Gustav doesn't sidetrack Paulites

MINNEAPOLIS — The Republican National Convention may have been blown off course by Hurricane Gustav, but the Ron Paul show has gone on. Arguing that getting out of the way of the storm is a matter of personal responsibility rather than government action, libertarians have gathered in the Twin Cities this week by the thousands.

The libertarian-leaning Republican congressman from Texas, who at the height of the primary season raised tens of millions of dollars from his passionate supporters, electrified a crowd of more than 10,000 at Minneapolis’ Target Center coliseum with a counter-convention Tuesday. The activists paid the symbolic admission price of $17.76, said logistics coordinator Marianne Stebbins. A day earlier hundreds rallied at a St. Paul park, where Paul followed the Libertarian Party nominee, former Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia, who served in the House for eight years as a Republican.

Paul was the 1988 Libertarian Party presidential nominee, garnering less than 1 percent of the vote, but he pulled 1.2 million votes during this year’s primary contests. He resisted entreaties from supporters to seek the Libertarian nomination again, deciding to return to the House as a Republican.

Barr threatens to cut into McCain’s advantage in his home state of Georgia and potentially other states, and at the Monday rally directed much of his fire at the Arizona senator. But the movement still belongs to Dr. Paul.

No Paul supporters interviewed by this reporter said that they would vote for Barr, suggesting that they'd alternately leave that line blank, write in Ron Paul or vote for the Constitution Party candidate. None of them, however, said they would be voting for McCain. Paul himself, after addressing the crowd, said he was not endorsing Barr "at the moment."

“We’ve got [McCain] worried," said Barr spokesman Steve Stinton. "We're drawing more than the margin of error in the states that they need." He noted that their polling shows Barr picking up more Democrats, too, after Obama's vote on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but still fewer than he cuts into McCain's base.

Barr focused his speech, as he does his campaign, on civil liberties and the Bill of Rights. Paul, meanwhile, concentrates on economic issues – the abolition of the Federal Reserve Bank and a return to the gold standard. The loudest cheer he received by miles at both speeches had to do with the Fed.

The issue does not appear to be one that his supporters have merely memorized, but rather indicates a profound economic unease. On Tuesday night, Paul told the crowd that Americans were beginning to realize that the nation’s prosperity was a mirage and fading fast. The audience raised the roof with chants of “End the Fed!” in response. Even Paul seemed befuddled that his supporters had managed to make the connection.

“I haven’t even gotten to that part yet,” he told the crowd, with an astonished look on his face. “Are you going to do it again when I get to that part?” The crowd roared back that indeed it would — and it did. 

Paul tweaked the party whose nomination he’d sought. “I understand there’s another convention going on in a nearby city,” he said, adding that unlike the GOP bash, his own wasn’t paid for with any taxpayer money. In an apparent swipe at Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose presidential campaign still owes millions to consultants and vendors, Paul noted that “we paid every cent of it, and there’s going to be no debt.”

Outside the Target Center before his speech, where hundreds of Paul fans chanted for passing cars, 15-year-old Caitanya Dasa stood with an "End the Fed" T-shirt and a temporary tattoo on his forehead that read "RON." Though he'll be eligible to vote in the 2012 election, he said, he was pessimistic that he'd get the chance. "Next time we'll all be in hiding because it'll be World War III," he said. Dasa had a spot in the front row for Paul’s speech.

Dasa's mother, Jenifer Runnion, smiled on, calling her son a "major activist" for Paul. She added that the Paul supporters felt a sense of solidarity with protesting anarchists in town. "I heard they're raiding them on the suspicion that they might be thinking of doing something. It's like the thought police from '1984,'" she said.

The Target Center began filling up shortly after noon. "R-O-O-O-O-N P-A-A-U-U-L!!!" shouted John Myers, a self-described "rabble rouser" from Dallas, waiting to get in. The rabble was indeed roused, and responded with a triumphant cheer that shook the hall. Inside, activists began plotting ways to force a vote on the floor of the convention on Paul's nomination. Celia Scheer of Duluth, Minn., pressed delegates to work to persuade their state contingent to nominate Paul. To bring it to the floor, majorities in five states would have to call for a vote. "You're from Texas?" she asked one delegate. "Great, that should be an easy one," beamed Scheer.

"No way," the delegate told her. "It'll never happen." Scheer slumped but vowed to press on. The Texas delegate declined to give his name, citing the preference of a woman next to him.

"I've been burned," explained the woman, pulling the delegate away.

Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson took the stage to kick off and emcee the "Rally for the Republic."

Carlson said he finds Ron Paul to be perhaps the most decent person in political life. “Ron Paul is the only politician with zero interest in controlling other people,” he said. Prior to taking the stage, he said, “I'm not endorsing anybody; I just like Ron Paul's ideas."

Carlson was followed by Grover Norquist, the leader of Americans for Tax Reform, along with former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who brought the house down with his remarks on 9/11 and the right to bear arms. That was it for Carlson, who left the building abruptly after hearing Ventura’s 9/11 questioning, telling Politico it was “too much.”

The rally pressed on. Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, a libertarian-leaning Republican who pressed for the legalization of marijuana spoke and Barry Goldwater Jr., son of the 1964 presidential candidate and a former congressman from California, credited with kick-starting the modern conservative movement, introduced Paul, noting that Paul had campaigned for his father in the ‘60s.

After his speech, Paul said that he plans to continue holding large rallies, the last news the GOP wants to hear. “I don’t have an opponent this fall, so I’m going to have some time,” he said.

The libertarians have been giving McCain fits in a state Obama considers key to victory, Nevada. After Paul delegates repeatedly outmaneuvered McCain supporters at the state level, the Republican National Committee ended up choosing delegates through a private conference call rather than a convention.

"The balance are Republican Party picks, and I assume they're all McCain," said Drew Ivers, delegation coordinator for Paul. The Nevadans, however, aren't all staying home. "I've heard some have come just to be divisive, to get guest passes and sit way up in the gallery," said Ivers.

Being divisive is about as far as his supporters will be able to get at the convention, however. “We'll have 300 or so who are our friends," Paul said, but added that "they're not allowed to" vote on his nomination. Ivers said that the exact sum total of Paul supporters includes 78 delegates and 134 alternates. And, he added, “Not everybody’s committed. This is the Ron Paul movement here. We don’t have lock-step people." Regardless, said Ivers, the Paul delegates don't have the numbers needed to force a vote on Paul's nomination, as the Texas delegate said.

Instead of causing a ruckus on the floor, Stebbins said, the delegates hope to persuade Republicans they meet back toward a limited-government position. Though the Monday rally featured dozens of Paul-for-President signs and Paul spoke in front of one, Stebbins said that the campaign is "belatedly winding down."

There's no effort, she said, to encourage his supporters to write his name in. "We understand it," she said, "but we don't condone it."

Maybe not, but when Paul finished his speech to thunderous applause Tuesday night, a tune was cued up and ready to go, sending the message that his supporters, in Tom Petty’s words, won’t back down.

As he left the arena, Paul again said he had yet to endorse anyone. That wasn’t enough for one supporter, who called out, “Who should we vote for?”

Paul, ever the libertarian, smiled. “Vote for whoever you want to,” he said.