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Republican Delegates Can Ignore Any “Committment” to Vote for Mitt Romney, and Can Instead Vote for Ron Paul If They Want
We noted last week that it’s still possible for Ron Paul to score an upset win over Mitt Romney.
Indeed, the nonpartisan Center for Voting and Democracy (CVAD) reported last December that the the legal counsel for the Republican National Convention said delegates can vote for whoever they want at the National Convention:
As set out in the Rules of the Republican Party, delegates have the ability to vote according to the delegates’ preference, even if that is contrary to the outcome of each state’s primary. According to one source, the legal counsel for the Republican National Convention in 2008 stated: “[The] RNC does not recognize a state’s binding of national delegates, but considers each delegate a free agent who can vote for whoever they choose.” Thus, if a delegate were to challenge his or her ability to vote as a free agent, he or she would have grounds under Rule 38.
Ironically, the legal counsel rendered her opinion when a Utah delegate wanted to vote for Mitt Romney in the face of the Utah delegation as a whole going for John McCain.
CVAD continues:
For further clarification on the meaning of Rule 38, it is instructive to look to the debate in 1964 when the RNC debated whether to strike the Rule 38 language from a proposed amendment that was adopted that year. The debate begins on page 64 of this source. The RNC voted 59 to 41 to keep the rule in the amendment, noting that it helped to clarify a longstanding practice that a delegate was free to take exception to the roll call, and was free to vote his or her preference. Those who sought to strike the rule feared that its inclusion in the rules would give delegates freedom from both a non-existent legal obligation and a moral obligation to vote according to instructions from their state. However, even these opponents of the rule admitted that there never has been any legal obligation for a delegate to do so.
In other words, all Republican delegates – no matter what state they are in – can vote their conscience … even if someone tells them they have to vote for a particular candidate.
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I think you could be wrong... look, I think this country is being primed for a huge and "unexpected' radical shift to the right.
The whole thing is growing undercover. leftists are smug and insulated from the masses that haver already swung hard right in the shadows. I think that, all things staying on tgrack, Ron paul actually has a shot at the nomination. In a steady-state paradigm, if he wins the nomination, he will wipe the floor with the current teleprompter reader in cheif in any debate. Obama will never keep up with Ron Paul.
So, barring an assassination (God Forbid) of Dr. Paul, I think he has a chance. If he's taken out, which Obama is perfectly capable of doing , then this country is ripe for a fascists right convulsion. If Ron Paul is elected, and if he takes office, yes, the economy will utterly crash. But that is inevitable, so we shouldn't blame Ron paul for it. It will happen no matter who becomes prez.
But I'm betting that this country turns hard right and that it will be just as ugly as the hard left path of Obama, maybe a lot worse.
Mr. Smokey1, you got one thing very right:
And I, for one, will go out of my way to cheer the event.
That's not something to lament; it's an occasion for celebration!
Now THAT would be spreading freedom and democracy.
Freedom/ Democracy = oxymoron.
Freedom+Liberty. Now that's something to spread.
Your intellegence explains the bag over your head.
nothing wrong with supporting your interests. the police state has been very good for your life on the .gov dole.
my you are a nasty little turd.
This might be your worst post ever, and that's saying something.
Trolololo...
When the honesty and integrity of an honorable and intelligent man like Ron Paul elicits such visceral and vulgar hatred as demonstrated by Smokey above, it says much more about the hater than it does about Ron Paul and his supporters.
I simply love seeing the kneejerk denial, loathing and hysterical sputterings provoked by the shattering of blindly accepted status-quo, pro-Establishment paradigms. Smokey, you are perfectly representative of the hypocrisy, irrationality and outright insanity that passes for "mainstream" political opinion in the USA today. But although I know you will vehemently deny it to the bitter end, the GOP future belongs to Ron Paul and his supporters, not neocons and warmongering herdlike statists such as you --- you are a political dinosaur whose extinction comet is already beginning to light up the sky.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Mahatma Gandhi
I'd say Smokey is about at the beginning of the fighting stage....
Insert nasty ad hominem here...
I love ad hominem attacks. People get extra angry when they can't come up with a coherent argument and will yell an ever-louder ad hominem attack, because there is no substance or logic to their argument.
