Rand Paul endorses Romney.. he must know the convention is a formality at this point

[Jambo4]

Rand Paul endorses Mitt Romney

Posted by Felicia Sonmez at 10:29 PM ET, 06/07/2012

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has endorsed Mitt Romney’s presidential bid, throwing his weight behind the presumptive GOP nominee even as his father, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), has yet to fully terminate his White House bid.

Rand Paul made the move in an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity."

"Well, you know, my first choice had always been my father. ... He is still my first pick," Paul said, according to a rush transcript of the appearance. "But now that the nominating process is over, tonight, I am happy to announce I am supporting Governor Romney."

In a statement, Romney said that he was “honored” to receive the endorsement of Paul, a freshman lawmaker and founding member of the Senate Tea Party Caucus who is believed to be mulling his own future bid for national office.

“Senator Paul has been a leading voice in the effort to scale back the size and reach of government and promote liberty,” Romney said. “Over the past three and half years, President Obama has made government more and more of a presence in our lives, and Americans can’t afford four more years of the same failed policies. As president, I will reform the federal government and make it smaller, simpler, and smarter.”

The endorsement lends Romney further tea-party backing as he solidifies his support among the GOP faithful.

And it comes as Paul’s father technically remains a candidate in the White House race, although Romney has already clinched the 1,144 delegates necessary to win the nomination.

The elder Paul announced last month that he would suspend his active campaign operation and instead continue his pursuit of delegates through the second- and third-round stages of the nominating process in the states.

While Ron Paul has twice fallen short of clinching the GOP nod, his campaign – which has drawn the enthusiastic support of libertarian-leaning Republicans as well as some anti-war Democrats -- has been viewed in part as an effort to lay the groundwork for a potential bid by his son down the line.

And Ron Paul’s supporters remain intent on making a significant showing at this summer’s Republican National Convention in Tampa, although it remains unclear whether their plans for a “Paul Festival” will be given the green light by convention organizers.

[Jambo4]

Thank you for the clarification.

Quoting imagirlgeek:

Sorry, I didn't copy this paragraph in to describe how it works with the primaries.

It is also said to be important in the American Presidential Primary elections. States all vote at different times, spread over some months, rather than all on one day. Some states (Iowa, New Hampshire) have special precedence to go early while others have to wait until a certain date. This is often said to give undue influence to these states, a win in these early states is said to give a candidate the "Big Mo" (momentum) and has propelled many candidates to win the nomination. Because of this, other states often try front loading (going as early as possible) to make their say as influential as they can. In the 2008 presidential primaries two states had all or some of their delegates banned from the convention by the central party organizations for voting too early.

I'm not saying that the Bandwagon Effect is the only reason Romney did so well, not at all, I'm just saying that the media can and does use early wins and airtime to influence those who aren't as involved as us.  I'm sure you noticed Santorum doing better when he was getting media attention, and it dropped off when he wasn't talked about. (Plus, he said some really dumb things.) lol

Honestly, I hope the Paul supporters who have become delegates will honor the RNC rules in each state and vote as they are supposed to at the convention, meaning that I hope there is no deception.  I really do.  I think Ron Paul's goal at this point is to get more liberty minded people involved in the political process at all levels.  At least, that's the message I get from the emails and video messages released by RP and the campaign.

Quoting Jambo4:

I'm not seeing how the "bandwagon effect" is related to this since we are talking about states delegate process and not the whole nation voting at the same time.  When a state goes to Romney by the popular vote of that state and RP gets his delegates to those delegate spots even though he did poorly in that state in general, that is a manipulation (yes NOT illegal... but not what the majority of the state wanted), it's a dishonest tactic.  It's not cheap to be a delegate and it takes a lot of time.  It's not something that the average primary/caucus voter can do.  I can applaud RP supporters for being willing to put in that time and money... still.. leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  

Quoting imagirlgeek:

A lot of the political process during the primaries is manipulation.  I know I sound like a paranoid nutjob, but it's basic psychology.  Numerous studies have been done on the 'Bandwagon Effect' and how to use this in Politics.  This is a link to the wikipedia page, and I know people here hate using this as a source, but it's got a good block of info on how it's used in politics. Bandwagon Effect

Here's a little:

The bandwagon effect occurs in voting: some people vote for those candidates or parties who are likely to succeed (or are proclaimed as such by the media), hoping to be on the "winner's side" in the end. The bandwagon effect has been applied to situations involving majority opinion, such as political outcomes, where people alter their opinions to the majority view (McAllister and Studlar 721). Such a shift in opinion can occur because individuals draw inferences from the decisions of others, as in an informational cascade.

Because of time zones, election results are broadcast in the eastern parts of the United States while polls are still open in the west. This difference has led to research on how the behavior of voters in western United States are influenced by news about the decisions of voters in other time zones. In 1980, NBC News declared Ronald Reagan to be the winner of the presidential race on the basis of the exit polls several hours before the voting booths closed in the west.

I'm not posting this to discount the passion many have for Romney, just to show that there are a lot of people who don't have passion for any candidate and just really want to rally behind the winner.  And that's okay, but it does speak to the 'will of the people' and accusations that Paul is somehow cheating the system.  Personally, I don't like the idea that we are being herded into our decisions because they have figured out how best to manipulate us, but that's just me.

We...the women in this group...are the minority.  We actually care about the issues, the lies, the backgrounds of these candidates.  We study, read, investigate, discuss.  We go to rallies.  We become delegates.  Most people, sadly, just watch the nightly news, or worse, just vote R or D in November.

[gammie]

Quoting Jambo4:

by your answers i can see that you can't see that he is the same like O, he wants to keep the war going. That will get us more terrorists.
The list keeps on going that he will be more of the same. And will not keep us safe!!!

Sorry I disagree

[asfriend]

Sad

Quoting gammie:

Quoting Jambo4:

by your answers i can see that you can't see that he is the same like O, he wants to keep the war going. That will get us more terrorists.
The list keeps on going that he will be more of the same. And will not keep us safe!!!

Sorry I disagree

[Jambo4]

Quoting gammie:

Quoting Jambo4:

by your answers i can see that you can't see that he is the same like O, he wants to keep the war going. That will get us more terrorists.
The list keeps on going that he will be more of the same. And will not keep us safe!!!

Sorry I disagree

I knew you wouldn't read it or any of the links.  You couldn't have possibly or you would have seen the big differences... sigh...

[matreshka]

OMG, I agree with you :)

Quoting asfriend:

It has been a formality for about 2 months.

[asfriend]

at least one of us should be terrified.

Quoting matreshka:

OMG, I agree with you :)

Quoting asfriend:

It has been a formality for about 2 months.

[matreshka]

Why do you have to be such a buzzkill?

Quoting asfriend:

at least one of us should be terrified.

Quoting matreshka:

OMG, I agree with you :)

Quoting asfriend:

It has been a formality for about 2 months.

[Jambo4]

I thought she was just having fun... I know every once in a while Sweets or Pema and I agree and we always joke about the world as we know it imploding. ;)

Quoting matreshka:

Why do you have to be such a buzzkill?

Quoting asfriend:

at least one of us should be terrified.

Quoting matreshka:

OMG, I agree with you :)

Quoting asfriend:

It has been a formality for about 2 months.

[imamomzilla]

 He appears to be the brains in the family. ;-)

[mom2myprince]

bout time.