Will Ron Paul go independent?

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I doubt it. He has said in the past that he won’t leave the republican party and won’t run independent. I believe he’ll do what he’s said and retire.

No, I think he would have made more noise at the convention if he wanted to pull voters away from Romney.

Yep- he and Clint E. are going to be the Pres. and VP candidates of the Reform Party. ;-0

He wasn’t allowed to speak at the convention if he didn’t endorse Romney. He wasn’t considered a possible candidate because they changed their rules last minute. Ron Paul will not run independent because he said he wouldn’t, and I believe him because he always speaks the truth.

@Afos22 because of his son?

No, unless he’s delusional enough to believe he has a chance of forging a party strong enough to give his son a place in American Politics. He talks delusional politics, but I don’t think he actually swallows the BS he feeds his agape followers.

@rojo , The son in question is Rand Paul, senator from Kentucky. Given how close the polling is between Obama and Romney, it is conceivable that even the piddling number of votes that Paul would receive would hand the election to Obama. The Republicans would never forgive him and could possibly take their anger out on Rand.

No, he’s been asked that question numerous times and always denied wanting to run on a third party ticked. He’s old and set in his ways and I doubt he has another campaign left in him.

But, is he not running for the reason given by @Ron_C or out of deference to his sons’ career and possible political aspirations?
I mean, if Rand was not in the picture would he say, basically, you guys screwed me over so screw you and screw your party elites, I’m going rogue.

I highly doubt that he will. Whatever his motivations might be.

He knows he hasn’t a chance in hell in winning. But he could make sure that Romney doesn’t win.

I think he’s going to all this trouble in order to turn the Republican Party into something more like the Libertarian Party in terms of the party platform and ideological outlook. What makes this strange, (‘quixotic’ seems the best word) is that a Libertarian Party already exists and would (I think, any libertarians out there let me know if I’m wrong here) welcome Ron and Rand Paul and their followers back (Ron Paul was their 1988 candidate for POTUS) while the GOP establishment finds thorough-going libertarianism anathema. If Paul has any hope of succeeding, he needs to promote like-minded people to join the GOP and run for office and have his following prop them up… or win current GOP office-holders and party bigwigs over to his cause. A two-person faction is not going to remake the GOP. To me, it appears that he is making very little headway.

@hiphiphopflipflapflop Do you think there is any more support either within the ranks of the Republicans, or in the ranks of the independents for Ron Paul? Or is this all there is? If you do think there is more support out there, why do you think that?

@wundayatta I’m just a casual observer. And I ignore a lot of political “news” as I think most of it is deceptive double-talk. I might be quite off base. I think that while Ron Paul might get other Republicans to agree with him here and there, his views taken altogether upset way too many sacred cows (ex: the culture wars, our imperial foreign/military policy and the military-industrial complex, the Fed…) and therefore he and his son are basically alone amongst the people in the party with any power.

@hiphiphopflipflapflop Thanks. That makes sense to me.

He said he wouldn’t, and he is one of the few politicians who I trust to keep their word.

@wundayatta I think RP polls at around 11 percent both within the party and within the population at large. I do not think he would get too much more than this.

Well I’ve read some of Paul’s books and much of his material so maybe I can take a lucky guess here. From everything I’ve read about the guy it seems Ron is more interested in transforming the current big government Republican Party into the ‘old school’ Republican Party. Paul was a Libertarian (big L) at one time so it’s possible, but unlikely to me since he is up in age. Personally I like the guy, but I think his economic policies would destroy the middle class.