Ron Paul Rules Out 3rd Party Run, Scales Down Campaign

Ron Paul has announced that he is scaling down his campaign and, has absolutely ruled out a third-party Presidential run. He plans to focus on his reelection to Congress. He faces a March 4 primary challenge in his home district.

For the first time, Paul left no wiggle-room in addressing the third-party question:

Of course, I am committed to fighting for our ideas within the Republican party, so there will be no third party run. I do not denigrate third parties – just the opposite, and I have long worked to remove the ballot-access restrictions on them. But I am a Republican, and I will remain a Republican.

Thank you, Dr. Paul, for a great effort.

123 thoughts on “Ron Paul Rules Out 3rd Party Run, Scales Down Campaign”

  1. Remember “The Princess Bride”? Fred Savage was devastated when Peter Falk told him Cary Elwes was “nearly dead”. Just because Ron Paul says the chances of a brokered convention are “nearly zero” does not mean they are “zero.” Many of the Romney delegates are still committed to vote for Romney on THE FIRST BALLOT. Unless Huckabee withdraws (which is still a real possibility), John McCain may not have enough delegates for a first ballot victory.
    If that happens, we may still see a brokered convention. While Ron Paul is scaling back his campaign staff, he has recently acquired three foreign policy advisers from antiwar.com. Besides, did you hear Ron Paul’s speech yesterday at CPAC? Did Ron Paul sound like he was giving up? I was ready to write this campaign off after Florida, but it gets more interesting by the day. Don’t count Ron Paul out. I still think what this campaign needs is write protected PowerPoint presentations of Ron Paul’s positions.

    1. Thanks for this info. I need to find out what is CPAC, and hope there is a way to listen to the speech referred to above.

  2. If the “surge” starts going south, McKook’s numbers will drop like a lead balloon. Even the religious evangalnuts won’t suck up to a big time war loser!

  3. There’s many a swlip twixt the cup and the lip. It aint over ’till it’s over. McCain could keel over dead tomorrow. The man looks to be in bad health. Also, he may well be ineligable, not being a natural born citizen and all. Huckleberry is done sweeping up the crazy Christian votes, so who’s left?

  4. I feel the same about Ron Paul as I did when Pat Buchanan supported George Bush in 2004, they talk the talk, but do not walk the walk. Like the battered women who keep returning to the abusive husband in the hope that he will take them back and eventually love them, these Republicans keep returning to a party that rejects both them and their ideas. At least Pat Buchanan ran as a third party candidate twice, before returning.

    If you really beleive in your own ideas you fight for them, even if it’s a third party fight. You always put country before party. Ron Paul turns out to be another Sound and Fury candidate. That’s unfortunate

    1. Ron Paul stated early on that he wouldn’t run third-party. This is a man who doesn’t flip-flop. His consistency and HONESTY is why we consistently support him. Paraphrasing his statement in a recent email, this bid is just the opening shot in a new revolution. If he changed his mind now, he’d be just like the sons (and daughter) of whores now scrambling for the ultimate power trip.

        1. What? Pat Buchanan – like Ron Paul apparently – is a Republican before all else, before principle, before thought, before truth. After kvetching for months, for years about the war, Buchanan actually endorsed Bush for President in 2004!! Buchanan teases by occasionally sounding acceptable, only later to befoul his nest with some act of craven party loyalty. Kindly withdraw this suggestion, marty, you’ll activate the gag reflex.

    2. “If you really beleive in your own ideas you fight for them, even if it’s a third party fight. You always put country before party.”

      I’m not a big Paul supporter—I agree with him completely on foreign policy, but on little else—but he’s right on this.

      Why? No, I don’t love the stupid two-party system. The problem is that the situation stems from the idiotic “winner takes all” (aka “first past the post”) voting system we have.

      If Paul wants to push a non-imperialist, non-interventionist stance in the Republican Party, more power to him. Likewise those of us (including me) who want to do the same within the Democratic Party.

    3. Though I am not a Paul supporter I give him credit for staying in the party and trying to change it from within. Unfortunately on the whole third parties are irrelevant so he would be in a position to do nothing other than lose his seat in Congress if he ran third party.

      1. His having a seat in Congress does us little good. Who even knows he’s there. If Paul had had the personal honesty to stand as an independent this time I’d join the credulous with the starry-eyed silliness about his “character” that’s been spouted here so liberally over the last several months. If you’re looking for principle from a third party candidate look no further than Eugene Debbs. He ran from prison in 1920. Ron Paul doesn’t even come close to having that kind of character. He’s a waste of time.

  5. The primary season so far has rewarded the goose-stepper candidates and the peddlers of smoke and dreams. All of the real folks (Kucinich, Dowd, Biden, and possibly now Paul) have apparently thrown up their hands at the stupidity of the electorate. They figured out that they can’t win and even if they could, who would listen to them in a painful period of corrections. We are left with another incompetant son of a sucessful father who wants desperately to “win” once in his life and a smooth street hustler who believes he can finesse his way out of any dead-end alley.

