RNC Updates: Ron Paul Declines Invite To Speak, His Supporters Refuse To Sell Out To Romney

Ron Paul Supporters in Tampa Refuse to Vote for Romney

Ron Paul declines to endorse Romney, spurns convention speaking slot

By Jonathan Terbush
Sunday, August 26, 2012 15:39 EDT

Ron Paul refused to accept the terms demanded by Republican convention planners in order for him to receive a speaking slot at this week’s convention, with Paul in part spurning the invite because he says he does not fully endorse Mitt Romney’s candidacy

In an interview with the New York Times published today, Paul claims that convention organizers told him he could deliver a speech on two conditions. First, the Romney campaign would get to vet his speech, and second, he would have to give a full-blown endorsement of the GOP nominee. Paul balked at both requirements.

“It wouldn’t be my speech,” Paul told the Times. “That would undo everything I’ve done in the last 30 years. I don’t fully endorse him for president.”

Paul’s inclusion in the convention has been a much-debated topic within the GOP. With the election possibly headed toward a photo finish, Republicans are wary of angering a passionate voting block by simply barring Paul from speaking. On the other hand, Paul openly criticizes some of his fellow Republicans’ central policies, so there is some concern that giving him free reign to speak his mind on the biggest stage would harm Romney’s chances in November.

Paul’s small but dedicated following had already vowed to show up at the convention en masse and to make a quixotic push to nominate him from the floor to represent the party. Paul ultimately struck a deal to settle a debate over the seating of delegates he amassed during the primaries that calmed talk of that possibility.

Though he won’t have a central role in the convention Paul will, however, receive a video tribute put together by his supporters.

Ron Paul Turned Down Offer to Speak at GOP Convention

Ron Paul – Wiki Image

Activist Post

Many Ron Paul supporters and delegates have been very disappointed that Paul wasn’t given a prime time speaking slot at the upcoming GOP convention in Tampa.

However, it has been revealed by the New York Times today that Paul was indeed offered the opportunity to speak at the convention.  An offer which he turned down.

According to the New York Times, the Romney campaign offered the speaking slot on the condition that the speech was vetted and that Paul fully endorse Romney:

Mr. Paul, in an interview, said convention planners had offered him an opportunity to speak under two conditions: that he deliver remarks vetted by the Romney campaign, and that he give a full-fledged endorsement of Mr. Romney. He declined.

‘It wouldn’t be my speech,’ Mr. Paul said. ‘That would undo everything I’ve done in the last 30 years. I don’t fully endorse him for president.’

Paul’s statement also put to rest any speculation that he would be endorsing Romney for president in 2012.

Tampa braces for Republican convention protests

By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, August 26, 2012 10:40 EDT

TAMPA, Florida — US authorities are braced for violent protests ahead of the Republican presidential nominating convention that nominally kicks off in Tampa, Florida on Monday.

CNN obtained a copy of an alert from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security warning that anarchists may be plotting violence at the event formally crowning Mitt Romney as President Barack Obama’s challenger.

Thousands of demonstrators are expected to converge on this Gulf coast city — including a large contingent from the Occupy movement that bunkered down for months last year in scores of parks and other sites across the country.

Due to Tropical Storm Isaac, the convention will nominally open Monday and then immediately adjourn to reconvene on Tuesday, when the weather is expected to clear up.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and multi-millionaire businessman, will accept the Republican presidential nomination at the end of the week in a raucous finale to several days of political theater attended by tens of thousands of delegates, journalists and party insiders.

CNN said that the FBI-DHS memo warned that anarchists “from New York” were planning to go to Tampa to disrupt the event and might even attempt to shut down the city’s bridges using improvised explosive devices.

The advisory warned that a similar plot could be under way for the Democratic National Convention, which is to be held in Charlotte, North Carolina from September 4 to September 7.

“FBI and DHS assess with high confidence anarchist extremists will target similar infrastructure in Tampa and Charlotte, with potentially significant impacts on public safety and transportation,” it said, according to CNN.

The memo urged state and local law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for suspicious people trying to purchase explosive materials or obtain weapons training.

Authorities have said it hard to predict exactly how many demonstrators will swarm this Florida Gulf coast city, but say the numbers could exceed 15,000.

For the most part, authorities are anticipating peaceful protests, but are girding for the likelihood that at least some of the demonstrators will be intent on fomenting trouble.

Tampa’s police department spent more than half a million dollars on special khaki uniforms for the roughly 4,000 officers who will police the event. The city also invested nearly $300,000 in the purchase of a truck specially outfitted for police commando units.

Protesters have erected what they called a “Romneyville” near the site of the convention — an updated variation on the idea of the “Hooverville” tent cities of the Great Depression — where protesters can be housed and fed.

Full Article

GOP platform will call for ‘considering’ a return to the gold standard

By Arturo Garcia
Friday, August 24, 2012 16:44 EDT

This year’s Republican party platform will include a proposal to “consider the feasibility” of a return to the gold standard, the Financial Times reported Thursday.

According to The Wall Street Journal, early drafts of the platform, set to be adopted during the party’s national convention next week in Florida, include a call for the creation of a commission to “consider the feasibility” of such a move to “set a fixed value” for the American dollar. These drafts also include a call for the auditing of the Federal Reserve.

The decision to advocate for a return of the gold standard is a throwback to party platform items in 1980 and 1984. In 1981, then-President Ronald Reagan created a commission to “to consider the feasibility of a metallic basis for U.S. currency,” but ultimately advised against it.

The co-chair of the party’s platform committee, Rep. Martha Blackburn (R-TN), said this year’s recommendations were not included to appease Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), a longtime advocate of a return to the gold standard who amassed enough delegates during the Republican primaries to be considered a possible source of party dischord.

Earlier this year, Paul got into an exchange with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke during a congressional hearing, telling Bernanke, “Some people still think [gold] is money.”

However, a spokesperson for a mining industry group, the World Gold Council, told Bloomberg News said such a move would be unlikely because the annual output growth of the metal “may not necessarily match the appropriate growth in the monetary base,” meaning there wouldn’t be enough of a supply. He also cited the lack of an international consensus on the issue as an obstacle.

Last week, the council released a report saying demand for gold had fallen to its lowest level in two years, due to a decline in buying from China and India, two traditionally heavy markets.

In a lecture earlier this year, Bernanke said such a dearth of available gold would make a return to the gold standard a waste of resources.

“To have a gold standard, you have to go to South Africa or someplace and dig up tons of gold and move it to New York and put it in the basement of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and that’s a lot of effort and work,” he said.

[h/t Lawyers, Guns and Money]