The only question is will the party bosses side with Willard “Sideburns” Romney or will they be eating a giant plate of frothy Santorum Salad on caucus night? Or will they even conspire to have Ron Paul finish in 3rd behind both or worse?

For evidence of this effort, please see this video.

What do you think?

It seems to me that this process is more open and most like a general election. To win the general you need independents and party-switchers. This is why Ron Paul is in the best position to beat Obama. He wins in those segments in poll after poll. Something that should negate any question of “electability”.

Following the results, something the PPP folks noted on Twitter was the following:

Young voters and indys unusual winning formula for GOP caucus but if Paul really gets them out he can win.

This comment is specific to Iowa, but Iowa is probably the best microcosm we have at this time of a general election. Paul is rather notorious for getting supporters out to vote for him. He wins or places in just about every straw poll in the country, including a very close 2nd in this summer’s Iowa Ames Straw Poll. So that is truly the bottom line, if Paul’s unusual strategy works then he can win Iowa. And that unusual strategy happens to be the exact strategy to take votes away from Obama in the general election.

Some of Paul’s detractors make the claim he’d be “dangerous for America”. Well, okay, that depends upon how you define America. If by America you mean the statist-status-quo in Washington DC and Obama’s re-election chances then yes, he’s extremely dangerous for America.

If by America you mean the country of “peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none” and if by America you mean a country that places individual liberty as its highest value then Ron Paul would be the best friend America ever had.

So yes, if you want to beat Obama, Ron Paul is your choice, but he’s also so much more than that.

It is stories like these that give one hope that someday, perhaps soon, our country will be restored to its Constitutional roots, where it belongs.

What is more impressive is the actual delegate numbers. The Paul organization told it’s potential delegates and supporters to take an uncommitted position if they were unsure if they wanted to be lobbied to change their votes during the delegate selection. Many did just that. Reports are that Ron Paul may have walked away with as many as 50% of all the delegates in the state. I guess the state convention will ultimately reveal the truth.

In any case it looks like Washington is another great state for liberty.

Caucuses seem more genuine to me. You are able to get your candidate’s message out through speaking about him to others. You are able to openly campaign for your candidate.  You then vote. In a pimary you go into a booth and pick your candidate. If you haven’t done your research you may vote for something you don’t want. At least with a caucus the lesser known candidates have a fighting chance.

There are two things to learn from the exit polls yesterday related to the GOP vote. Most people don’t care about the issues, rather it is the character that matters most to them. Also, most don’t even know what issues they are voting for, whether they care about them or not. These two truths come from the exit polling of those voting for John McCain.

In New York, 66% of those valuing personal qualities over issues voted for McCain. Also in New York, McCain received 56% of the Anti-war vote. I humbly submit that these statistics suggest that some people in New York are idiots. John McCain said he would be in Iraq for 100 years, maybe more. He also said that “there’s gonna be more wars”. He makes George W. Bush look like Ron Paul when it comes to war. The exit polls show similar statistics in other states as well. You can look at the exit polling in New York at CNN.com.

On the plus side, after being treated as if he had already dropped out of the race by the media, Ron Paul did well in a few states. He finished 3rd in Utah, Alabama, Alaska, and North Dakota. He came in 2nd in Montana. He received double digit percentages in Montana, Alaska, Minnesota, and North Dakota. He also received more than 500,000 votes in total yesterday. That is quite a bit of liberty right there. Also, remember that 21 states still haven’t voted. This is nothing to sneeze at when considering he has been shunned by his own party, ignored and marginalized by the media, and had to deal with a media smear attack of racism.

There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people out there who have recognized the true cause of liberty. I sometimes roll my eyes when people call this “a movement”, but a movement it is. Some will fall off the bandwagon and become discouraged. Many will carry on and fight for many years to come. I hope to live many more years. When those years have passed me by, I pray I will look back on my life as being one of the fighters rather than the discouraged.

These delegates go to the state convention in May to vote for which delegates to go to the Republican National convention. These delegates decide the winner, not the straw poll vote during the caucus. So we won’t know for quite some time how many true delegates are for Ron Paul. In the meantime we must deal with the “straw poll” results being reported in the media and wonder why McCain is suddenly ahead of Ron Paul.

The source for these numbers is the political dashboard at Yahoo.com.

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA – Yesterday, the Ron Paul presidential campaign filed a letter with the Louisiana Republican Party to contest the credentials of delegates to the state convention.

Under state party rules, campaigns have 72 hours from the end of the caucus to file such a contest.  This contest was filed in response to multiple problems with the caucus process.