  6. You can vote for McCain or Clinton or Obamma or Huckabee or not vote at all,it’s all the same and it is all shite.

  7. Ron Paul got shafted by the press running as the Republican he is. Can you imagine anyone knowing anything about him or his views had he run as an Independent?

    He has gotten the message out. Mission accomplished.

  8. Since McCain is now likely to be the next President the policies of our rulers can become much more blatantly obvious. And so will “buyers remorse” as people realize what they have been signing up for. This is a different kind of opportunity. Time for a “Switch to Ron Paul” approach. By September there may be a lot of people who are sick of McCain AND Hillary AND Obama. Because they are all selling the same product.

    1. Yeah, he’s looking like a real phoney right about now, isn’t he. Sorry, I misspoke, he is a real phoney about now.

  9. The worst part is Paul was robbed in NH by that CIA corp Diebold ( as in go and die boldly for war profiteering, Israel and control of other’s oil )…We all now know that he rcvd twice as many votes in the precincts that were hand-counted so he actually came in at least third…A Ron Paul third place finish would have put him on the radar screen and couldn’t be tolerated..So much for “democracy”..Yeah, this is what “democracy” looks like in the real world which is why the oligarchs pretend to support it…

  10. For what it’s worth, I took part in the NH GOP recount on Friday, 2/8.
    I observed the counting of several towns. One of them was a Diebold scanner town and the others were the old-fashioned kind.
    I observed nothing fishy. Everything added up almost perfectly.
    And where minor descepancies did surface, reasonable explanations existed, such as ballots that had mistakenly been filled in with blue ink, which might not have been scanned properly.

    I have concluded that the GOP NH primary was probably clean. However, its cleanliness was pure luck, given the chain-of-custody issues that are now well documented, thanks to Bev Harris and co.

  11. I always had two questions about Ron Paul. Let me say first that I consider him to be quite possibly the most principled person in Congress for the last 75 years, if not the last 100. His voting record speaks for itself. However . . .

    One: if RP is the staunch constitutionalist that he seems, why (at least before the campaign) wasn’t he stridently demanding the impeachment of every single person in the Bush administration, on a daily basis?

    Two: How can this man remain a member of a party that he has nothing in common with, ideologically speaking? He was a libertarian once. What made him join the Globalists On Parade, anyway? The chance for more exposure and, hence, more money? Beats me.

    The fact that he wouldn’t ask for a recount in New Hampshire, to my mind, was the beginning of the end. If you’re not going to stand up and demand justice when you know you’re getting screwed four times a day in every hole you have, then you’ll get screwed five times a day, and your campaign contributions are going to go into the toilet when your supporters see that you don’t have the stones to fight back.

    And by the way, has anybody besides me noticed that they STILL haven’t announced the final results of the recount there? It doesn’t take anywhere near this long in a state of less than 1 million people. They obviously kept things stalled as long as they could, figuring that exposing the blatant theft engineered by the Clinton campaign would endanger the “integrity” of the following primaries, which were all rigged as well. The entire process is rigged; the Village Idiot could see this. So, you let the other primaries go forward, and figure that either everybody is going to completely forget about NH, or that, in Clinton-era terms, they’ll call it “old news.”

    Anyway, if Ron Paul is willing to remain part of a warmongering, Brownshirt/fascist party, he shouldn’t wonder at what happened to him, and what will continue to happen to him, although I seriously doubt that he’ll ever entertain the notion of running for Fascist-in-Chief again.

    One last thing. If nothing else, Ron Paul’s campaign helped to thoroughly expose the stinking hoax of this dog-and-pony show called the electoral process in this country. If I were the dictator of a banana republic, I’d be scouring EBay and Amazon.com right now for an “American Democracy” starter kit.

    And don’t be fooled by the a**holes that say that if you don’t vote, you don’t have a right to complain. If you are stupid enough to vote for ANY of these crooks, knowing who and what they are, and put them into office, then when they take the country into the crapper, YOU will be the one with no right to complain, because YOU aided and abetted them!

    1. Ron Paul has to be the youngest 73-year-old in the world. His mind hasn’t lost a single move. Nevertheless, he is an old-school gentleman to a fault. How many times SHOULD he have yelled at abusive interviewers? He never did. If he has to have a fault, as we all do, I can live with that one. He is a great man.

    2. My view exactly–how can a Libertarian, Consitutionalist, and a member of Congress not be promoting and demanding with every breath the impeachment of criminals in the office of President and Vice President?

      How can a serious Libertarian remain a member of the present Republican Party?

      I do not question the sincerity of Paul’s anti-war sentiments, but other than that he seems to be either terminally naive or a sham, pursuing a hidden agenda under the cloak of what he calls “Libertarian” ideas.

      Some of his campaigning points are also completely shallow on what he calls his “philosophy of Liberty”.

      The idea that one “owns onself”, for example, is logically and politically nonsense, and in effect the application of an external property relation to an individual.

      The proper way to phrase the matter is that an individual is not subject to ownership as property at all.

      1. His “hidden agenda” is to reenergize the base of the Republican Party and return it to what it is supposed to stand for. If you are wondering what that is then just listen to any of his speeches.

        Not all of us Republicans are the enemy. After Ron Paul’s message energized me I became a precinct committeeman in the Republican party. I share his agenda of returning integrity to the Party.

