It appears that Ron Paul is as popular as fresh lobster in Maine. The Republican presidential candidate said Monday he is hoping for “a grand showing” in Maine’s Republican caucuses Friday through Sunday. He visited the State House in Augusta and made remarks to a crowd of nearly 200.
Paul is the invisible candidate nationally despite his success in campaign fundraising and general popularity. However, state Republican Party Executive Director Julie O’Brien says his supporters may have been the most active in Maine.
According to Natalie Schultz of the Nolan Chart said Paul has a good chance of taking 21 delegates during the state competition because his campaign fits right into the politics of the area:
“Because outside of the political elite urbanites who control the state, the majority of real Mainers are very anti-government gun-lovers. Huckabee is gaining a Christian following, but truthfully, most Mainers are old-school Christians, not Evangelicals.”
Paul winning Maine has the potential to throw the Republican presidential bid race into complete chaos. If John McCain loses to Mitt Romney in Florida on Jan. 29 there will still be no clear front-runner. With 9/11 poster boy and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani on the verge of bowing out if he does not grab Florida, which he probably won’t, there will be no one left in the Republican race whom the media can use to hide Paul behind.
Like it or not, Paul is getting harder to ignore. Time for mainstream media and the Republican Party to put their heads together and figure out another way to hide Paul in plain sight.
Our favorite cranky uncle is back campaigning to students. This time former Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska is targeting Florida’s youth in his race for the Democratic presidential bid. And he brought a motivating message to Florida Atlantic University today.
Gravel told students not to count on him to bring change in Washington. In fact, he told the 25 to 50 students that drifted in and out of the 20-minute diatribe to abandon hope that any candidate can help the U.S.
“I don’t want to disabuse anybody, but there is no hope for change by anybody running for president today, including myself,” the Alaskan said.
If you want something done at all, do it yourself, is what Gravel touted as he discussed his plan for a national initiative process that would let citizens propose federal laws through a referendum. He said:
“If you want to get control of your lives, if you want to get control of your government, you have to become lawmakers. It’s that simple.”
This “ask not what your government can do for you–really,” anti-hope, speech mirrors one he gave Stetson University Saturday. In that informal speech his cynicism somehow managed to liken current election antics in to Russia:
“If Russia ran elections like we do in the U.S., we’d be criticizing Russia,” he told the crowd. “If you saw how bad these caucuses were, as far as how undemocratic, . . . it’s an abomination.”
Despite America’s communist leanings, the resident hanger-on of the Democratic race told Florida’s DeLand-Deltona Beacon he plans to stay with this “abomination” of an election until the August Democratic National Convention. Gravel als said he will keep his candidacy alive until the Nov. 3 General Election as an Independent–that is if he does not get the Democratic party nomination.
Abandon hope? Cynicism? Communist Russia? Gravel should stick to the college campus circuit. At least he can join the depressed co-eds in some hot-boxing after his speeches to take the edge off.
Former Cleveland mayor Dennis Kucinich may have abandoned his White House bid on Friday, but he is not ready to stop campaigning.
The long-shot presidential candidate during a press conference said, “I’m directing my energies to being re-elected to the Congress of the United States.”
The Ohio congressman has now spent two of his past three congressional terms running for president, so he might feel heat from critics who feel he has not effectively served his constituency while chasing the Oval Office.
Kucinich has declined to rule out or confirm any future runs for president, but I know I will miss his under-supported campaign and his being ignored by the media and Democratic party.
In memorandum, here is a YouTube video that compares Kucinich’s efforts to those of aliens running for president in a season eight Halloween episode of “The Simpsons.” Goodbye, Kucinich. Your whirling without strings will be sorely missed.