Ron Paul: The Candidate

Fresh off revealing he would hold his own convention during, and down the road from, the official Republican confab, Ron Paul will end his quest for the GOP nomination tonight, the AP reports—and dedicate himself to electing libertarian-friendly candidates. The quixotic candidate, who has refused to back John McCain, has attracted a major following with the anti-war, small-government right. More »

John McCain won’t be the only GOP candidate throwing himself a party in Minnesota the first week of September—libertarian-leaning Ron Paul will host a mini-convention of his own in Minneapolis. Paul's gathering will take place on the second day of the Republican convention, just a few exits down I-94. He hopes his 11,000-strong meeting will “send a message” to the GOP, a rep told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review . More »

Ron Paul conceded the GOP nomination months ago, but the Texas representative, buoyed by fervent followers, is still out on the stump, looking to the future. “There is no way I could turn it off," he tells Politico. "I went up to Penn State and had 1,500 people. So it’s just sort of going to go on.” More »

John McCain’s last standing competitor for the Republican presidential nomination is stepping down—in a way. Texas congressman Ron Paul released a video today saying victory wasn’t possible “in the conventional sense,” but that supporters should still pull his lever. “We must remember elections are short-term efforts,” he proclaimed, “revolutions are long-term projects,” the Boston Globe reports. More »

John McCain has knocked out the last of his Republican opponents, right? Ron Paul begs to differ. "I'm still involved, nothing has changed," he told MSNBC after successfully defending his Texas congressional seat in the GOP primary. Paul has no plans to drop out and will resume traveling the country preaching his small-government credo. He'd even address the convention. "It would be nice," he said. "They may not want me to." More »

Even the presidential candidates who miss out on the White House will feel the effects of their campaigns for years to come. The mad dash to the Oval Office—speeches all day, deadline pressures, cross-country tours—puts tremendous stress on the body. Forbes takes on the low points: Sleep deprivation, leading to memory losses and risky decision-making. Poor diets, causing that waist to grow (Clinton favors ice cream; Obama, French fries). More »

Mike Huckabee's campaign is crying foul after Washington Republicans called the state's GOP caucus for rival John McCain with 87% of the vote counted—and stopped counting the rest. The impact of calling an election before all votes are counted is "seismic," said a statement from the Huckabee campaign, which is now sending its lawyers to Washington to battle over the results, reports the Seattle Times . More »

Ron Paul posted a blog last night saying that he's pivoting away from the presidential race, Politico reports. He plans to focus on running for Congressional re-election in Texas and wrote that he will not stump as a third-party federal candidate. He is also trimming his national campaign staff, the AP reports. "I have constituents in my home district that I must serve," he wrote. More »

As the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama continues to tighten, GOP candidate John McCain is enjoying more overwhelming support than ever, according to the latest Washington Post -ABC News national poll. Clinton's 47%-43% lead over Obama falls within the poll's margin of error, with no clear sign of who will be picked by supporters of former candidate John Edwards. More »

Four White House hopefuls were beamed in to MTV's "Closing Arguments" debate in New York tonight and one took first place in "instant" polling: Ron Paul. His stand for friendly foreign relations won over 73% of those polled, and roughly half promised him their vote. Barack Obama fared second-best with roughly 50/50 splits on issues from gay marriage to the draft, while Hillary Clinton and Mike Huckabee inspired fewest clicks among presumably young online voters. More »

The GOP debate in Florida remained a largely civil affair last night, with the leading candidates agreeing that the economy needs aggressive tax cuts and that Hillary Clinton has no business returning to the White House, the AP reports. In one of the few bits of drama, Mitt Romney took John McCain to task for voting against Bush's first tax cuts. McCain responded that it was the right move at the time and said he was "very proud" of his record as a fiscal conservative. More »

While Dennis Kucinich is out on the presidential campaign trail, no fewer than four Democrats in his Ohio home district are mounting primary challenges for the longtime congressman's seat, Politico reports. And though Ron Paul's anti-war stance and unconventional views have drawn a fervent national following, conservative voters in his home district in Texas are taking a second look at their rep. More »

Fox relented and let GOP maverick Ron Paul join in last night’s South Carolina presidential debate, and the excitable libertarian made the most of the opportunity, the Los Angeles Times notes. Paul provided his characteristic stark contrast with the mainstream candidates and several of the evening's high points, as he witheringly cataloged the party's failings over the last 8 years to live up to what he considers conservative standards. More »

GOP presidential hopefuls jostled for position during a South Carolina debate last night, with Mitt Romney taking aim at new front-runner John McCain and an aggressive Fred Thompson going after Mike Huckabee. Romney criticized McCain for giving up on manufacturing jobs in Michigan, a crucial primary state, but McCain defended his "straight talk" and urged retraining and tech investment, the Wall Street Journal reports. More »

Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul speaks tonelessly about such drab subjects as the constitutionality of the Federal Reserve, but people like him anyway, writes Tucker Carlson in the New Republic , perhaps because they see “authenticity.” The no-longer-bow-tied pundit returns from the campaign trail sure about one thing: "The crowds at Ron Paul rallies aren't coming to be entertained."   More »

In an event dubbed "Boston TeaParty07," supporters of quirky GOP candidate Ron Paul rallied in the Boston snow yesterday while donations from across the nation dropped a record-breaking one-day "money bomb" of $6 million into the campaign. Most of the funds were donated over the Internet. To Paul's backers, the fundraising blitz demonstrated that he's a ''viable candidate," the Boston Globe reports. More »

The offbeat GOP presidential campaign of Texas Libertarian Ron Paul is soon to have a zany new form of publicity: a blimp. The blimp will launch next week in North Carolina and sail up the East Coast with banners in support of Ron Paul, Politico reports. Bearing slogans such as "Who is Ron Paul?" and "Google Ron Paul," the zeppelin will fly over  those staple villains of Paul's rhetoric, the IRS and Federal Reserve. More »

Ron Paul’s quixotic campaign for the Republican nomination isn’t really under his control anymore, Salon writes, but rather in the hands of a cult of ardent supporters who have independently flocked to fundraise and canvass for him. For them, Paul isn’t a libertarian outsider—the Texas Congressman is a symbol of freedom and partisan frustration. More »

Ron Paul found himself on the respectable side of a brothel last week, when the Republican presidential hopeful earned the endorsement of the owner of Reno's Moonlite BunnyRanch. MSNBC anchor Tucker Carlson surprised Paul by engineering the nod, arriving in a limousine with Dennis Hof and two “celebrity prostitutes,” the Reno Gazette-Journal reports. More »

Maverick Texas congressman Ron Paul is riding a surge of Americans on both sides of the political spectrum now calling themselves libertarians. They tend to be fiscally conservative but socially liberal voters turned off by government intrusions, from warrantless wiretapping to broadcast censorship. And their numbers are up to 9% of Americans, reports the Washington Post. More »