Ron Paul at the RNC Forget Hurricane Isaac Hurricane Paul is the Real Storm That is Brewing

Forget the horse race, constant polling, and the bickering over inconsequential issues that have consumed the 2012 presidential elections. The most interesting event by far of this political season will be this upcoming week in Tampa with the P.A.U.L. Festival over the weekend and the Republican National Convention next week (which PolicyMic will be live blogging and covering extensively).

While the 2012 election will likely be between two candidates who offer different styles of the same packaged message, the next week offers a true battle of ideas, countless examples of the success of grassroots organization, and the potential for chaos that is truly unique and will be the real entertainment.

While the media has already virtually crowned former Governor Mitt Romney the Republican nominee to face off against President Obama this November, things won't be so simple in Tampa. Although Ron Paul has stayed very quiet lately, the Republican establishment will have their hands full in the next week.

Since 2008, the Republican Party has sought to purge any of the growing Paulian influence within the party. They were largely successful in 2008 (and not coincidentally, lost the election). The GOP is still trying to "play defense" against anything other than a rubber-stamping of Romney at the convention, but after four years of more war and debt from Obama - combined with grassroots Paulian action at local and state Republican offices — the GOP will have to do deal with some uncomfortable realities.

First of all, as Laura Trice pointed out in a recent article for the Huffington Post, despite GOP fears and attempts to prevent it, Paul could theoretically be nominated at the convention (and props to Trice for detailing why Paul should be nominated). And while the big banks, corporations, and special interests are salivating at the thought of Romney being the nominee, principled conservatives are not happy with a candidate who wants to reappoint Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, constantly flip-flops, and whose only appeal is that he is, well, not Obama.

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