Ron Paul’s Partial Eclipse

Ron Paul has announced that he will not be campaigning in the 12 states that have not yet voted in the Republican primaries for the presidential nomination. It’s not, however, a retreat in due form – the Texan representative and his supporters continue maneuvering to obtain the maximum number of delegates in the states that have already voted, as they are permitted to do, according to the Byzantine rules of the Grand Old Party.

This strategy notably allowed Paul to win 22 out of the 25 delegates at stake in Nevada, a state where Mitt Romney won the caucus by 30 points. At the end of this process, the Libertarian hero hopes to have a sufficient number of delegates to influence the Republican Party’s program and the course of events at the national convention in Tampa, which will take place in late August.

To cite an extract from a letter sent by Paul to his supporters:

“Our campaign will continue to work in the state convention process. … Moving forward, however, we will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted. Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have.”