And the fact that people are taking the time to come up with longer and longer attacks on Ron Paul must mean he's a real threat to them. If he wasn't they wouldn't bother with us 'Ronbots / Ronulans'... i mean if he's so insignificant and irrelevant why waste energy attacking him?
Can't cut government or government programs without congressional approval-means RP would not be able to substantially cut government programs as he espouses.
How many decades has he been a professional politician and not once authored and gotten passed a bill with his name on it limiting the out of control growth of government that happens to coincide with his tenure?
Sorry, communicating effectively is fairly important in most vocations, probably moreso in politics.
The guy couldn't even become relevant to alter the discussions.
If by real threat, more of the same is coming down the pike largely to affirm the beliefs of the insecure? That would be threatening as all get out.
Maybe not, but he could veto bill after bill until he gets things going in a better direction....
As the current prez has signed thousands of executive orders and created thousands upon thousands of new regulations, RP could undo all of that. He could by executive order not spend money authorized to be spent and return it to the treasury....As much as GWB and BHO and their predecessors have done to tear down the constitution he could do to restore...
1 thing is certain, if he gets in he has a more of chance, than he does sitting at his computer whining about crap....
Oh so you mean he could instantly withdrawal all US troops and order them home overnight?
That would be a hoot and half.
Can finally find out the real purpose of their placements.
Not like wikileaks leaked 1000's of documents explaining that they are not around the world spreading freedom but instead are protecting global commerce but it would be a real hoot to see the zerobrains crowd after that action.
Ugh.
Meh.
All right wise guy, just WHO is the US Military protecting global commerce from? The North Korean navy? The Chinese army?
ron paul is the kind of politician that looks at ugly babies and tells the parents that their baby is ugly.
Such directness is what people want from a doctor, but most people want their politicians to bring in as much pork projects to their towns, states, countries as possible. and military defense contractors make parts (aka. jobs) in all 50 states.
Better to vote for a pathological liar or an empty suit, instead?
not quite, Ron Paul doesn't attack people personally.
At worst he will say "your baby has no clothes, he is not wearing fine silk clothing"
I am going to try to be nice.
I am going to request a write in ballot for RP.
If that fails, i am going to demand a write in ballot for RP.
If both fail, i am going to tear up my voter registration card and leave.
Just vote for Gary Johnson -or any third party candidate. We need these numbers to grow so people start getting the message that the two party system is nothing but a farce.
Had a conversation with my county elections administrator last week. I asked why Ron Paul's write-in votes did not show up in the final count in the general election in 2008. She told me that write-ins are not tabulated unless said candidate is registered and qualified by the Texas Secretary of State. There are requirements such as petitions with sufficient numbers of signatures, filings by candidates, etc.
Of course, if a candidate had gone to such lengths, he/she would have shown up on the ballot as an independent, right? In that case, there would be no reason to have to write in, right? Also, in my county, the only way to do a write-in is to use those electronic voting machines.
IMO, this should not be.
Bottom line: if you live in Texas, you will have to work through the GOP process to get Ron Paul.
dumbass Americans still voting like they are still worth anything when banksters have raped your country.
take it out to the streets.
take it out to the streets.
Well Aldous, unfortunately your correct, unfortunately thats EXACTLY what the BASTARDS want, badly.
The bankers could never steal in 100lifetimes the social debt that is the underlying cause of the global debt.
Funny thing is euroliberalsocialshithole.com has already decimated their militaries and jacked up taxes to no avail.
But keep pointing at them bankers, they the real reason the world is floating hundreds of trillions in unsecured debt around the globe, not the underlying social obligations.
People who come into the game with nothing and leave with something are not the losers in the game.
Seems really simple, it is amazing the rocket surgeons struggle so mightily with it.
The social debt as you call it - is pure illusion, based on monetary policy that was created by .. you guessed it bankers. If you had a currency that couldnt be inflated, then the debt could not exist - the wars and miltary spending (the excuse for the debt) could not exist either. The deficit, which is foisted onto the people - is money that directly goes into the hands of the military industry, who use some of the profit to ensure more warmongers get elected.
The private debt is facilitated entirely by banks - if they had to lend deposits - the farce would have ended long ago - but they do not, they simply monetize promises to pay - facilitated by the central banking system.
The public debt is due to social democracy and fiat currency, the private debt directly due to fractional reserve banking.
This isnt some random bad luck event, this is working to a plan - a plan to steal through fraud the wealth of entire nations - and thereby control those nations and their policy.
