeks by the Obama campaign, which must desperately find a strategy to hold the crucial Clinton supporters in the Democratic column on Nov. 4. Clinton says she'll help with that.
But watch the video here. And look at Clinton's face. Are those
teeth clenched? Because that face is sure not smiling warmly as she carefully reads verbatim her heartfelt words of admiration and endorsement.
The other thing that had escaped our notice until we got a message from loyal Ticket reader Michelle and heard about a heated debate going on over at Facebook is, look a few seconds at the Clinton family in this photo from Saturday.
Notice anything?
The Ticket usually leaves celebrity sartorial observations to our fellow bloggers at LATimes.com. But check out the Clintons' wardrobes for this celebration of a remarkable, genderly historic and narrowly defeated campaign and the earnest endorsement of the party's new Chosen One.
All three of the Clintons are perfectly dressed -- for a funeral.
Nothing wrong with that, of course. It was a death of sorts. Personal choice rules. But in major national political campaigns, where appearances are so important because television images are so important, such things don't happen by accident.
Perhaps these simultaneous wardrobe selections are not symbolism or a silent statement or an unconscious reflection of their feelings after all these months and millions of dollars of useless campaigning.
Three dark suits all at once is probably just a coincidence. What do you think?
(To see some of Sen. Clinton's other color preferences during her campaign, click on the Read more line below.)
Most everyone in the field of politics and those of us watching from the grandstands have focused on the Democratic family soap opera in recent days and weeks. And we've anticipated the compelling season finale that will unfold before our televised eyes in Washington this morning.
There, Sen. Hillary Clinton will officially admit defeat -- well, maybe she won't go quite that far.
But she will, as promised, appear to graciously and heartily endorse this upstart freshman senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, whose eloquence, quick learning and charisma prevented her from gaining her rightful White House political inheritance -- this time.
And if, God forbid or at least look the other way, Obama should not win the White House Nov. 4, her dutiful campaigning for the party ticket starting today won't hurt her chances come 2012. God help us, we're typing that date already.
Many of us have been debating Clinton's Tuesday night non-concession speech that was nearly downright defiant and if, when or how she'd accept the No. 2 spot or if it will even be offered (of course not).
Meanwhile, that wily old-timer from Arizona, who last summer said he'd "out-campaign" all his better-funded Republican rivals and then did just that, has been very busy.
Campaign sources tell The Times' political finance expert Dan Morain that Sen. John McCain had the best fundraising ...
Today is the big, public Democratic rapprochement day in Washington, the time when that party's presumptive presidential nominee, Barack Obama, presumably gets the presumably hearty endorsement of the party's presumptive loser, Hillary Clinton.
She says she'll work for the election of his ticket Nov. 4.
But should she be on it too?
Would that be a major unity coup, bringing in those 18 million primary Clinton voters and halting the drift of conservative Democrats toward the Republicans? Or would that buy the freshman Illinois senator a two-pack of Clinton trouble that makes it better to risk the race with someone else?
Should Clinton accept if offered the spot?
And while we're at it, what about the Republican ticket? Who should John McCain tap as his running mate?
There are a whole lot of possibilities, some ridiculous, some safe and standard, a couple daring. It probably should be someone from outside Washington, someone at least somewhat younger than McCain's 72. We're betting a governor or ex-governor; Americans like electing executives as chief executive.
Should the Arizona senator go with young Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, dynamic, conservative, from an immigrant family of color with a compelling American success story, who has some Washington House experience? Florida's an important state. Gov. Charlie Crist delivered it in the GOP primary. Could he do it again in the general election?
What about former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a veteran campaigner, vetted, knows the issues, strong jaw, better-liked among some conservatives and, unlike many GOP possibilities, still with his first wife? Also, unlike McCain, Romney's a super-fundraiser.
Just for fun, we'll throw in Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. She'd be the first female Republican VP nominee, and she's a real doer, conservative, popular. But Alaska's a long ways away. Can Americans come to know and like her quickly enough from Labor Day to early November?
