Ron Paul's Ninja Delegates

[Meeker]

Could someone clarify this for me? So is Paul trying to use these delegates to get more delegates than he was allocated from the votes he got?

He wasn't allocated any delegates in the Nevada "straw poll" that was held on caucus day.

Scratch that.  I'm not sure what I was thinking... Nevada's delegates ARE bound to the straw poll conducted on caucus day.

Then what is the point of them showing up at all these conventions if they can't change the delegate total for the candidates.

They could change the rules of the delegate allocation if they accumulate enough power.

[Meeker]

Don't get your hopes up guys. Everyone knows there will be one ballot in Tampa and Romney will win it. Priebus is not going to tolerate any of these Paul shenanigans in the end. They'll move for nomination by acclamation if necessary and then just ignore any objections by cutting off the mics on the floor.

[Meeker]

And yeah, maybe the Paul delegates can boo really loudly during Romney's speech. But they'll just crank up the volume on the podium mics that feed into the TV and no one at home will have any idea of what's going on at the convention. Who cares if the delegates can't hear Romney? They can hear him in living rooms in Arvada and Dayton and Norfolk and that's all that matters in the end.

It's a rigged game but crying about it won't make it any less rigged.

[Meeker]

Meh. Remember all those protests against the RNC in 2008 in Minneapolis? Remember how no one covered them?

The media is going to be far more interested in setting up the fight between Romney and Obama and that'll be the lead in most of their stories. And even if they do cover the chaos for a bit it'll all be over a day or two after Tampa.

They don't want to write a story about Republicans fighting. They'll have been covering that story for months. They want to write about Romney vs. Obama and the communications wings of Romney and the RNC will be more than happy to provide them with enough content for that to happen.

[Meeker]

Meh. Remember all those protests against the RNC in 2008 in Minneapolis? Remember how no one covered them?

Were those inside at all?  (Honest question, don't remember)

No, they were in the streets. But still provided good visuals if the media had wanted to cover them. My point is just that they don't really care about covering what happens at the convention; they just want to write pre-general election stories and show video of Romney and Obama taking shots at each other.

[Meeker]

I don't really think that makes much of a difference. The only way I see the media caring enough to make a Paul rebellion a big thing is if the RNC completely loses control of the choreography of the event (and unfortunately the RNC is smart enough not to).

Don't get me wrong - the Paul people will probably do something and there will probably be some coverage of it. But I don't see the big story at the end of the week being the trouble the Paul people caused.