To really escape - fractional reserve banking, and the central banking system that enables it has to be recognized as fraudulent - and all the stolen assets should be retroactively siezed and returned to the people.
Yea pure illusion.
The longest maturity in the Illinois bond deal, due in 2019, was sold at a yield of 5.877%. In comparison, a $400 million "junk" bond issued by auto-parts maker Dana Holding Corp. and maturing in 2019 had a yield of 6.24%.
Illinois officials were forced to promise a yield that is about two percentage points higher than was paid by companies with similar credit ratings in recent bond offerings. *nice to see the ratings agencies are still on top of things.
As a result of the deal, more than half of the state's $30 billion in debt outstanding has been used to shore up Illinois pension funds
No military, higher taxes than most of the country and these illusory obligations that supercede their revenues to the point that the once most prosperous place in the country is now junk bond status.
Oh but the bankers are behind it all, I read it on zerobrains.com.
GFAMBA
Down with fractional reserve fiat!
Let's pretend the non existance thereof wouldn't have set mankind back generations!
It is oh so efficient having assets sitting on a shelf somewhere, that and access by the peasants have nothing to do with each other. Back to feudal times!
You must love North Korea...
Bloated military.. No social contract.. No annoying libertarians...
Hey you aren't little Kim Dong Ill by any chance are you?
It would be an interesting campaign if he got to run. How much money would exit the Republican cause? How would the media handle the discovery of a new person that is suddenly running against the President? How much formerly Republican money would be used to knife their own candidate in the back? It will be a surrealistic farce.
I think they will continue to ignore Ron Paul: "Election? What election? We are all working together to confirm our commitment to the most progressive president. Come to poling station on ... to support Obama". Problem solved... And that is an amateur approach, people in think tanks will come up with something more creative and more effective...
I think the suggestion George Washington makes in this article is exactly the reason why it sucks that he has that name on Zerohedge. In summary, the delegates should screw the people that actually came out and voted and as elitist delegates, override them and vote in Ron Paul. Based on all of GW's other articles, I'm not surprised since all his talk about the little people and the opprressed is complete bullshit. He just wants to replace those that have power with some other people that have power.
The article suggested a fact, backed it up with details and then ended. This is what news used to be when it was never appropriate to use your own opinion.
Unthinking zombie detected.
This whole system is a farce. The media colluded with the entrenched oligarchy to get the people to rubber stamp their candidate.
You can not hav a free republic whethe people are lovin in ignorance. Now a select minority who actually look have passion and even legally use the system to subvert it, well good for them. Do you look down upon the founding fathers the same way? They were a passionate minority in their day?
People that fight the system for what is right are alway a minority. Just because a bunch of boomers who ae completely uninformed choose statist candidate a or b, if the rules say I can choose c anyway, well fuck their ingorance and lazyiness.
There is a system to choose delegates if they were too passionless or careless not to actually do something to support their candidate, then this wouldn't be a problem.
How many times must te establishment trot out an obvious fall guy every election.
Bob dole, john McCain, etc... The establishment picks the candidates not the people to believe otherwise is foolish and naive.
A nation of lemmings who follow the lead of media do not have free will.
Just because a bunch of boomers who ae completely uninformed choose statist candidate a or b, if the rules say I can choose c anyway, well fuck their ingorance and lazyiness.
You sir, are an uninformed, non thinking IDIOT.
THOSE BOOMERS grew up with Ron Paul, and know him and his records, where he stands a HELL of a lot better than you ever will. SO who is the Dumb ass now?.
YOU assume much,and know even less about what Boomers know, and how they think.
Listen buster, what you just said is indicative of alot of BULLSHIT being stuffed between your ears. The last time that I looked, this country was a REPBULIC not a democracy as some of those fantasists on TV would have you believe.
I am NOT saying that you are stupid, I am just saying that you have REALLY BAD LUCK when it comes to thinking!!!!! Now FOAD!!!
just because a country calls itself republic or whatever doesn't mean you can ignore the masses for they are the working class. When working class gains class consciousness (realize that they are just slave for the rich trust fund kids), they stop being productive and either the rich has to do more work or they get poorer. There is always more workers than owners....these days it is 0.1% vs 99.9%. Only thing keeping slaves enslaved is some irrational hope that they can also make it into 0.1%
Thus, republic is only possible with hidden slave class to hide them away from educated middle class who want to be part of voting class without being a slave nor super elite to give illusion of a fair and meritocratic society. Just like freedom for all man kind was only economically posssible when you exclude black farm slaves. because elites of republic society enjoy benefits of being a privileged class.
