Rep. Ron Paul won the CPAC 2012 presidential straw poll on Saturday for the second year in a row. Mitt Romney came in second with 23% of the vote to Dr. Paul’s 30%. So how are the mainstream media spinning this turn of events? By asserting that the CPAC poll is not “scientific” and that there were so many young people under 25 out of the nearly 3,800 attendees.
If Mitt Romney had won the CPAC on Saturday for the second consecutive year, the pundits, especially all the disingenuous talking heads at Fox News, undoubtedly would be proclaiming Romney the putative GOP presidential nominee, because he captured the “hearts and minds” of the youngsters, an important voting bloc next year. In addition, the pundits would be speculating who Romney’s VP choice would be.
If I were a betting man, I would wager a ton of money that Romney would not be the GOP presidential nominee next year. In fact, I predict the former Massachusetts governor will be the most over-hyped presidential candidate in a long, long time. Well, make that since Rudy Giuliani spent tens of millions of dollars for one delegate in 2008.
No one knows who the 2012 GOP presidential nominee will be, but with Ron Paul still creating enormous enthusiasm among young conservatives and libertarians in the Republican Party, the guessing game around the country within the liberty movement is, will Ron run?
Not too long ago (December 13, 2010), I proposed a Ron Paul/ Mike Doherty ticket–a Texan libertarian Republican and a New Jersey state senator who was the only elected official in the Garden State that endorsed Ron’s presidential run four years ago.
Mike has all the credentials to add enormous credibility to a Ron Paul presidential ticket. Mike is an Irish Catholic, a West Point graduate, a veteran whose three sons are in the armed services, a long-time fiscal conservative, pro life and pro Second Amendment and an uncompromising champion of civil liberties. A Paul/Doherty ticket would energize young people and limited government proponents across America.
If Ron runs—and he should make up his mind soon—and instead wants to create a strategic alliance with former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson who has been unofficially campaigning for the GOP presidential nominations for the past 14 months, then a Paul/Johnson ticket would be a tactical home run.
This past Saturday I heard Governor Johnson speak for the first time at the Republican Liberty Caucus in Arlington, VA. He was excellent. Without notes, the governor gave a seamless talk for about 20-25 minutes, revealing he is a major in the liberty movement who wants to be its general.
I hope Gary and Ron meet immediately one on one and create a Ron Paul/Gary Johnson ticket. This would be the first time to my knowledge that a presidential ticket would be campaigning during the presidential primaries. Instead of one liberty GOP candidate campaigning there would be two who could focus on the early caucuses and primary states. The media exposure would be worth millions. In addition, Gary Johnson would be able to do most of the heavy lifting for the ticket this year while Ron concentrates on his new duties as chair of his House subcommittee.
To make a Paul/Johnson ticket happen, Ron could agree to serve one term as president and then hand the “liberty baton” off to Gary in 2016, who in turn could put Senator Rand Paul on the presidential ticket. Ron will be 77 at the time of the 2012 election, and would be 81 at the end of his term. At 81 he could become the elder statesman of the movement that restored liberty to America, and his legacy would be sealed, a patriot who fought—and won—against the statists of his era.
If Ron decides not to run, then Gary Johnson becomes the liberty candidate in the GOP presidential field. Gary then should ask Rand Paul or Mike Doherty to be his running mate in 2012.
The liberty movement has the Big Mo coming out of the CPAC convention. Now is the time to think strategically and tactically. The ball is in Ron’s court to create an alliance with Gary Johnson that will shake the welfare-warfare state to its core. That is why the pretty faces on Fox News and other cable networks will put their smear tactics in overdrive to prevent the liberty agenda from taking root in America.