Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul, who was the 1988 Libertarian Party nominee for president and received much support from Libertarians and Constitution Party members for his 2008 GOP run, will be making a “major announcement” tonight at 9:00 p.m., Central, according to an e-mail sent out by the campaign.
The message will be broadcast live on Justin.tv.
There had been some speculation that Ron Paul would endorse Libertarian Mary Ruwart, had she won her party’s nomination for president. But Paul and Bob Barr are friendly too. Ron Paul also has a relationship with Constitution Party nominee Chuck Baldwin and has recently said that he would not endorse either Baldwin or Barr, probably because an endorsement of one would be a slight to the other. Some people believe that Paul would have endorsed the Libertarian nominee — especially Ruwart or Barr — if Alan Keyes had defeated Chuck Baldwin for the Constitution Party’s nomination.
There have been some within Paul’s campaign that have encouraged him to endorse John McCain. And of course, there are many grassroots “R3VOlutionaries” who are still clamoring for Paul to run as an independent, perhaps as an official write-in candidate.
Paul’s “major announcement,” of course, could have nothing to do with any of the above, but it would seem very likely that the announcement will be about his plans going froward. There are only two options: Continue his campaign, either within the Republican Party or outside of it; or shut it down, either giving an endorsement or remaining silent.
UPDATE: IPR reader “gregsarnowski” points to a new site, Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty, which will likely be the subject of tonight’s announcement. “gregsarnowski” says Paul will drop out and not endorse anyone.
Maybe, John McCain has selected Ron Paul as his running mate, and they’ll be bringing the troops home together on the backs of flying pigs. They’ll have to wear their mittens, though, because hell will have frozen over.
=D
He is dropping out of the presidential race and launching http://www.campaignforliberty.com/
Paul has said he doesn’t plan on endorsing anyone. Aside from alienating many of his supporters, an endorsement of anybody aside from McCain would likely cause the GOP to yank his committee credentials. It’s not going to happen.
He will be ending his campaign, and not endorsing anyone I would guess.