Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney clinched the Republican nomination for President Tuesday night with a convincing win in Texas, a state where Ron Paul‘s never-say-die supporters carpet-bombed the web with loud predictions of an upset win and who now will undoubtedly claim fraud at the polls.
Romney ended the night with 1,184 delegates — well over the 1,114 threshold. Paul has 129 — more than 1,000 delegates shy of Romney and still in fourth place behind Romney and non-candidates Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich.
In many ways, reaching the magic number was anti-climatic in a GOP campaign that had more than enough explosive moments in the early going. The nomination was Romney’s when Santorum dropped out in early April, leaving only perennial gadfly Paul along with financially and morally bankrupt former Speaker of the House Gingrich in the race.
Gingrich threw in towel a short time later but Paul — who suspended active campaigning so he could conserve what campaign cash he has left to convert to other uses after the election — vowed the carry on by concentrating on remaining state with caucuses and conventions where his loud and vociferous following could pack the rooms and subvert the democratic process.
It’s an interesting hypocrisy by a candidate who claims to believe in the will of the voters but now wants to overturn that will by playing an inside game.
In reality, there is nothing Paul can do to stop Romney — then or now. The race for the nomination is over and the only remaining questions if whether or not Paul and his rowdy flock really want to help beat Barack Obama or if they just want to make a mess of the whole process.
In traditional party primaries, bitter rivals come together once the voters speak and work together to put their nominee over the top.
But politics nowadays is anything but traditional. Personal ambition all too often trumps cohesive political action. Disruption outweighs unity. The end goal of beating an incumbent President who deserves defeat is lost amid the chaos and screams of a “revolution” that accomplishes little, if anything.
If the various factions of a fractured Republican party really want to beat Obama they had better find a way to work together for a common — and achievable goal.
Barack Obama can be beat. He is a flawed, inexperienced and all-too-often incompetent President who broke most of his campaign promises, extended the rights-robbing abuses of of predecessor and drove this nation so deeply into debt that it threatens to collapse under the load.
But he can’t — and won’t — be beat by a party dominated by extremists and brawling children who would rather make a failed point than win an election.
6 thoughts on “The race for the nomination is over. Time for the GOP to get its act together”
I agree with Doug. The problem is the “other” so called party is just as beholden to essentially the same BIG kinds of donors and nobody represents the vast majority of Americans. The political system is essentially broken beyond fixing so why should the 99% even bother to consider it legitimate anymore? The 1% only hold onto power as long as they can keep the guns pointed at us not the other way around.
“The only thing Ron Paul can unite is other people’s money with his bank account.”
thanks for your opinion Doug Thompson.
sounds like slander and libel.
charles ranalli
albuquerque
Then let him sue us. Our lawyesr can file discovery motions that will force him to open up his books and we can find out just how all that money that he hides in his foundations is really spent.
Oh, sorry, we forgot. The actions of Saint Paul are not subject to the laws of mere mortals. How foolish of us. 🙂
Doug, you have slammed all the individuals running for office! You have had many ugly comments on the political parties themselves leaving nothing to vote FOR. What is left in November for anyone to support? You have been particularly nasty to the Ron Paul voters and we have become accustomed to this attitude and many of us tend to ignore your comments.
What is missing is a description or agenda that would take your fancy. You and I have tangled over the religious aspects of the Republican Party in general as the GOP seems to believe that only Christians have a right to the White House. This may bring them more voters from the Southern States but also a loss of voters from the general minority base.
We all have our favorite freedoms to support but many would rather allow freedoms for 100% of the people as a given and then go from there. I learned that Arizona has a racist base and rather than fight the people who live there, I simply moved back to California. I know from my reading books on the attitudes found in the Southern States, that I would never live there where the Civil War is still active.
The Primary elections are over and many of us can relax against the general hatred from the Southern States but I do not understand why you cannot let up on your nasty comments on Ron Paul’s voter base. He is no threat to the Southern States where you live. He is no threat even to the GOP as his political point of view is gone.
The threat that does exist comes from the Tea Party which has a firm grip on the 2010 House and Senate. There is a vicious threat to women who are in their breeding years. Any medical assistance when it comes to the health of American women will be removed by the House and Senate. Breast cancer testing along with birth control will be gone under Planned Parenthood as long as the Tea Party is still actively part of the Congress. Hormonal medicine will no longer be covered which has been a cure for change of life mood swings among women. This is of no concern to you or millions of other men in America. These have been a major concern of Planned Parenthood clinics all over America. These clinics were designed and financed by Republicans for years until the religious right got their hooks into Party.
You must remember my warnings in 1999 when Candidate Bush ran as a born again Christian and the plan was set in motion for this removal of the separation of church and state. Anyone who had read even one book on the subject of a religious nation and what it meant to the citizens of this church governing government could see it coming here.
Compassion for the American people was eliminated when Pat Robertson set the new agenda and wars were on the agenda of all Islamic nations in the Middle East.
Ron Paul was not the perfect choice for those of us who wanted equality for all Americans but he had the ability to bring us all together. Most of us moved off of Reader Rant before we were banned.
There will be other leaders to fill in and this time without the religious nuts from the Tea Party. Even I believe that America needs socialized health care. It is necessary until women get our equality along with the gay community. I guess it comes down to a separation of church and state allowing all Americans equal freedoms.
It cannot happen as long as the churches continue to run the Republican Party. I’ve run out of time and it is now up to the population in general to demand equality without exception to have a voice in these elections.
It’s hardly my fault that the Republicans fielded the worst crop of Presidential candidates in history (and, yes, I include Ron Paul in that assessment).
It’s hardly my fault that conservatives think they own the GOP. As long as the right-wing extremists try to dominate the GOP it is a party doomed to lose.
The only thing Ron Paul can unite is other people’s money with his bank account. 🙂
The recurring meme of this election cycle has been that the Ron Paul supporters are somehow spoiled and politically short-sighted, and that if Romney loses, it will be their fault. However, the upper echelon members of the Republican Party have nobody to blame for this calamity other than themselves. They wanted to make the entire election about getting Barak Obama out of office, but the author rightly points out that Barak Obama is merely continuing and expanding the failed policies of his predecessor. And so their solution was to throw all of their support behind Mitt Romney whose policy positions are virtually indistinguishable from those of the past 12 years?
The fact of the matter is that Romney was a nonstarter from the very beginning, because to people who actually give a damn about core conservative issues, Romney is unacceptable.
Spending reduction/budget balancing? Romney’s (and Santorum’s, and Gingrich’s) proposals continue to add to the deficit while only theoretically cutting from future increases.
Civil liberties? Romney stated on a televised-debate that he supports the NDAA and indefinite detention of US citizens. Although I guess that’s considered “conservative” now, since the Obama administration just summarily executes people with remote controlled drones all over Yemen and Pakistan.
How about getting read of ObamaCare? Romney is not the only offender in this, but rather the whole Republican leadership class: First they were for the individual mandate, then they were against it, but Romney’s activities as Massachusetts governor expose the fraudulent indignation that big government faux-conservatives are feigning now that the people recognize what a ludicrous infringment on their personal lives is being orchestrated.
Indeed, it is time for the GOP to get its act together. It’s time for them to remember what they supposedly stand for, and ask how they allowed someone like Romney to be rammed down their throats, and how they managed to push a candidate who somehow has a difficult time stacking up against Obama, a Constitution trampling, debt-bombing, US-citizen-murdering dictator.
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