This just in: The Ron Paul 2008 campaign store is closed indefinitely. Apparently this week's special "End of Primary Season Blowout" sale decimated the inventory.
The special offer was $25 for a Ron Paul T-shirt plus an unspecified collection of Ron Paul buttons, Ron Paul stickers, Ron Paul key chains, Ron Paul magnets, Ron Paul wristbands, Ron Paul hats and Ron Paul mouse pads.
It looked like a campaign close-out.
But with his $5-million remaining political kitty, the 72-year-old, 10-term Republican representative from Texas continues to make his combination political-book signing rounds of the country and speaking to crowds of his determined followers, many of them new to the political process.
Paul will have ample time to do that this year because he's running for his 11th House term unopposed. There simply is no Democrat in southeast Texas stupid enough to take on the old man who inserts bounteous spending earmarks for his home district into legislation certain to pass and then votes against the bills so he can maintain his anti-spending reputation.
Paul didn't do all that badly in the meaningless Republican primary votes this week, if you deal in percentages. Paul captured ...
You know, today is the last day of primaries. (Yes, we know AP says Barack Obama has clinched the Democratic nomination by delegates, but there are still real votes to be voted.)
Just like spring, election day comes kinda late to Montana and South Dakota. And they really are the final ones. No, really.
And then almost immediately -- well, five months from tomorrow -- comes the general election on Nov. 4. So you better hurry and sign up for instant results via Ticket Twitter for tonight and beyond.
Had you already signed up for Twitter, you would have known about Obama clinching through a special news tweet.
And, of course, by signing up you also get automatic notification of every new Ticket item as it's posted.
Look how excited someone's new grandson named Charlie is about the prospect of automatically getting election results Twittered to his Fisher play cellphone.
And he could have received news of Hillary Clinton's walloping of Barack Obama in Kentucky a whole lot quicker had he been a Ticket Twitter subscriber -- and born then. But he was otherwise occupied elsewhere. (Yes, that's his personal halo hanging nearby.)
Also, Charlie doesn't want to miss one moment of Rep. Ron Paul's surge now that he's within almost 1,300 delegates of catching Sen. John McCain for the Republican nomination in St. Paul. (Honest, that's where the GOP meets come September.)
Click Follow. Enroll there for alerts on every new Ticket item AND our instant, breaking-news election results whenever and wherever anyone is voting on the U.S. presidency. And it's all free, of course.
For about-to-be Twitter folks, think of it as text message headlines to any mobile device. Go here to enroll (also free). Click on Join, not surprisingly.
And join.
Once again, on this final primary election day and all the ordinary campaign days in between until the Bitter End when everyone has made their Thanksgiving airline reservations and winced at the new prices, we're going to have all the political news and election result updates for our Twitter subscribers. (Actually, to be honest, we'll be here well beyond Nov. 4 chronicling formation of a new presidential administration and the political fallout in the losing party.)
U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) is running for his party's presidential nomination. And so, it seems, are a whole bunch of Pauls and other assorted family members.
They're everywhere in the Paul campaign. And all, by the way, getting paid from the $34.5 million donated by the legions of loyal Paul supporters across the country.
The 72-year-old Paul, a onetime ob-gyn, has packed his campaign staff with what seems like a whole lot of the 4,000 babies he's said to have delivered over the years.
Now, it's former Rep. Bob Barr's turn. He's been chosen the 2008 presidential nominee for the Libertarian Party after numerous rounds of balloting that not many people care about.
The Libertarians, convening in Denver, named him Sunday.
"I'm sure we will emerge here with the strongest ticket in the history of the Libertarian Party," Barr said in his victory speech.
Which may not be saying much, because as determined as many of its followers are, there simply aren't enough of them to elect their ticket to anything.
The Libertarians have been good for only around 3% of the vote in recent elections. However, 3% in a close election between the Republican and Democratic tickets could make the difference.