America had her share of underpaid slaves....native Americans, blacks, Irish, Italians, Chinese railroad workers, illegal Mexicans, Chinese factory workers, and soon arabs.
dirty secret of "republic" is that it is so dirty that politicians have to lie about it ("we are a democracy")
we are not a republic anyways but a kingless empire with mercantile policies (forced market openings aka "globalism") supported by 150+ US military bases around the world.
FYI 750 military bases overseas
The dirtiest secret is also known as Peak Oil. Like gravity, it is not only a theory, it is a fact.
For the last century or so, even the lowest peons in the USA have had the equivalent of something like 250 slaves, in the form of fossil fuel, to carry their lazy butts around and grow food for them.
As the downslope side of the peak comes into view, more of that work will have to be done by those peons. You didn't think the 0.1% would get their hands dirty, did you? Best case, once we leave the 'bumpy plateau', it will be about 8% to 10% decline in hydrocarbon volumes per year. If history is any guide, it will not be best case ... it will be a chaotic decline as refineries go bust and demand destruction takes place. Prices will go through wild swings, but almost always end up too high. The actual production peak and decline will be masked by the economic chaos it causes.
PEAK OIL BIYITCHEZZZZZZZ!!!
Fact-supposed to run out of oil in 1995 there are now three times the reserves as then.
Fact-supposed to run out of food on the planet in 1990, the first world is now largely obese.
Fact-science once dictated that the sun was carried across the sky by horse and buggy.
The downslope of this is there is nothing new or novel in doomsday predictions and/or such disguised as modern science.
Science never dictated anything. That was religion. Science makes observations and keeps improving its emperical model.
And I find your religion flawed. Like an economist, you will keep trying to force your broken model to work.
The planet is of course infinite - has an infinite supply of oil, and can support an infinite population of human beings.
Some people say any mention of population control is heresy - so if 7 billion people is good, then 70 billion is better - but why stop there - lets make it 7,000 trillion people - why not? And of course everyone can drive a V8 and have a sea side villa.
There are no such things as facts - that is simply a name someone applies to a piece of data when they decide to make it true - nothing is true or false unless someone makes it that way in their own reality. There is however data and observations - which we can use to infer outcomes.
Human beings are incapable of 'knowing' things that exist in physical reality - but we can understand them - and one thing seems very likely - the earth is finite, and all its resources are finite at any given time - if we consume too fast, or too much then we will be poorer as a result.
Oh and the sun is immature oh my.
Not accurate once and certainly not starting now.
Beginning with the premise that everything is an illusion is interesting,
also the output of drugs or defects.
Well now, there's some food for thought. I like it... I think.
+1776 for facts.
Try again, go with communist dictatorship working towards one world order.
I love the delusions to the contrary.
1)Fascism-sorry confused anarchists, there is ZERO nationalistic component-that is what separates fascism from communism, they are clearly working towards one world order.
2)Some kind of capitalistic/mercantile add on more euphemisms saying the same thing-sorry wrong again, the governments are the largest employer, consumer, lender, borrower, landlord and tenant in the country, they control the means of production via that and the endless armies of regulators and regulations. The current burden on full time hires is 35%. THe government is clearly the largest single beenficiary of every single economic transaction. Yea that is crony capitalism whatever.
3)Some kind of plutocratic nonsense. Uh yea, the underclass in the US lives as well as the working class in Europe. Must be an aweful generous pluto class.
It is obviously a communist dictatorship. Material poverty is gone, the existence of the classes is as close as ever in the history of the country of course using any reasonable parameter like the basic tenets of human existence.
Communist dictatorship, so so sorry wannabee anarchists constantly moving the spectrum uni-directional to where obvious grow the government spenders like Bush are referred to as neo cons. To where I am looking at a governmnent mandated warning label on an extension cord.
The disadvantage of communism is that it kills large swaths of the population, forces equally large swaths into forced labor camps, with the result that the rest of the population cowers in fear. Too bad bankster gangster capitalism has to be the alternative, however.
Do you understand what you are confused about?
Politics and conscience.
Wouldn't that be an oxymoron ?