Michigan Youth Political Alliance

In a press conference at the National Press Club today, former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul made an official endorsement for the first time. His legion of internet supporters listened with baited breath to hear which candidate would be anointed by Dr. Paul as the standard bearer of the “Ron Paul Revolution”.

As we might expect from a man so independent that he ran his own political convention competing with the Republican convention there was no support for either Obama or McCain in his statement. Instead, Ron Paul threw his full support behind four different third party candidates: Independent Ralph Nader, Green Party Candidate Cynthia McKinney, Libertarian Bob Barr and Constitution Party Contender Chuck Baldwin.

In  a joint statement McKinney, Nader, Paul and Baldwin pledged joint support for lowering the national debt, ending domestic surveillance, bringing the troops home from Iraq and bringing massive reform to the federal reserve system. The statement also attacked what it referred to as the “Republican/ Democrat duopoly” for preventing real change from taking place.

In his statement, Ron Paul echoed the same sentiments that drove his own grass-roots campaign calling for people dissatisfied with the two parties to vote to make a change. In his characteristic style, Paul bashed the rapidly expanding national debt, the war in Iraq and the two party system. But the most stirring moment of the press-conference was when Dr. Paul told his supporters that they must vote in order to make the silent majority into the vocal majority. He also told the media that John McCain’s campaign had called to beg him for an endorsement but he flatly rejected their request. Ron Paul also criticized Senator Obama saying: “he’s not for change.”

The only question left is whether this announcement will really effect the outcome of the election. Dr. Paul certainly thinks that it could make a difference and he might have a point. Two to three million people supported Paul in his primary campaign and their support bordered on the fanatical at times. If all three million members of the Ron Paul revolutionary guard go out and vote on election day for a third party candidate it could have a significant effect on the number of votes these alternative candidates recieve.

On the other hand, all this support might only be meaningful in bumping up the numbers of losing candidates and not in changing the horse race between McCain and Obama. Ron Paul’s supporters are a tricky group to classify by issues since they are gnerally anti-war, anti-taxes, anti-domestic surveillance and pro-choice. This seemingly odd collection of positions makes it unlikely that anyone who avidly supported Dr. Paul would ever have voted for either John McCain or Barack Obama no matter what their candidate said.

So, its possible that Ron Paul just delivered three million votes away from McCain and Obama, but its also possible that those people wouldnt have voted anyways.  Either way, Ron Paul has done his best to shake things up yet again.

http://www.ronpaul.com/2008-09-10/paul-baldwin-mccinney-nader-we-agree/

http://www.ronpaul.com/2008-09-10/ron-pauls-statement-to-the-national-press-club/

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