        This is not a partisan thing. I just realize that they have a political train that already has a depot in Washington, and that I am not alone in my disgust for their performance over the last several years.

        1. Theo-Fascists and Neo-Fascists, otherwise known as Republicans and Democrats.

          Though I have many Libertarian principles, especially in regard to interpreting both the Constitution and the American War of Independence, I have no interest whatever in re-energizing either the Democrat or Republican base.

          Both parties are corrupt beyond reform, and executives and judges of both parties operate unconstitutionally as a matter of course.

          The Two Party Duopoly is in fact a major part of the present political catastrophe.

    3. I won’t be voting, might have voted for Paul had he had the integrity to launch an independent bid, but he didn’t. Paul certainly has much to explain about his Republican connections at this point. It’s hardly enough to say that his views will get visibility and a hearing that way. He’s not interested in promoting them meaningfully. And the money. Oy! All that cash and no “principle” to spend it on? How prinicipled is that?

  12. this proves Ron Paul was a phony from the start. Anybody with 2 functioning brain cells knows the 2 party system in the good ol’ USA is the main and the ONLY problem. Bwahahha, you poor Amerikkkans don’t stand a chance. Orwell was an optimist.

  13. From WRH

    dept of state: McCain not eligible to be president?
    Despite widespread popular belief, U.S. military installations abroad and U.S. diplomatic or consular facilities are not part of the United States within the meaning of the 14th Amendment. A child born on the premises of such a facility is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and does not acquire U.S. citizenship by reason of birth.
    Posted Feb 8, 2008 03:41 PM PST
    Category: POLITICS/ELECTIONS/CORRUPTION

    http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/citizenship.php

    Why has nobody from the DRC or the GOP made an issue of this? Mccain should never have run in the first place.

    Since AIPAC and Israel run our elections, we all know how the Zionists lie…………

    1. Sorry, but I can’t imagine the supreme court taking the presidency away from McCain…especially if he picks a really nasty VP like Dick(less) Cheney. He’s probably having a “Pick the Nastiest Veep” contest right now.

    2. It is too late to pertain to McCain at the moment, but I have been arguing for years that there must be a constitutional amendment to prohibit a former POW from being president or vice president.

      The national security risk is too great.

      1. I hate to say it but I do agree with this…it seems harsh to add to a POWs burdens…”through no fault of your own except enduring heinous torture in prison, you can’t be president now, either”…but the national security risk is too great. Is it likely that anyone was programmed in this way? No. Is it impossible? No. And the repercussions would be unimaginable. The Manchurian Candidate is def possible to achieve.

        1. I don’t consider it a burden. They should certainly have the right to sit in Congress. And with a comparatively limited president, as the Constitution envisages, it would not be a question of power and influence but merely of security.

          Were McCain actually intelligent, rather than a blowhard narcissistic incompetent, he would have moved such a law himself, and been accorded the status of a veritable Cincinnatus in the future annals of the American Republic.

          Right now, there is a real question whether there will be any future annals.

          Such small minded, petty greedy clowns as are in politics today don’t bode well for much more of a future at all.

    3. Oh lord think it through. A child born on a US military base to non-citizen parents doesn’t automatically get citizenship, but a child born to US citizens gets automatic citizenship even if they are on Mars.

      Otherwise, all the kids born to all the servicemen and women overseas would have to apply for citizenship when their parents returned to the states. How idiotic would that be?

      I’m not a big fan of a McCain presidency but this is the kind of silliness best reserved for DailyKos or the Huffington Post.

  14. Those who complain about Paul dropping out now are a strange group. He has alway said that he didn’t want to run third party. He is ruling it out in February thus giving us months to find another candidate. Would the naysayers have been happier if he had dropped out in September?

    PAGING GARY JOHNSON. HE IS A LIBERTARIAN/ANTIWAR DREAM CANDIDATE!

    1. I would have been much more enthusiastic had he vigorously pursued impeachment, including Kucinich’s impeachment initiative, from the beginning, rather than opposing it, and then later supporting it only formally, and never making it a central part of his campaign.

      There is no question in my mind, he would have increased his support in the primaries on that issue alone.

      Structurally impeachment of the present criminals in the office of president and vice president is much more important than the presidential race.

      Remaining in the Republican Party also suggests Paul is not serious about the principles he espouses.

    2. One of my main problems with Paul is that he was masquerading as in effect a Third Party with some of show of what he considered Libertarian ideas, almost all of them subtly skewed to that to of a conservative Christian and Capitalist Tendenz.

      His childish “Philosophy of Liberty” is particularly offensive.

      For all that I respect the man for having the courage to be consistently anti-war.

      But his weakness on impeachment suggests he is not much of a Constitutionalist at all, and as president would do nothing but apply Libertarian ideas as a cover for entrenching a decidedly non-Libertarian political and financial elite.

        1. What “conspiracy theory” are you talking about, my dear fellow–you sound like a Neo-Con.

          If you own yourself, as Paul argues, you can sell yourself to someone else.

          Or even sell yourself to yourself.