“The initial failure of the Louisiana GOP to properly determine who was and wasn’t eligible to vote threw this entire process into disarray,” said Ron Paul campaign manager Lew Moore.  “However, voter eligibility was just one of many irregularities with the caucus process. We are filing this contest to ensure that we can challenge the results if it appears that delegates were improperly selected.”

The Louisiana State GOP changed the rules at the eleventh hour to allow other candidates to file more delegates, even though there were plenty of delegates to compose full slates in each congressional district.  At the time of the original January 10 deadline, Ron Paul had the largest number of delegates pledged to him.  The party then changed the rules to give other candidates until January 12 to file more delegates.

In addition, due to mistakes by the Louisiana GOP, hundreds of voters were forced to file provisional ballots, including nearly 500 that could change the outcome of the election.  According to the LA GOP, caucus locations relied on a voter list from November 1, 2007 or perhaps earlier despite the fact that under the caucus rules, voters need only have registered Republican before November 30, 2007. 

There were even instances at the caucuses where state-certified Ron Paul delegates appearing on the ballot were forced to file a provisional ballot despite the fact they were pre-approved as delegates.

I’m curious what will come of this. We’ll keep you posted.

Ron Paul Campaign to Louisiana GOP: Count All the VotesState Party Blunders Put Caucus Results in Question

ARLINGTON, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, the Ron Paul presidential campaign calls on the Republican Party of Louisiana to count all the ballots submitted in the state’s January 22 caucus.

“The failure of the Louisiana GOP to properly determine who was and wasn’t eligible to vote threw this entire process into disarray,” said Ron Paul campaign manager Lew Moore. “The party needs to correct this mistake by counting all the votes immediately, and releasing the results.”

Due to mistakes by the Louisiana GOP, hundreds of voters were forced to file provisional ballots, including nearly 500 that could change the outcome of the election. According to party officials, caucus locations relied on a voter list from November 1, 2007 despite the fact that under caucus rules, voters must have registered Republican by November 30, 2007. The Louisiana Secretary of State reports that 2,709 Louisiana residents registered as Republican between November 1, 2007 and November 30, 2007.

In multiple instances on caucus day, state-certified Ron Paul delegates that were on the ballot were forced to file a provisional ballot despite the fact they were pre-approved as delegates.

The Louisiana State GOP also changed the rules at the last minute to allow other candidates to file more delegates. At the time of the original January 10 deadline, Ron Paul had the largest number of delegates pledged to him. The party then changed the rules to give other candidates until January 12 to file more delegates.

Also, some anecdotal information came from someone in Louisiana writing in to LewRockwell.com:

“The McCain loyals that are influential in the LA GOP are trying to make it look like this. It doesn’t compute that McCain has a majority, unless the people on the prolife/profamily ballot that were also on a Romney, Thompson, Huckabee ballot have switched to McCain. Ron Paul had a full delegate list in all districts. Many of the candidates did not. From what we can predict, Ron Paul will likely have nearly half of the 105 delegates(maybe more). So how can McCain possibly have a majority with the other field of candidates? All these provisional ballots are their tactic to stall the results that we know are in Paul’s favor. The registration deadline for switching parties was 11-30th. People that switched before this date did not have their name appear on the GOP roster when going to vote which makes their ballot provisional. The La. GOP had a record number of people changing their party affiliation. Getting these provisional ballots verified is something they are doing at separate districts-stall…stall…..stall…. Also, they extended the delegate deadline; I know Ron Paul had all his people in prior to that. I’m speaking of my particular district which is reflective of the other six.”

At some point the provisional ballots will be counted and we’ll know the true results because press releases can be spun but the votes don’t lie.

“Preliminary results show that a majority of the 105 state convention delegates who have been elected ran on a statewide pro-life uncommitted slate,” Villere said. “I congratulate the candidates and supporters of this group on their victory and look forward to working with them to keep our Party platform pro-life at the state and national conventions,” he said.

Delegate candidates endorsed by US Senator John McCain (R-AZ) appear to have won more state convention delegate positions than any other presidential slate at the Louisiana Caucuses.

“I offer my congratulations Senator John McCain on his success in the Louisiana caucuses,”" Villere said. “Senator McCain is an American hero and this is further evidence that he enjoys strong support in Louisiana and throughout the South,” he said.

Supporters of Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) appear to have captured the next highest number of delegate positions.

“I applaud the supporters of Congressman Paul for their enthusiasm and superior organizational ability,” Villere said. “Our Party needs the infusion of new activists who have both political skill and a passion for protecting the freedoms guaranteed to us by the Constitution,” he said. “I left the caucus with a renewed commitment to promote our core Republican principles of limited government and individual freedom, thanks to the zeal displayed by Congressman Paul’s Louisiana supporters,” Villere said.

Read the full release on the Louisana GOP web site.