Much as Ralph Nader drew enough votes from Al Gore in 2000 to help George W. Bush win the White House, the little-known Barr could draw enough votes of dissatisfied conservatives to hurt Sen. John McCain's chances as the GOP nominee.
"I want everybody to remember," Barr told conventioneers, "that we only have 163 days to win this election. We cannot waste one single day." Mark Silva has the full story here.
This could be the ultimate merger of politics, the Web and entertainment. The Republican National Convention and John McCain's campaign have teamed up to solicit user videos of "someone in your neighborhood who goes above and beyond the call of duty to serve what Sen. McCain calls, 'a cause greater than their own self-interest.'" Then viewers get to vote on the best submission. The winner gets a pass to the convention in St. Paul, Minn.
Of course, the devil is in the details. When you look at the FAQs, the convention staff winnows down the submissions to five finalists, and then they'll open it up to a vote. Kind of like a private primary by the insiders to winnow down the list of acceptable candidates (now, that's democracy). So you can probably write off any chance of a talking snowman making the cut.
Still, the Republicans have generally lagged behind the Democrats in Web innovation. This might catch them up a bit. Meanwhile, we'll be watching for the Paulista backlash. Ron Paul's supporters have proven themselves to be adept at both the Web, and videos. And since they're still fighting for a bigger place at the St. Paul table, you can bet they'll be submitting.
And you can also bet that if they don't make the "final five," they'll be flaming (read any comments section on a blog post about Paul).
While the world of politics waits around for Sen. Barack Obama to finally get the message and give up his hopeless chase of the Democratic nomination for president because he lost yet another heartland state to Hillary Clinton, Texas Rep. Ron Paul continues to creep up on the once-presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain.
Overlooked in all the hoopla about the big Portland, Ore., music rally that Obama piggybacked onto and his winning the Forever Cloudy State in Tuesday's voting was the fact that the 72-year-old libertarian-like Republican rebel snagged two of Oregon's 27 GOP delegates.
Sure McCain got the other 25. But depending on whose count you go by, this gives Paul a total of either 21 or 28 delegates to the September Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. Maybe even a few more.
That puts Paul only about 1,245 delegates behind McCain, who weeks ago captured the necessary 1,191 delegates to guarantee him the nomination.
And as The Ticket reported Wednesday morning, Paul is careful with the dollars his loyal followers have donated. Since early 2007, these dedicated bands of imaginative fund-raisers have donated nearly $35 million and Paul still has almost $5 million of that left. Recently, he's been advertising a lot on radio. And unlike most candidates, he lives with no political debt.
So by September it may come down to mano a mano between two 72-year-olds to see who goes up against the 60-year-old New Yorker or the Illinois kid who'll be 60 in about 13 years.
Rep. Ron Paul, the rebel Republican who's defying his party, its nominee and common political sense, is still campaigning, not so much for his party's nomination, which Sen. John McCain has locked up, but to change the direction of the party from within and to organize for future reform of the GOP, which has gone soft on him.
According to new campaign finance reports filed Tuesday by Paul forces and pored over by Times campaign finance expert Dan Morain, the strict constitutionalist Paul continues to campaign and spend. He spent $406,836 last month, about half of it ($207,000) on radio advertisements.
Tapping his loyalists for another $70,293 in contributions, Paul ended April with $4.71 million in the bank, his filed campaign finance report shows.
He has raised about $34.9 million during his 14-month presidential quest. The 72-year-old Texas representative, who's even older than McCain, spent $30.2 million on his GOP presidential effort. And, true to conservative form, he maintains absolutely zero campaign debt. Contrast that with Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton who, The Ticket misreported earlier today, raised $21 million last month and now still has almost $31 million in debt. (Her debt is actually closer to $21 million.)
CNN pegs Paul’s delegate count at 26.
One-time Republican presidential front-runner Rudolph Giuliani spent $65.3 million on his campaign and won only one single delegate, who has since been released.