          The latter transaction will likely keep you occupied for some days.

          If this isn’t childish, as analysis of person, self, ownership and property rights, what is?

          You are invited to argue out all the details with yourself.

  15. All antiwar libertarians are sorry Ron Paul did not win. We are even sorrier McCain did. IMO, it is time to support Obama with everything we have. We absolutely cannot risk McKook’s finger on the button, nuclear or conventional. The pro-war side prefers Hillary to Obama, which is all the reason we need to support him over her. Of course, there are other reasons not to want Hillary. Compared to her husband, she has a political “tin ear”, worse than her musical one. Bill needs to be liked; he reads public opinion instinctively. He has always avoided unpopular decisions, especially endless wars. Hillary revels in being hated. If she decides to start a war with Iran she will care nothing for public opinion, even among her own party. Nevertheless, if it comes down to Hillary against McCain, we have to support her. Why? At least she will inspire the remaining republicans to grow some balls and oppose her. They would surrender their balls to McCain just as they did to Bush.

    1. Barack Obama has never said anything of substance. He is a hollow as George Bush’s head. He alway’s speaks in generalities and is vague about the change he will bring. But if you want a president to smoke crack with well……..

      1. I was a big time Ron Paul supporter… sent him money, campaigned for him. I thought he was a man who put country before party. Apparently he is a man who puts party before country. Without a Ron Paul third party candidacy, there will be no candidate running who will talk about the need to restore the Constitution as a major part of his campaign. That means the Constitution is effectively gutted, and will remain so without some kind of unforeseen and massive rebellion.

        I thought you were a patriot, Paul, who was running to get your issues addressed. I guess you’re just another politician.

        1. Meanwhile he has a huge campaign war chest gathered from many a Libertarian contributor, while he denatures Libertarian ideas by trying to fit them into the Republican party.

          Indeed his true mission may have well been that–to make sure the Libertarians were incapable of a persuasive run themselves, particularly on the anti-war issue.

          Meanwhile he takes the money and runs.

          How much damage has he now done to the Libertarian party thereby?

          Another Randian predator, this time of the Fundamentalist Christian sort, masquerading as a Constitutionalist and Libertarian.

        2. I think he’s used his supporters. There was a video clip of him here a couple of weeks ago in which he waxed expansively about “the cause”, etc. It almost seemed as though he’d bought into all of the credulous horse manure his college student leadership was shoveling at the time, you know, the ones whose web-soliciting was feeding his coffers. They built him up into a kind of saint, creating a cult of the personality. Now he looks more like an abusive priest, having first shown them the chalice, then fondling them as they oggled it.

        3. God, you people are scary. I’ll bet not a one of you actually went out to vote and show your support for Paul in your respective state caucus.

          But wait, it gets better. Paul is also being blamed for “damaging” the LP. As if embracing idiots like Neil Boortz, who is basically a neocon who calls himself a Libertarian, didn’t kill the party years ago.

          Get a clue.

      2. Who knows what is behind the mask?

        It might be very, very good or it might be very, very bad.

        The odds are it is, like the Kennedy whose rhetoric he mimics, extraordinary only in its mediocrity.

        Still I don’t quite see how a Libertarian can justly criticize his youthful drug use.

        At least he has been honest enough to admit it, unlike Clinton or Bush.

    1. Please, people..get a clue! Ron Paul is much more useful as a Texas congressman than he would be as a marginalized ‘has-been’ like a Ross Perot or John Anderson(remember him?). And at this point if Paul even LOOKED like he might get anywhere near 1600 Penn.Ave. he’d have a mortal “accident”. No, I believe that Ron Paul has ‘lit the fuse’ of awareness in American politics. Now we, the masses, are looking…watching.Ron will be back. This isn’t our last shot. It’s truly our first. If the movement to get our government back isn’t gradual, incrimental, it will be squashed quickly(remember the Haliburton/BRC camps?). No, they’re ready for a 1776 style revoulition. We can’t hide behind trees with flintlocks this time. Enlightenment, like we’ve seen it the Paul run tells me we can do it. We need education, determination and a plan…but above all patience. They’re not publically executing disidents…yet. They’re just pissing us off and making a peaceful, normal lifestyle VERY difficult. Our time is comming and with GOD’s help and people like Ron Paul to lead us WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT we will prevail. But violent overthrow will not work this time because THAT is what they’re expecting (hoping for…).

  16. It’s stupid to pour venom on Dr. Paul for not wanting to continue tilting at windmills within a presidential system that we all know to be fundamentally broken. Consider his position now when he goes back to Congress in the fall. He’s in a much better position with his peers who’ve been too scared to buck the party line, both of them. Now he can really try and build a coalition of a size greater than 1 or 2 to oppose some of the inanities promulgated by that body.

    If he continues on to the convention in St. Paul he has that opportunity to raise his standing within the party and garner support either for a takeover of it, or lead a faction away from it.

    He’s smart enough to know that while the cracks in the system are beginning to show, at that point, they are not big enough to break things wide open. That may happen between now and September, it might be in 2010 or 2012, but either way, if he leads a 3rd party charge to nowhere this summer he has squandered all of the capital he’s built in the past year.

