“Half of Maine’s delegation were refused credentials when they arrived at the convention, and were replaced with hand-picked Romney supporters. You read that right, half of the legally elected delegates from Maine were disqualified because they didn’t intend to support Mitt Romney. After having paid for their plane tickets, hotel rooms, and all that, they were callously tossed to the side and ignored.”
reason.com/blog/2012/08/28/ron-paul-delegates-lose-first-two-rnc-fi
And here’s a bad one. According to the rules of the convention, if the majority of delegates for five states nominate a candidate, then that candidate’s name is officially listed as a candidate for the nomination. Yesterday, six states voted that way… but the leadership ignored it and only Mitt Romney was an official candidate. Votes cast for Paul were not even announced from the podium… only those for Romney.
reason.com/blog/2012/08/29/nevadas-ron-paul-kerfuffle-on-the-conven
Republicans like to paint themselves as the good guys, as the guys who follow the rules instead of letting the ends justify the means. Yesterday they fell far short of this ideal in their zeal to make certain that Romney was nominated. In trying to force party unity, they are creating a split in the party that was entirely avoidable.
reason.com/reasontv/2012/08/29/ron-paul-delegates-walk-off-convention-f
Now, regardless of what you think of Ron Paul, and I am not going to make the case for him. However, his delegates were stonewalled and states that legally were entitled to nominate who they wanted were marginalized and ignored. That is my problem with Reince Prebius. He picked Mitt Romney from the very beginning and has been using his position as chair to ensure that Romney got the nomination. That is against the GOP convention rules. The duty of the chair is to make sure that everyone plays by the rules and that the person who is legitimately picked by the majority of the party receives the nomination. What Reince Prebius did in this primary season is pull an Obama. He picked the winner ahead of time and broke the rules to make sure that happened.
I don’t want to hear Republicans talk about playing fair and by the rules and then just shrug their shoulders when the chairman of the convention displays this level of corruption. For those that wanted Romney, they are happy it happened. But what about 2016? What if Romney decides not to run again the next Chair decides he doesn’t want Ryan, but rather Herman Cain and breaks all of the rules to ensure that Cain gets the nomination? Or Rand Paul, or Marco Rubio. It isn’t the Establishment that is supposed to dictate who runs for office.
It is this very sort of horsepoo that caused me to leave the GOP. They talk a good game, but in the end they are just like the Democrats.
