The fact that they are now paying attention after having basically ignored him for months means the mouthpiece media and the power structure they front for are shitting bricks.
"Romney rules, but Paul backers still take delegate seats" by Callum Borchers | Globe correspondent, May 11, 2012
It’s a scene from a presumptive nominee’s nightmare: His home-state delegation rises to vote at the party’s national convention - expected to push the candidate over the official nominating threshold - and its members abstain, delaying the coronation in an embarrassing act of rebellion.
The unthinkable scenario became thinkable last month when 18 of the 27 Massachusetts delegates Mitt Romney won on Super Tuesday were defeated by Ron Paul supporters in regional caucuses.
Romney’s March victory at the polls means the delegates cannot vote for Paul at the Republican National Convention, unless Romney fails to accumulate 1,144 delegate votes nationwide, prompting a second round of free-for-all balloting. But they could, in theory, not vote at all and deny Romney the unanimous backing of the state he governed from 2003 to 2007.
Bradford P. Wyatt, a Worcester businessman who helped lead the pro-Paul movement, has promised the bad dream will not become a reality for Romney.
“We like Ron Paul a lot, but Mitt Romney is our nominee,’’ Wyatt said. “We’re not going to abstain. I’ve had conversations with most of the delegates, and I’d say we’re of the same mind that it would be a horrible thing to show disunity at the convention.’’
In Maine, however, Romney did lose delegate votes he appeared to have in hand after a similar insurrection by Paul supporters.
Where was the violence, you s***-slopping organ of agenda-pushing ?
Romney won the state with 39 percent of the vote on Feb. 11, but the contest was a so-called beauty contest, meaning the results were nonbinding and delegates chosen at the state convention are free to vote for any candidate at the national convention in Tampa this August.
Not only that, the damn thing was rigged in favor of Romney.
Last Sunday, supporters of Paul, a libertarian, seized 21 of Maine’s 24 delegate slots.
I'm getting sick of the f***ing insults.
In apparent anticipation of the events in Maine, Romney dispatched his top lawyer to the state convention. Benjamin Ginsberg, who represented George W. Bush in the election dispute of 2000, monitored the proceedings, which Romney backers assert were illegal.
Charles Cragin, a Romney supporter, alleged afterward that some municipal delegations received too many ballots in Maine and suggested some people who voted were not accredited to do so. The Romney campaign did not respond to a question about whether it plans to appeal the Maine result to the Republican National Committee.
It is unlikely that Paul will be able to halt Romney’s march to the GOP nomination. The last of Romney’s Republican opponents has only 104 delegates to Romney’s 966, according to the AP.
Related: The Real GOP Delegate Map The Media Won’t Show You
Oh, the AmeriKan media caught lying again?
Yawn.
But Wyatt said he believes Paul has other goals. According to Wyatt, Paul wants to deliver a prime-time speech in Tampa and is adamant that the Republican platform call for barring acts of war without congressional approval and auditing the Federal Reserve Bank.
The Romney campaign asserted that Paul will not strong-arm the man who has been the GOP front-runner for months.
Ron Paul a bully like Romney? I don't think so.
“Governor Romney has a lot of respect for Dr. Paul and the energy his supporters bring to the process,’’ Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said. “We look forward to working together to help Mitt Romney defeat President Obama this fall. As for individual state conventions, make no mistake that the Tampa convention will nominate Mitt Romney, and it will be his convention.’’
Still, state convention victories do provide some leverage for Paul. While the Massachusetts delegation has indicated it will not show up Romney by abstaining at the national convention, delegates in Nevada, another state where Paul supporters won last weekend, have offered no such assurance.
A Nevada Republican Party official who spoke to the Globe on condition of anonymity said he expects the 20 delegates assigned to Romney will vote for him, even if they favor Paul. But he added that the delegates have not met to decide their course of action and said abstention “is a concern.’’
Paul told CNN Wednesday that he is not out to disrupt the convention, but is working “to promote something that is very, very important - that is a change in the direction for the Republican Party.’’
Yup, and he is given grief even working within the system and following the rules.
