Ron Paul's concession of nomination to Mitt Romney a signal to the GOP

The Ron Paul campaigns suspends spending money on primaries it cannot win:

In an email to supporters, Paul urged his libertarian-leaning backers to remain involved in politics and champion his causes despite the apparent end of his presidential aspirations. Paul has found success in wrecking the selection process for delegates to the party's late-summer nominating convention in Tampa, Fla., and trumpeted that he has delayed Romney's expected nomination.

"Moving forward, however, we will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted," Paul said in his statement. "Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have. I encourage all supporters of liberty to make sure you get to the polls and make your voices heard, particularly in the local, state and congressional elections, where so many defenders of freedom are fighting and need your support."

What does this mean for the movement Ron Paul inspired?

Before we start, we need to make the distinction between the official Ron Paul campaign (led by Jesse Benton and others close to Ron Paul) and the grassroots organizations that are currently causing trouble in state conventions around the country in Oklahoma, Idaho, Nevada, and other states.

 If the GOP establishment thinks that this announcement makes it easier for the Mitt Romney campaign, they ought to think again. Ron Paul's concession of the nomination to Mitt Romney just means that this primary race and the delegate selection process are now free-for-alls. The announcement effectively unbinds the grassroots supporters from the official Paul campaign. Whatever happens between now and Tampa is now out of the official Paul campaign's hands and entirely the fault of the infamously enthusiastic Ron Paul Revolution. The Paul campaign is signaling to the GOP that if chaos does occur in Tampa that it is not their doing.

So, why would the Paul campaign do such a thing? Some possibilities:

1. In order to control the agenda, the Paul campaign needs to continue its delegate accrual unopposed. We already saw the Republican National Committee meddling in Nevada, threatening to unseat delegates for being disproportionately Paul supporters. By conceding the nomination to Romney, the RNC and the Romney campaign will not be spooked by Paul takeover of state conventions.
2. Fast-forward to Tampa and the impending chaos. The Paul campaign probably realizes that anything can happen in Tampa (the aforemention "unforeseen" events), including the Paul faction "stealing" the nomination from Mitt Romney. By washing their hands of what the grassroots does, they can be made blameless. This protects Ron Paul, his staffers, and someone else.
3. It is also a restatement of what has always been true from the very start, all the way in 2007: the official campaign has never been able to control the grassroots Ron Paul Revolution.

It is a very cold and calculated move on the part of Jesse Benton and others in the official campaign. All of it to signal to the GOP establishment that the Ron Paul campaign are team players and ultimately to protect Rand Paul.

Is it no holds barred in Tampa? Probably and this seems to me that the Paul campaign is expecting it.

Comments

[grandmacaesar]

you are misusing the terms "conceding the nomination" and "concession of the nomination".

[Ed Stevens]

So let me see if I've got this straight ... while the Paul campaign was enjoying a modicum of success over the past months, the "Paul Revolution" was viewed with approbation by Benton et al ... but now that the fireworks are more or less over, they are all a bunch of scalawags and the Paul campaign is running from them? Seems like you're not giving Paul much credit for loyalty to his supporters. Mightn't an ever so much more sensible answer be that RP has simply decided to husband his meager resources to continue the crusade into the future? (Recall that one of Ron Paul's main precepts is fiscal responsibility)

I was a long time coming to Ron Paul, and one of the main reasons that I finally did support him was his incredible consistency - his goals have never varied ... and I don't believe he has changed either his mission or his message as the 2012 denouement draws near.

His much-articulated strategy has ALWAYS been to secure as many delegates as possible (Paul is a very smart man - I doubt he ever seriously entertained the notion that he would actually be elected POTUS) ... and securing delegates is what the efforts both in and out of the "official" campaign have always been about. You draw what seems to me to be a delicate, even spurious, distinction between Paul's inner circle and the grass-roots movement on his behalf (what you call the Ron Paul Revolution). Too much conspiracy theory, too many "wheels-within-wheels", too many shadows where none exist ... in short, your approach is too cynical by half ... Ron Paul supporters are just, well, Ron Paul supporters ... and that's all he has ever asked any of us to be.

[Laura]

I have been involved in some "delegate training" meetings here in Nebraska, since the official announcement by the campaign. I was, quite frankly, expecting anger from some (at the Paul campaign staff), and apathy by the rest, for believing that there was no point in showing up anymore.

I saw nothing more than mere hints of either of those things. The Ron Paul supporters of this time around (as opposed to 2008), seem--on the whole--to have a much longer view of the effort. When I see 21 year olds asking me how they can get themselves positioned to being county GOP officers, or when they're asking me questions about the commitment of time involved in being on their county or state central committees, I have a new sense of hope. There are far more principled folks this time around than last, who understand that the battle is not just about Ron Paul, but about the soul of the Republican Party.

There have been several things about the "official" campaign that have frustrated me, at times. But those of us who are students of political history have known all along that the chances of Ron Paul becoming president were/are virtually nil. But this may be an instance of winning without winning, if the balance of power starts to shift inside the Republican Party.

Twenty years. That's how long it took between Barry Goldwater's "grow up conservatives" speech in 1960 until the heir of the conservative revolution, Ronald Reagan, was elected in 1980. Start the clock with the Rally for the Republic in 2008. I don't think it's going to take that long this time, but it's not going to happen this year.