Paul shaping up as spoiler in GOP race Staff and agencies
29 December, 2007
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
Thu Dec 20, 5:56 PM ET
CONCORD, N.H. - It wasn‘t long ago that Rep. Ron Paul was an anti-war asterisk in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Then his campaign raised a record $6 million in a single day.
"It‘s sort of gotten out of control. I don‘t know what to do about it," he told one audience recently in mock frustration.
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, for one, hopes to appeal to independents in those states, both of which he won when he first sought the White House eight years ago. Paul‘s literature says he never voted to raise taxes, a point that could get him a look from backers of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
The attention is going to an 72-year-old physician who pursued an interest in free-market economics and a career in politics.
"I want the foreign policy of our Founding Fathers. No entangling relationships," he said. That means trade with Cuba, ending penalties against Iran and — above all — getting U.S. troops out of Iraq.
Paul‘s vision of the nation‘s economic future is not pretty. "When empires go too far their currencies are ruined because all wars are fought through inflation," he said. "That means the trillion-dollar operation that we have (overseas) is coming to an end. I want to bring it to an end gracefully, not wait for a dollar collapse."
He is the only candidate whose name is emblazoned on a blimp. It was last reported over Maryland en route to New Hampshire, and has its own Web site, which in turn contains a daily tracker, flight plan, live video feed and blimp blog.
The campaign is employing more traditional tactics, as well.
Current polls in New Hampshire show Paul in single digits. But Cullen said, "I believe there is more support than public opinion polls are picking up. I believe that he is appealing to anti-establishment Republicans and independents, and there are a lot of them."
Cullen predicted the Texan would poll more than 10 percent — a significant threshold because it would guarantee him at least one delegate to the GOP nominating convention next summer.
He said he doubts Paul will hurt any candidate more than another. "I believe most of Ron Paul‘s supporters would probably not participate in the primary" without him in the race, he said.
Officials in other campaigns are not so sure.
Paul‘s campaign has been active in Iowa, too, although his relative lack of an organization in that state makes it harder to have an impact in the caucuses on Jan. 3 that mark the campaign‘s first test.
In recent days, the campaign has purchased 30-minute blocks of time for Sunday for a statewide appeal. Campaign mail has begun in Michigan, whose primary is Jan. 15.
Paul was noncommittal when asked how he intended to spend his surprisingly large treasury, answering only that he was getting ready to compete in primaries in 20 states on Feb. 5.
Beyond the campaign‘s official moves, a second independent effort involves supporters sending letters to independent voters in Iowa as well as elsewhere. A Web site devoted to the effort claims more than 500,000 letters sent to potential Iowa caucus-goers alone.
E-mails sent to two organizers drew no immediate response.
Jesse Benton, a campaign spokesman, said the blimp and the letter-writing campaign were examples of spontaneous support. "We couldn‘t control it if we wanted to, and we don‘t want to control it," he said.
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