The Democratic National Committee reveled in the GOP unrest.
“Romney’s setbacks in Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada are an embarrassment not only for Romney, but the Republican Party as a whole,’’ DNC spokeswoman Melanie Roussell said. “After grinding down his opponents with a barrage of special-interest-funded negative ads, it’s no surprise that his last serious challenger [Rick Santorum] tepidly embraced Romney, while party loyalists are already showing clear signs of buyer’s remorse.’’
At the very least, Paul’s Massachusetts mutiny denied delegate slots to some of Romney’s loyal supporters....
I'm about to mutiny against a morning newspaper.
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"The Massachusetts GOP’s delegate fiasco" May 08, 2012
Mitt Romney was the overwhelming winner of the Massachusetts Republican presidential primary. No other candidate even hit the 15 percent threshold needed to gain any delegates. So it seems odd that when it came time to elect the 27 delegates chosen in district caucuses, Ron Paul devotees captured more than half of those slots. Those delegates are legally bound to vote for Romney on the first ballot at the Tampa convention. But nominating Romney isn’t their only role. They will, for instance, also debate and vote on a party platform, which means there will be ample room for mischief-making.
There’s a tendency to say, well, tough luck, Team Romney was asleep at the switch. But the real interest that should be protected here is that of primary voters. After all, all Republicans are not the same. Romney represents the mainstream of Massachusetts Republicans. According to the Boston Phoenix, the surprise delegates “range from thoughtful, well-spoken libertarians to somewhat nutty conspiracy theorists.”
That's it, I've had it. When the mouthpiece media start throwing that around you know they are scared.
Yeah, don't believe those "conspiracy" theorists when you have a newspaper pushing another "Al-CIA-Duh" crapper, a cheap Chinese cover story after plucking a CIA spy, and the endless lie regarding the death of bin Laden. Yeah, believe the same s*** hole media that lied to you about Iraq.
So what’s to be done? In the short term, nothing. The Romney campaign will have to ride close herd on its Bay State delegates. But there is a way to reduce the chances of this kind of thing happening again. Both parties are in charge of their own delegate-selection rules. The Democrats give presidential candidates the right to review and approve (or reject) anyone planning to run as a delegate pledged to them. Republicans don’t. As this embarrassment shows, the state GOP needs to include such a provision in its own rules. Massachusetts voters would be the ultimate beneficiary.
I'm not embarrassed at all; I'm PROUD of my FELLOW CITIZENS!
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"State GOP prepares for center stage at convention; Romney’s clout ends a long exile" by Matt Viser | Globe Staff, May 03, 2012
WASHINGTON - But underlying the coronation of the favorite son is bubbling tension over who will get to go, and who will win the honor of being a delegate on the convention floor. At caucuses held over the weekend, a group of Ron Paul supporters defeated many of the candidates on Romney’s slate. Among those who lost were former lieutenant governor Kerry Healey, House minority leader Bradley H. Jones Jr., and former gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker.
The Paul supporters are bound by party rules to vote on the first ballot for Romney, who took over 70 percent of the vote in the Massachusetts primary. Party officials do not think it will take more than one vote for Romney, but Paul supporters can still cause trouble elsewhere....
One can only hope.
But don't let that spoil the party.
The hotel they have been assigned is gleaming, with a sweeping waterfront view of Tampa Bay and mere minutes from the convention hall. The parties they will throw are already in demand. They are expected to get a prime spot on the floor of the convention, their faces on national television.
It’s a dramatic turn of fortune for a small, and at times
dysfunctional, band of Massachusetts Republicans heading to Tampa this
August for their party’s national convention. The traditional outcasts -
power-challenged in their home state and out-of-step with many in the
national Republican Party - are now being treated as the kings of the
court, by virtue of their connection to presumptive nominee Mitt Romney,
the Bay State’s former governor.
“From
worst to first, from class clown to class president,’’ said Rob Gray, a
Massachusetts-based Republican consultant. “That’s the story for the
Massachusetts delegation this time around.’’
