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Opinion: Ron Paul surge collects more GOP convention delegates

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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.

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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.

--Andrew Malcolm

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