Serious question for those of you who say it's all about the delegates, if that is the case and Ron Paul does come out of the convention with the most delegates even after losing the popular vote do you think both the party establishment or the mainstream republican voters would let him go through with it without challenging it or running a 3rd party candidate?
It's about a lot more than Ron Paul becoming President (which is something most RP supporters don't expect to happen), its about taking over the party leadership at the precinct, county, and state levels which continues to happen because the national leadership comes from there. If you control the grassroots you control the party long after Ron Paul is dead and buried.
That's the whole point - if Ron Paul actually got elected I'd be shocked and that would just be icing on the cake, but that's not really what this is about. It's a long term plan to control the party for the foreseeable future. The Bible Thumpers and War Hawks have run it into the ground so now its time to change direction.
if Paul had won the popular vote but Romney won the delegates would Paul supporters back Romney? I don't think so.
Of course not. Any Ron Paul supporter will tell you that Romney is no different than Obama, so you'd rather eat shit for 4 more years than 8 more years. The reason he's running as a Republican and taking this strategy is to make the Republican Party viable again long term by taking over party leadership spots and making it a more libertarian platform.
There is a major shift going on in the Republican Party - some people call it a takeover or a revolution, but really its just a lot of people fed up with the fake two party system who went and got themselves educated on how the voting process actually works, and now they are using it to reshape the Republican Party.
A third party candidate will not work in our system, but its not because of the media or brainwashing or anything like that its because the system is set-up as two party on the precinct level all the way up to the national level. The only way to make real change was to take one of the parties over and the Republican Party was the better fit since they
claim to be about smaller government. This is an effort to make that claim a reality.
Plus, the libertarian social issues will steal some of the base away from the Democratic Party. Gay rights, legalization of drugs etc., are becoming more accepted in society so the Republican Party needs to adjust their platform anyway or risk becoming irrelevant.
Politics is all about infrastructure, and since the Republican infrastructure is already in place we might as well use it to create a more libertarian platform for the national stage.