Paul (Jae C. Hong/AP)
The delegates to this year's Republican National Convention will be allocated proportionally to the candidates in the race, based on the results of the 2012 caucuses and primaries before April 1, which means that Ron Paul will likely receive delegates to the convention in Tampa, Fla., if he maintains his current level of support in the polls.
When asked Wednesday by The Ticket if he has any plans for those delegates, Paul said he and his supporters could "influence the platform." He stressed, however, that such talk is "premature" because he is still competing for the presidential nomination.
"If our momentum continues, I think our delegates will not be insignificant," Paul said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast in Washington, D.C.
In past years, the Republican Party allocated the delegates to its national convention using a winner-take-all system.
"I don't get into talking too much about that because I'm in the race and I have to not send negative signals," Paul said.
Paul, a Republican representative from Texas, also suggested Wednesday that he should take some of the blame for the limited news coverage his presidential campaign receives.
Paul told reporters at the breakfast that he agrees with his supporters "to a degree" that he is being ignored by the news media. "But I don't think I get surprised. I don't get too annoyed. I know how the system works," Paul said. "It's been that way for a long time. My supporters are always more exuberant than I would be."
Paul said people either don't want to hear about or don't understand his platform of limited government, free markets, the elimination of the Federal Reserve and a return to the gold standard.
"People just flat out don't understand what I'm talking about," he said.
When pressed if he takes responsibility for the public's inability to understand his platform, Paul said he did.
It's "partially my fault," he conceded. "But that's what I work on the most, trying to refine my message. But I don't think it's a complicated message."
Paul has raised significant amounts of money, placed third in several national polls and continues to fare well in straw polls, including winning this weekend's California Republican Party straw poll.
But observers like Politico's Roger Simon and Comedy Central host Jon Stewart have noted that Paul's successes have not led the news media to pay more attention to his campaign.
Paul thanked Stewart on Wednesday for "making the case" his supporters have been arguing.
Paul said that he's been making "great progress" in terms of coverage due to his campaign's Internet presence and alternative media. "But the big question is will this momentum continue fast enough to make sure that we do well" in the early presidential nominating contests, Paul said. "The supporters believe it's possible. And, I don't know. All I know is that I think the successes of this message and the freedom of it went way beyond my expectations."
Paul didn't offer support for Rick Perry's statement that Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke would be "almost treasonous" if he increased the money supply, saying "those aren't the words I've been using." But Paul said he was pleased that Perry, the Texas governor and a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, was making the Fed a campaign topic.
