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Ron Paul Supporters Continue To Dog Rudy Giuliani

January 22, 2008 03:30 PM EST | AP
Read More: 2008 Campaign, 2008 Elections, Giuliani Florida Rally, Palm Beach Rally, Ron Paul, Ron Paul Supporters Rudy Giuliani, Rudy Giuliani, Breaking Politics News
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PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — What happens when a Rudy Giuliani campaign event, Ron Paul spoilers and anti-abortion protesters collide? Not a press conference, that's for sure.

Giuliani's campaign scheduled what is known in the political world as a "meet and greet," a supposedly impromptu opportunity for a candidate to stroll through a place where lots of people are gathered. In fact the event is planned in advance.

It was no secret that the Republican presidential candidate and former New York mayor was going to be at TooJay's Original Gourmet Deli on Tuesday.

So when Giuliani showed up at the shopping mall where the restaurant is, he was greeted by supporters, reporters and staff, and a few dozen enthusiastic backers of Paul, a long-shot GOP rival. The Paul backers have shadowed Giuliani at many events. At the deli, they held signs behind his head so that any camera shot of Giuliani could appear as an advertisement for Paul.

After Giuliani worked the crowd inside, aides signaled to the media that he would take a few questions on the plaza outside the restaurant. A spot was selected, a rope line set up. Then Giuliani emerged, and things fell apart.

The Paul loyalists had really healthy lungs. Their repeated shouts of "Ron Paul! Ron Paul!" were loud enough that no one could think, much less speak. The Giuliani people countered with "Rudy! Rudy!" to keep their guy in the game.

And then came the anti-abortion contingent. They were an even smaller crowd but outshouted the other two groups. "Rudy is not a true conservative! Rudy is a traitor to innocent life! You need to go to confession!"

Giuliani gave it his best shot. For nearly three minutes, the reporters around him tried to ask questions. He gamely tried to answer about his campaign strategy, Iraq, the economy. He tried to quiet people down, and so did others, but to no avail.

So Giuliani pulled the plug and suggested the question session move inside. The conditions were really cramped, but at least everyone could hear.

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Compiled by Jennifer Loven.

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To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

Stan187

What a bunch dim-witted dickheads.

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In Iran people belive pepsi stands for pay each penny save israel. -urmomma158
The Russian Navy is still a threat, but only to those unlucky enough to be Russian sailors.-highsea

BudW

Jerk Off conspiracy crowd.

ChrisF202

I agree, there is something seriously wrong with them. They are always talking about how people are trying to censor "Dr. Paul"but yet its them who are the ones trying to censor everyone else and if you dont support "Dr. Paul" then you are a "neocon shill".

Wraith601

The sheer level of idiocy displayed by Ron Paul fanatics doesn't surprise me anymore.

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"We always have been, we are, and I hope that we always shall be, detested in France."
-Sir Arthur Wellesley

asif1986

well ron paul has done better than Giuliani so far.
he came second in nevada primary despite the fact that
he has recieved the least coverage in the mainstream media.

dalem

We're not talking about Ron Paul, we're talking about his crazy followers.

-dale

cxxguy

What do you expect us to do? It is clear that the Main-Stream media is not interested in covering a candidate who wants to shrink government. That was clear from the start, and has become clearer as time has gone on. So we get out there and get our our message. Sure, I know, "we haven't got a chance". I seem to recall that the "colinist rabble" who defeated the most powerful army in the world "didn't have a chance", at least until they won.

Bluesman

It's a CONSPRIRACY, I tells ya! They're all out to GET us!

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"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it, and if one finds the prospect of a long war intolerable, it is natural to disbelieve in the possibility of victory."
- George Orwell

Capt Bluesman

What I would expect you to do is let your candidate stand or fall on his own merits, which, persecutions complexes aside, have found more than ample fora for expression in various outlets, the main one being, of course the internet.

What I would not expect you to do is be thugs that attempt to shut down any other candidates expression of their ideas. Aside from being hopelessly rude, it doesn't help your cause, you know.

And please, comparing yourselves to Revolutionary War soldiers? Delusions of Grandeur much?