    It’s the safer bet, the more prudent bet. Maybe not the most inspiring bet. In the end, he’s at the end of his career and it’s our job to pick up the flag and keep moving it forward and have enough of an organization to strike when the time is truly right.

    Right now, Americans are still too much in love with sociopathic machismo and belligerence to accept the truth that peace is truly stronger. That point may take a little longer to make than we’d like, but Dr. Paul has, IMO, shortened that time horizon.

    Ta,

    1. If what you say is valid, then I expect Paul as a Congressman to begin pursuing impeachment, including Kucinich’s motion to impeach Cheney, immediately and with vigor.

      Why am I suspicious that will not be the case at all?

        1. Actually they don’t have to get past committee constitutionally. Those are purely procedural rules. And the fact that Paul opposed impeachment initially and is lukewarm now certainly did not push forward Kucinich’s motion to impeach Cheney, did it?

        2. So impeach cheney leads to bush pardon and months of wasted effort. In the end you’ve pissed off party leadership during an election your trying to win. He should do all this for you. Would that win you vote? Do you vote? Hmmm….

        3. You seem to know nothing about impeachment.

          The penalty for successful impeachment is removal from office. There is no pardon.

          Impeaching Bush before he pardons the other criminals in office wholesale is another high recommendation for impeaching both of them immediately.

          But obviously that sort of accountability is not what you are interested in.

  17. Dr. Paul should think about a presidential run for 2012. In polls, McCain loses to Obama or Clinton. In Obama’s case, McCain loses by double digits. The GOP as a whole is polling badly and the Dems probably will win in a landslide. In the aftermath of the GOP electoral destruction, the party will want to move away from its neoconservative orientation and will be more open to figures likes Dr. Paul who want to move the party away from neoconservatism.

    1. Dr. Paul should think about the value of enema right now. He has about as much credibility as Ahmed Chalabi.

  18. I accuse the ‘Media’ of being guilty of crimes of omission. Ron Paul deserved better (some) coverage. God help America! And her (few remaining) allies.

    1. Why? They work for their stockholders. We are just the sheep that pay their salaries. We are not their customers. They made no contract with us and have no obligation. Take the blue pill.

  19. Well, people, time to stop crying. Sell what you don’t need and use that money to buy weapons and ammunition. Also make sure you get some good body armor and other supplies so you can stay in the fight for as long as possible.

    Do this now. When they station a sentry down the block on the corner, it will be too late.

    Do this now.

  20. I like Ron Paul and have given him money. Alone among his party’s contenders he has put forward a sane foreign policy vision. The others, without exception, promote a fascist, corporatist, imperial foreign and domestic (economic) agenda. Alas, he has run a terrible campaign, although his supporters have done a great job on his behalf. I should say that I am a Democrat and that while I have sympathy for some of his criticisms of the Fed and Wall Street, and his correct critique of our borrowing and spending ourselves into oblivion, his proposed “cures” would kill the patient. The naivete of Libertarian economic policy is such that it blinds one to the real causes of the current economic collapse and the real enemies of our national sovereignty.

    The cause of the collapse is the last 40 or so years of disinvestment in infrastructure, the dismantling of the FDR regulatory regime and the resulting de-industrialization of the US. The enemy is the global financial oligarchy centered in the City of London and Wall Street who despise any form of national sovereignty that promotes the Common Good for its citizenry. These sharks have used the philosophy of Free Trade to grow obscenely rich by asset-stripping industry and national infrastructure and plowing the resultant wall of cash into Ponzi-like financial pyramids such as CDOs and Derivatives. That mass of casino funny money is orders of magnitude beyond what the physical economy can support. The post-Bretton Woods system is wholly bankrupt and in systemic collapse now. More Free Trade Globalization will only make the final collapse that much worse.

    The only solution is an orderly bankruptcy reorganization modeled on FDR’s bank holiday, reorganization and re-regulation to eliminate speculation and steer investment back into productive enterprises and infrastructure. Absent that, the oligarchy will do as they did in the 20’s and 30’s when they backed Mussolini and Hitler as their solution to the depression they caused. This time it will be through the agency of a Bloomberg or McCain presidency.

    I don’t fool myself into thinking that either Hillary or Barack understand either what is happening or the proper corrective measures that need to be taken, but their party retains at least a smidgeon of FDR’s DNA. One of them is going to be our only hope of avoiding a devolution into fascism, economic meltdown on a par with the 14th century little dark age and global war. Hoping for a slow Paulite revolution that re-takes the conservative movement is foolhardy. That will take years, and we have only months at best to start fixing the horrible damage wrought over the recent decades.

    I expect that Free Traders (or Free Traitors as I call them) and Libertarians will howl and gnash their teeth and fight this necessary course to the last. It is because somehow they have been convinced that the British Free Trade dogma that we fought a revolution against is actually what built this country. No, that would be the American System of Hamilton, the Whigs, The Lincoln GOP and FDR. Failure to use the power of the constitution and our federal agencies to re-animate the American System of political economy will result in the final death of our Republic.