“We haven’t been in this position for close to 100 years,’’ said Bob Maginn, chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party.
He hopes the convention - along with Senator Scott Brown and several competitive congressional races - will help usher in a new era for Massachusetts Republicans on the national stage.
Traveling to Tampa will be 68 delegates from Massachusetts - 41 who will vote, and 27 who will be alternates. Their official duties include voting on the nominations for president and vice president, as well as the party platform.
But much of the time is spent schmoozing with party officials, lobbyists, and politicians - and heading to parties thrown all around town.
In conventions past, Bay State delegates often felt like the punchline to any number of political jokes. Once the Boston accent was detected, members would be asked about the likes of Edward M. Kennedy, Barney Frank, or Michael S. Dukakis. What’s it like living in a state that hasn’t voted for a Republican president since 1984 - or was the only state to vote for Democrat George McGovern in 1972?
“We were treated like sideshow freaks,’’ said state Senator Robert Hedlund, a Weymouth Republican who attended his first convention in 1988, where he protested nominee George H.W. Bush. “They look at you like you’re a different kind of animal. Which, in a way, we are. You’re either a crusader and you’re Horatio at the bridge - or you’re a squish.’’
I like sideshows, sorry. Certainly is much better reading than my printed pos.
Lack of respect showed up in a host of ways. There were no invitations for the choice parties - lavish affairs that vibrant delegations from such states as Texas and Louisiana are known to throw.
It's not that I'm against parties; however, this political fun costing millions as the nation suffers makes me sick.
Hedlund said he once had to plead with a manager to let him into a club where former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar was playing (Hedlund said he was a state senator from Massachusetts; it turned out the manager was from Vermont and once lived in Cambridge).
In 2008, when the convention was in St. Paul, the Massachusetts delegates were placed in a hotel off the interstate in suburban Bloomington. For some, it meant a $40 cab ride to get to the convention site.
They didn't even let Ron Paul in the building.
This year, the delegation will be staying at the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina, which has a spa and a rooftop pool. The hotel is across the street from the convention site.
“It’s the best one, and it’s Romney’s hotel,’’ said Jody Dow, a Republican National committeewoman from Massachusetts. “We are absolutely thrilled.’’
Related: Romney on the Road
So that's where he $tays.
Dow says the Massachusetts group may take up around 100 rooms. There are several parties in the works, including one thrown by the delegation and another for Massachusetts women....
It is already an embarrassment that Romney has been unable to secure delegate slots for his supporters.
Romney can still reward some of his supporters through 11 at-large spots left to be filled by the state party committee in June. But it means he may be forced to give out spots to those who lost their caucus votes, rather than doling those positions out to other loyal foot soldiers, donors, or party officials.
Romney also has wide discretion to get his loyalists some of the cherished floor passes at the convention, even if they are not voting delegates.
Traditionally, delegates from the home state of the candidate are seated in front of the stage, and often they cast the vote - in this case, vote number 1,144 - to secure the nomination.
“He’s the big figure, and we’re the Massachusetts people - who got a break for a change,’’ said Dow. “This should be fun.’’
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Meanwhile, up in Maine:
"Maine considers return to presidential primary; Recent discord over caucuses spurring effort" by David Sharp | Associated Press, May 10, 2012
PORTLAND, Maine - The nonbinding Republican caucuses last winter were a messy affair, with chairman Charlie Webster on Feb. 11 declaring Mitt Romney to be the winner under the state committee’s rules, even though a snowstorm delayed votes in Washington County. Supporters of Ron Paul, the Texas congressman and a presidential long shot, cried foul.
The GOP later acknowledged that numbers from some communities were inadvertently omitted and that the tallies were flip-flopped in Portland, Maine’s largest city.
Translation: Ron Paul was robbed!
Romney remained the winner even after figures were adjusted, and Washington County held its vote. But angry Paul supporters had the last word when they took over the party’s convention last weekend and stripped Romney of most of his delegates. Paul’s supporters installed their own convention chairman and won 21 out of 24 delegates to the national convention....
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