June 7, 2012. El Paso. Political campaign volunteers are a passionate bunch. Their hearts tend to break if their beloved candidate drops out of the race too early. Just ask Democratic candidate Tom Barrett who was slapped across the face Tuesday night for conceding victory to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker too early in the evening for one of his supporters. For a candidate like Ron Paul who has the most beloved and dedicated political following in politics, he had to be very careful in the way he brought his campaign to a halt. In fact, it’s already happened.

Three weeks ago, the Presidential candidate and Texas Congressman surprised his entire campaign when he abruptly announced that his run for the Republican nomination for President was changing tactics.

“Our campaign will continue to work in the state convention process. We will continue to take leadership positions, win delegates, and carry a strong message to the Republican National Convention that Liberty is the way of the future,” Ron Paul wrote to his supporters in a May 14 announcement, “Moving forward, however, we will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted. Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have.”

Read the May 14 edition of this column, ‘Ron Paul still Running, just Revolutionizing Modern Campaigning’ for the full text of the candidate’s announcement.

At the time, most Ron Paul campaign workers were stunned. How could the campaign be stopping when it had just achieved so many long sought-after victories? Indeed, Rep. Paul’s ‘delegate strategy’ of securing as many voting delegates as possible while bypassing the non-binding popular votes was proving successful. In just the prior week, the Paul campaign walked away with a majority of delegates in states like Minnesota, Colorado and Iowa. Contrary to what the mainstream media was reporting, Paul was putting enough states in the win column to force a brokered convention in Tampa.

But that may have been the whole point. With the GOP race down to just two men – Ron Paul and Mitt Romney – the Paul campaign knew it had the establishment’s hand-picked candidate right where they wanted him in an unignorable 2-man race. The momentum was definitely turning. There was an electricity in the air from one end of the Ron Paul campaign to the other. As evidence, while Mitt Romney could only fill half the space at his small banquet hall venues across the country, Ron Paul was drawing tens of thousands of die-hard volunteers to his rock star venues.

The writing appeared to be on the wall with the political planets in perfect alignment, for the Texas primary was the next big contest on the GOP election calendar – Ron Paul’s home state. The Texas Congressman appeared to be positioned to make his move and make a serious challenge for the Republican nomination.

Read the April 24 article, ‘Romney Nomination in doubt – Brokered Convention likely’ for more information.

Stopping his campaign volunteers dead in their tracks, Paul announced three weeks ago that he would no longer be soliciting financial contributions and would stop actively campaigning in the states whose primaries had not been held yet – roughly half the country. Paul’s supporters took Ron Paul at his word, assuming that the campaign would still be active in caucus states and all 50 state conventions.

Yesterday’s announcement

In a message to campaign volunteers yesterday, Ron Paul confirms his followers’ worst fears – the campaign is over. While not saying those exact words, the beloved Texas Congressman made it abundantly clear. His instructions and call to action are now clearly centered on affecting the Republican Party platform, not winning the nomination.

“I wanted you to get an update from me personally, since we have some great news!” Ron Paul began his email to supporters yesterday, “ Due to the smart planning of our campaign and the hard work and diligence of supporters like you, we stand to send nearly 200 bound delegates to the Republican National Convention in Tampa. This number shatters the predictions of the pundits and talking heads and shows the seriousness of our movement.“

REST 'O THE STORY

http://www.examiner.com/article/ron-paul-concedes-defeat