  21. At what point does the military arrest the entire administration and turn them over to the Hague for war crimes? Is there not one officer in the military that has the stones to do this? They can kill innocent people in the Middle East, but they won’t lift a finger or aim a gun at the people behind all of this? I thought they swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, not the orders of murdering fascists. Are they all brain-dead zombies?

    How these people can look at themselves in the mirror without puking is beyond my comprehension. Support the troops? F*** THE TROOPS!

    1. It is salient fact that the military takes an oath to the Constitution, not to a man or an office.

  22. Very dissapointing. Honestly, if he backs out of the race and refuses to run as an independent, I can’t help but question my support for him. The people have raised over 20 million for Ron Paul to run for PRESIDENT, not Congress. Where has the 20 million gone? I have heard of tv adds, but I haven’t seen a single one broadcast. Can somebody tell me what he has spent our money on? I myself can’t afford large contributions, but have done my part to spread the word to as many as possible.

    The people in this country seem to have an attention span of thirty second sound bytes. If he doesn’t stay in the race as an independent, the people will have forgotten everything he has had to say within a week or two. I think the best thing for the country is to use the rest of that 20 million to continue to get his ideas out there as an independent.
    Pounding it into the psyche of America might be the only hope for change at this point.

  23. Hang in there Dr. Paul. John McCain looks as if he’s going to suffer a stroke at any minute, I give him about 5 weeks before he succumbs to a health crisis and has to drop out of the race. If Huckabee happens to withdraw before McCain literally “drops,” then YOU will be the only candidate left standing. Won’t that be a hoot? Otherwise, even if it boils down to just you and Huckabee, the 1:1 plank-building will have to be hashed out at the national convention. Stay the course, Sir. You are doing great. The election is apt to present the nation with a completely unexpected opportunity.

  24. All we know is what Dr. Paul said in his statement. We don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes. Several of his top long-time supporters (Justin Raimondo, Eric Garris, etc.) have urged him to run 3rd Party. Lew Rockwell, one of his closest friends, has reprinted those articles on his web site. (www.lewrockwell.com).

    His first priority is getting the Republican nomination in the Texas Primary for his Congressional seat. The establishment Republicans have tried to defeat him there before, but they haven’t been able to. I think he’s right — if he doesn’t win, everyone will say that “he can’t even win his own district.” Once he gets the Republican nomination, he’ll be able to make a decision on going 3rd Party. If he were to go 3rd Party now, his enemy would have a lot more ammunition to use against him in the primary campaign. However, once he wins the campaign, it’s unlikely that his congressional district would elect a Democrat.

    The Texas Republican primary on March 4. If he were to make a decision on running as a Third Party nominee (Libertarian, Constitution Parties), he could do so after he’s sewn up the Republican nomination on March 4. The CP and LP conventions aren’t until late April and early May. I would like to see these two join together — and both of them nominate Ron for their party’s nomination. Or perhaps he could run LP — and the CP could endorse him.

    Hopefully he won’t lose the TX primary, but it’ll probably be a tough fight, because the Republican establishment, which has never liked him, and has tried to defeat him in the past (even going so far as to support his Democratic opponent in the general election), will be gunning for him. If he loses that primary, it wouldn’t look good, but he would then be free to run Third Party.

    My guess is that he’s already in negotiations with trusted parties in the LP, and maybe the CP, about this and probably has been for some time. In the meantime, though, he has to stick to the little white lie that he’s “a Republican.”

    I think cutting his staff and trimming his national campaign is a good idea. He can save that money for when he does decide to go 3rd Party.

    All of this is just conjecture, of course. I really don’t have any insie info about what’s going on. Maybe he does think that the best way to go is to try to build a movement within the Republican Party. We’ll have to see what happens after March 4. It could be that Dr. Paul will do well in the next several Republican primaries and caucuses, and then he’ll take his fight all the way to the convention.

    In the meantime, though, it’s up to all of us to keep the Revolution alive, keep working at the local level, keep donating, keep spreading the word, and keep building some momentum. We’ll have to wait to see how this plays out.

    For a great satire on the president, the mainstream media, and the war on terror, see this YouTube music video from the international award-winning zombie musical feature film, “Song of the Dead.” (www.songofthedead.com)It’ stars horror movie veteran Reggie Bannister (Phantasm, Wishmaster, Bubba Ho-tep) as the president of the U.S. The filmmaker, Chip Gubera, is giving a share of his profits from DVD sales to the Ron Paul campaign. Go to:
    http://youtube.com/watch?v=qQmkkoxSKYw

  25. Ron has no chance of winning the Republican presidential nomination. Even if there is a brokered convention, the neocon delegates will never embrace an anti-war candidate.

    A third party is the only way. I know Ron said he’s not going to do it, but circumstances change, and when they do, a man is entitled to change his strategy.

    1. Said like a true mainstream Republican and member in good standing of the Two Party duopoly.

      What the United States needs right now is a good five cent sore loser.

      What’s being lost is the Constitution and any pretense of lawful polity.

      Not even to mention that American foreign policy has in effect been taken over by a hundred Neo-Cons operating in the interests of a foreign state.

