Ron Paul started what his supporters call a revolution. Now, that revolution is threatening to march on without him.
Despite suspending active campaigning this week in upcoming primary states, Paul went to Minnesota on Friday night to deliver a speech before the state’s Republican convention as it chooses its delegates to the national one in Tampa this summer. The Minnesota meeting is just one in a string of state party conventions that have seen the Texas congressman’s backers infiltrate their top ranks and nab delegates.
In what amounts to public pleading with his passionate supporters, Paul’s campaign has made clear that he wants them to tamp down the rhetoric, and to be respectful of Mitt Romney at the national convention in August when Romney is crowned the GOP nominee. That isn’t sitting well with some Paulites, who have made their anger clear on message boards and in videos over the past week.
The question for Paul now is whether the movement he sparked will overtake him.
Since Paul effectively declared the end of his campaign, missives posted on the fan page DailyPaul.com have been brutal about Paul national campaign Chairman Jesse Benton, who declared, to some supporters’ disgust, that the retiring congressman simply can’t mathematically secure the GOP nomination. Benton has pleaded for “decorum” from Paul’s notoriously raucous backers, who drowned out Dick Cheney with boos at CPAC in 2010 and greeted Josh Romney with similar disdain at the Arizona convention last weekend.
