Ron Paul's Asshole Leftist Supporters

The behavior on display in the video linked to this report about what happened when Rudy Giuliani shared a boat ride back from the island where the NRA's recent Republican debate took place in Michigan is right in line with my personal experience with Ron Paul's asshole leftist troofer supporters.

I went to the Iowa Straw Poll last month on behalf of former Massachusettes Governor Mitt Romney (I'd be glad to discuss that decision in the comments to this post) and experienced Paul's asshole leftist supporters first hand. First encounter seemd benign enough. A young man (looking fairly out of place among the Straw Poll attendees) offered me a Ron Paul brochure which I politely declined. He was the first, and the most civil, of the Ron Paul pushers I witnessed doing this. There is really nothing wrong with someone at a political function offering information about a politician they support, but for those who have not attended an event like the Iowa Straw Poll a litte context might be necessary. This is an event that candidates scout out their faithful supporters in advance of. They pay for their travel, entertainment, and their food in exchange for their promise to support them by voting for them in the poll. Although this was a Republican event, it was not required that you had to be a Republican to attend, you just had to pledge support for a candidate or pay your own way in. I've followed all of the high profile 2008 presidential candidates (Republican and Democrat) closely, so the nature of Paul's supporters was hardly suprising. He is essentially the Republican that Democrats support. They hope he'll run third party to suck votes from the popular Republican candidate to ensure a Democrat win. He talks conservative on some issues, but he's a full blown defeatist dipshit when it comes to the war on terror and the war in Iraq in particular. His supporters carried signs and the vast majority of them either said "Ron Paul" or statements about ending the Iraq war. So we know which policy position is most popular among his supporters. Indeed, if his words are to be believed, it is the only position that starkly sets him apart from the other 2008 Republican presidential candidates. His supporters at the Iowa Straw Poll last month were rude. They were pushy. They were constantly getting in someone's face. They stood near the stage while Romney spoke waving their Ron Paul signs around. They marched around in packs chanting. To be fair, a few other camps including Romney's participated in similar marches, but Paul's supporters took this activity, like others, to the extreme. I read a report on NRO of a Ron Paul supporter at the event yelling at a Mitt Romney supporter (initiating an exchange - being an agressor) something to the extent of "Ron Paul has always been pro-life." To which the Romney supporter responded, "God Bless him." Not satisfied with the disarming retort, the Paul supporter fires back again, "Romney hasn't been." To which the Romney supporter responded, "Yeah, but Romney has a better shot at beating Hillary." The account of this exchange struck me for a couple of reasons. First, as I see it, it's a defining example of Paul supporter behavior. Second because it highlights a theme I have pushed here and elsewhere over and over again. Primaries count. This is where pragmatic cynics choose their lesser of two evils. I hear a lot of sniping about this or that Republican candidate, but with the exception of Ron Paul, I'd GLADLY support any of the current set of 2008 Republican presidential candidates (including, to my own astonishment, John McCain) against ANY of the 2008 Democrat candidates. And even then I'd probably hold my nose and vote for the defeatist idiot, Paul, over a Democrat. I'm glad I don't have to worry about having to make that decision. And I hope the fool actually runs as a third party candidate because he'd take more conservative leaning Democrat voters from the Donkey candidate than he would anti-war idiot Republicans from the Republican candidate.