  26. Dr. Paul, I salute you for showing the country the truth I have known for years. I also salute you for your bravery running against the neocons of both parties. It literally could have cost you your life, which I know you are keenly aware.
    It takes a very brave man to face people who are capable of making you disappear if they feel you are a threat to their treachery.
    The small voice called “hope” made me feel like somehow you could pull this off and win against the longest of odds. However, the years of experience observing what actually goes on gave me little real comfort, because I knew it would all end up a frustrated dream.
    Ron, if somehow you do become the nominee, I can guarantee you my vote. I have sent you $1200.00 to date, and will try to send even more. It has been money very well spent, because it allowed you to open eyes that were closed, and touch hearts that needed someone to believe in.
    If McNobrain or HunkaB/S wind up as the nominee, I will immediately notify the Republican party that I would like to cancel my voter ID card and will not be voting in this and all future elections.
    Don’t worry, I’m not turning Democrat. I’m just exercising my rights as a citizen to refuse to vote for a party or candidate I can no longer believe in.
    I intend to wait until all “hope” has been extinguished first.
    Also Dr. Paul, could you possibly advise us via Youtube or your website what those of us who choose to refuse the Real ID card may do to cope with a Government who will declare us “non-citizens”? I was born in this country, a descendant of a Confederate Captain, and have lived here as a natural citizen for 55 years. I served in the Marines for 12 years, and have always been a proud American.
    As a person who rejects Real ID, I will become a “non-American”. But my soul and integrity, much like yours, are “not for sale”!
    I’m proud of you Ron, and for the next 4 months (when my drivers license expires), I’m proud to be a AMERICAN!

  27. As an independent who voted for both Gore and Kerry and then watched not one but two elections stolen, it’s clear to me what is going on these days. I’ve watched a bunch of maniacs who call themselves republicans hikack the government and commit such incredible crimes against the people that it’s mind numbing. And yet, no dem or republican speaks up.
    Something’s afoot…something which entails all government officials being complicit .
    Paul offered the best solution to me. Here was a constitutionalist who consistently voted his conscience. He was either shouted down by the competition, or ignored by media.
    How sad.
    I’m left with only one recourse, and that is to vote against anyone even remotely aligned with traitors like Bush, Cheney and the gang. Impeachment would be too lenient for what these cowards have done. May they rot.

  28. Ron Paul sounded good. Especially when he talked about a sound monetary policy. He also sounded good when he talked about abolishing the collection agency (IRS) of the maffia (Federal reserve). It’s just that, he just talked. He is just part of the big enforcers league(Republicans and democrats). Republicans, Democrats are the interface the owners of this country have with the rest of the American population. Some of the these Republicans and Democrats take part in this dog and pony show called the elections and the stupid American public still buy all this crap. The next president (just like the last 24 presidents were) is known to the owners in advance. The rest is fake drama pumped up by Fox news, CNN, ABC etc.. In other words the american people have been gang raped by these same people since 1913.

  29. You all got schooled. The time and energy spent in electing a sham could have been spent backing Gravel. Gravel is 1000x the man Ron Paul is. Mike Gravel stood for REAL REVOLUTION and REAL CHANGE. Ron Paul was just a pansy, a Manchurian Candidate, who would complete the sale of the nation to the Globalists. Church and Work was his upbringing, making him into a good little capitalist drudge, and his candidacy was all about indoctrinating all of us into the same little corporate-bots. No way was he a Revolutionary – he was a Reaganite! And the way he pandered to the Christian Right – sickening! No wonder Pat Robertson gave him a lukewarm endorsement. And then his recent statements that the Christian Church has a firm place in the Constitution. And his support of Creationism! No wonder he sticks to the Republican Party. Plus he support of the ‘Terrorist Nations’ rhetoric. Makes sense why he kept bringing up Bush Jnr and saying he ran on Bush’s platform. It’s for the best. Ron Paul couldn’t win a state without a personality transplant and a re-changing of the Manchurian codes implanted in his brain. You know what he spent the campaign donations on? Holding rallies and giving speeches to spread his evangelism of Free Market religion. That’s why the bulk of the money went on chartered planes and 300 staff members. He couldn’t spread that kind of message in a 30-second TV ad; he had to appear in person to do that. The staff members were so that they could arrange venues and a gullible crowd to appear at these meetings and soak up his delirious philosophy and be recruited into his cult.

    So many people to convert, so little time – better hire those chartered jets.

    And he spent the past months holed up writing his book. You wonder why he made half of the appearances in Iowa and NH that Clinton and McCain did? Wonder no more. He was in his office in Texas cranking out pages of his book, a Manifesto of the Revolution he calls it – should show you how a fanatic he is ….

    Why bother? Didn’t Adam Smith write the same thing? Ron Paul might think HIS revolution goes a bit further – because it includes the Rothschilds gold in his master plan.

    And that’s probably what he was doing on the eve of the Iowa caucus, working on his book (he claimed he was reading policy papers).

    Get it now? Ron Paul wasn’t about the presidency; it was about spreading his messianic message of free market evangelism. That’s why he wouldn’t vote to impeach Bush, that’s why he lied about 9/11 and al Qaeda and demonized “Terrorist Nations”, wouldn’t go third party/independent …… talked up Reagan and sticks with the Republican Party …

    He is ready to sacrifice his principles on these issues for the sake of his Free Market religion.