ChrisF202

The misconception that the Continental Army was a band of rabble is nothing but myth. Maybe at first they were little more then militia but as the war progressed and people like Baron von Steuben came along the Continental Army became actually pretty capable.

cxxguy

Not everyone is on the internet. From the number of people who didn't even know who Ron Paul was a few months ago, when I was canvassing, I would say that much of the Republican base is not. The bottom line is that Faux News and CNN were not going to cover Ron Paul unless we did newsworthy things. The Ron Paul Blimp was newsworthy. Showing up and the functions of opposing candidates was newsworthy. Some people found out, through our attempts, that there was a candidate out there who wanted to return to the Constitution. I will cry no tears over this.

If it was rude, it was no ruder than the treatment Dr. Paul got at the last debate, where he wasted 2 hours of his time for <2minutes of air time.

When you are at the stage of the game where people don't yet know you exist, any publicity is good publicity. Yes, we might have annoyed some people who future freedom candidates will have to win over. But we would be no worse off if nobody knew who we were.

Speaking your mind, even loudly and publicly, does not rise to the level of being "thugs". It is part of political discourse. It is what unpopular groups must do in order to be heard at all.

I would say that a return to Constitutional principals from our current distance would be as momentous a change as the change from English rule to self-government. That is why it is a concept that makes many nervous. Lets face it,

Fiat money is unconstitutional (see the decision made on greenbacks after the civil war, where one of the supreme court justices who voted to find the action unconstitutional had actually been the treasury secretary who took the action)

The New Deal is unconstitutional (and was found so, until FDR tried to pack the court, and sadly, the court backed down),

The average rate of taxation which inspired the Revolution was 10% of income. Our taxes, combining all levels of government, approach 50% of our income.

The War Powers Act is unconstitutional. Only congress has the power to go to war. This was specifically because the Founding Fathers feared an 'imperial president'. If you look that up in the dictionary, I suspect you'll find Dubya's picture.

There are 30,000 gun laws in America, of which I'm sure at least half (those that do not deal with felons) are at least partially unconstitutional. That's a conservative (not a neocon) estimate.

And on, and on, and on, and on. By some estimates, only 2% of what congress does is covered by it's 18 enumerated powers in Article 1, Section 9.

So yes, I do believe that a return to the constitution would be a revolutionary change. My guess is that it will not happen (if at all) until after an economic collapse that makes the Great Depression (caused by the unconstitutional Federal Reserve) look like a passing bad mood. But I, personally, want better for my country.

cxxguy

They were considered a rabble by the British. I would say that winning was enough to clear them of that charge.

Bluesman

Your people behave like Brownshirts. They're SCARY. They INTIMIDATE. They THREATEN. They're not so much about politics, they're about making war on the opposition, in whatever form they find them.

Chasing Hannity down the street, they were a mob, barely able to resist the urge to attack.

Chasing Guiliani into a ferryboat's wheelhouse, they were a mob, barely able to resist the urge to attack.

When other candidates do fundraising, the verb is something along the lines of 'engage', or 'undertake', or maybe 'operate', as if it were an activity suited to the purpose. When YOUR people do it, the verb should be 'commit', such as a crime, or 'perpetrate', ditto. There have been numerous cases of the Paul campaign refunding 'donations' that were gathered in the same way that credit card fraud is done.

When there are any online polls emplaced for the purpose of information gathering, it is immediately hijacked and used as a weapon. It has gotten SO bad that it is an Internet joke...but the reality isn't humorous.

Here's the bottom line, you whackjob: the man you support is beloved by the fringes, and nobody else. And the tactics and thuggery employed are based almost entirely on deception and/or intimidation. This campaign is rotten, it's essentially just a repository for the worst political impulses to be found in the 'activist' wing of a motley collection of people that can charitably be described as cranks and crackpots, and that don't believe they'll ever have a voice any other way but to declare war on the enemies that are better at actually convincing people to adopt rational platforms that are acceptable to large numbers of people.

And note this: I didn't mention one dam' thang about whatever notions the man himself has in his heart or his head. Whatever he may feel about racial issues, or whatever his positions on policy may be I don't find particulalrly relevent. Because to ME, and almost any person even passingly familiar with this cult-disguised-as-a-campaign, none of that even makes it out of the starting gate, because the back they're riding on is more reptile than racehorse.