Giuliani tapped himself last month, using $500,000 of his own money to help pay off his presidential campaign bills. He still owes $3.628 million. Among Giuliani’s lingering debts is $118,744 to AT&T; $295,093 to Verizon Wireless; and $451,736 to a New York charter air carrier. He continues to owe two of his companies a combined $217,000 for rent and security services.
Now, we know that Paul puts his personal money where his personal mouth, and public policy, are -- in precious metals.
Paul complied with federal law by filing his personal public financial disclosure statement with the Federal Election Commission by the deadline the other day. The Times' conscientious Dan Morain pored over it.
Turns out, the old doctor (he's even older than Sen. John McCain) is a millionaire, a few times over.
An Air Force veteran and ob-gyn who often champions the cause of the little guy, Paul disclosed 41 separate financial holdings that have a combined value of between $2.29 million and $5.3 million. The disclosure statements require officeholders and candidates to disclose a range of values for their holdings.
The 72-year-old Texas Republican, who leans libertarian, wants to abolish the Federal Reserve and issues warnings about....
Rep. Ron Paul of Texas is proud of what he sees as his truly conservative credentials. He's for smaller government, much smaller. He's for foreign trade but not foreign military involvement. He wants to spend that money wasted on empire-building right back here in these United States of America. He'd also get rid of the Education Department and the Federal Reserve.
His followers, who reverently call him Dr. Paul, like the way he would strictly adhere to the Constitution as he sees it and return more freedoms to the little guy in the face of big government.
Paul fans -- regularly called Paulites, Paultards or Paulunteers -- also see a gentle humility in the weathered but wise hands of the 72-year-old OB/GYN, who reputedly has delivered about 4,000 infants into life in this wondrous world.
But there seems to be another side to Paul. A mean, vicious, cruel and uncaring side. A side that sees millions of humans -- albeit Myanmarese who are not registered to vote in Texas -- afflicted with a historic cyclone, countless thousands of lives lost, devastation everywhere, and that could care less.
This week when a Congressional resolution came up for a vote merely offering "condolences and sympathy" to the people of Myanmar affected by the recent deadly cyclone, Ron Paul, the doting grandfather, the millionaire, was the only member of the entire House of Representatives to vote "No."
The Myanmar resolution, like all those goofy pieces of symbolic legislation, would...
Everybody was watching the overwhelming of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama by New York Sen. Hillary Clinton on the ongoing Democratic side of the partisan primary struggles in West Virginia yesterday. But over on the Republican primary battlefield with 98% of the votes counted, the 72-year-old Paul was overwhelmed by the presumptive GOP nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
Paul gathered in only 5% of the vote, a lousy 5,812 ballots.
That's about 1/17th as many votes as those received by the dread enemy, the 71-year-old Arizonan, McCain, who got 87,786 ballots.
Paul even got thumped by ex-Gov. Mike Huckabee, who isn't running anymore and hasn't been for weeks and was actually acting as a commentator on MSNBC. Huckabee got more than twice as many votes as the Texas congressman, 11,896, or 10%. And he'd already won most of West Virginia's GOP delegates back in that winter state convention deal with the Paul people to head off the Massachusetts Mormon.
Former Gov. Mitt Romney, another GOP also-ran, also came close to nipping Paul, who's having more luck selling his bestselling new book than his way-behind-the-crowd candidacy. Romney got 5,062 votes, or 4%. Rudy Giuliani -- remember him, the former New York mayor? -- received 2%, or 2,777 votes. So Paul did beat him again.
Paul also beat Alan Keyes, who in 2004 did such an impressive job as the Republican candidate of terminating the political career of that up-and-comer named Obama in the Illinois U.S. Senate race. Keyes got 1,389 West Virginia votes, 1%.
Out in Nebraska, Paul did somewhat better, copping 13% of the vote (17,587) to McCain's 87% (117,529). Which, according to The Ticket's calculations, means McCain won.
But as Paul's vocal supporters are fond of pointing out, it's not about winning the Republican nomination. It's about something else, which they'll be happy to explain in the comments section below where they are always welcome.