    1. It’s hard not to agree.

      Below is my critique of one of the Paul Campaign’s video presentations, titled “The Philosophy of Liberty”, which I find childish and naive in the extreme:

      Critique Of “The Philosophy Of Liberty”

      This video is extremely well done but the presentation and philosophy are seriously flawed in several ways.

      First, to be persuasive it should be in the first person, singular or plural. Addressing the audience in the second person is imperative and condescending–and against the spirit of the supposed “liberty” the video commends.

      Second, the “philosophy” is seriously flawed, positively attributing an external definition of property to an individual.

      To say one owns oneself as a property relation is nonsense logically and politically.

      The negative proposition–“one is not owned as property” is the heart of the matter, in first, second, and all other persons.

      Instituting this philosophy without an intense revision of property relations is but another fraud and deception.

      Third, the treatment of external property in general is naive. A status quo of external property relations based on murder, fraud, and theft, which is the present state, and which manifests the protection of that criminally won “property” by the appearance of “law”, is by definition unjust.

      X, having acquired a legal claim to P by violence and fraud, now opts for a status quo in which “all” property is protected by “the philosophy of liberty”. To wit, by propagandizing others about their liberty, he enjoys the fruit of the liberty of others whose liberty and property he has perverted.

      At bottom, however correct the Libertarian philosophy on the subject of “liberty”, and it is correct, the injustice of the status quo makes an institution of such liberty a logical and political contradiction.

      This is but one reason Libertarians and Socialists must work together, and that some version of “Libertarian Socialism” or “Socialist Libertarianism” is required for a plausible political philosophy.

      It may be that the socialism is ultimately contingent, and toward the establishment of liberty, which indeed was the image behind the Fabians.

      There is no utopia.

      And one cannot escape history

      The video is particularly valuable in clarifying in important ways some of the suspicions I have had about Paul’s “Libertarianism”, which I find childish and naive.

      I respect Paul as a sincere and principled voice, and do not doubt his anti-war credentials.

      As a Libertarian, however, he seems to present a watered down version more suitable to kindergarteners than to an American people on the verge of political, financial, and economic disaster.

      The childishness of the approach, and of Paul’s watered down Libertarianism, with no analysis or reform of a status quo based on systematic injustice, is why Paul is so often accused by the left of offering a “liberty to starve and die”.

      There are other more serious Libertarians out there who follow what I am saying, which is critical but not at all hostile.

      Social justice without liberty, and liberty without social justice are equally absurd.

      After Franklin, if we do not hang together, we will assuredly hang separately, and by the hand of a dictatorial state that allows neither liberty nor justice.

      E.A. Costa

  30. Ron Paul did his best. The deck was stacked against him. He had the whole Establishment after him. The revolution must go on. Why not billboards for Sibel Edmonds? We need to continue to use our creativity to drag the establishment out into the light for all to see. The establishment fought Ron Paul’s campaign as hard as it could. We need to figure out how to defeat it then do it. We need to forget about the soulless elected puppets in Washington and focus on the puppeteers.

  31. He also wouldn’t be part of the group exposing voter fraud. Ron Paul is above that. [/sarcasm] No way would he upset the applecart. He is too much part of the establishment. His raving on about Reagan should tell you what he is about. Reagan was a corrupt tool of the Globalists who got tricked into attacking Libya, engaged in a covert dirty war with the Soviets in Afghanistan and was involved in the killing and torture of thousands of dissidents in Latin America. And Ron Paul looks up to this man AND claims that he is a stout constitutionalist and respecter of the law?

  32. When I heard Kent Snyder from the liberty committee would be running Paul’s campaign, my heart sank. I tried to fool myself into thinking the outcome would be different than what it is now.

    The only thing that will save this nation is a revolution.

    Americans are too busy watching sports, movies, and playing with their cell phones or video games, to give a damn.

  33. I can’t help but feel that americans don’t have much say in anything that concerns their government anymore. The war (normally america’s moneymaker) is killing your economy, but you’re not demanding an end to it. Sibel Edmunds has evidence of treason regarding 9/11 and nuclear weapons, but… nothing. People are being tortured in US secret and not-so-secret camps (and yes, waterboarding is torture, if you don’t think so, try it on your kid next time you have a suspicion that he or she might be lying to you). What makes you think that voting for any of these fools will give you a voice? Capitalism was once empowering, but now it’s a god demanding constant sacrifice. Americans are the most hated people on the planet. You won’t do anything to stop your government’s crimes! The WHOLE world is staring at you people, that unbelieving, open-mouthed, stupid-looking stare attributed to a man walking in on his wife having sex with livestock. So don’t moan about Ron, he wouldn’t have made a difference. He was just playing a different angle, and it backfired.

    Read any essay about the fall of the roman empire and you’ll see the direction america is heading. F*ckit, read Macbeth aswell!

    1. Ronald Peter,

      You must be living on yout own island where you do not have any problems, political etc.

      Shame on you for telling the Americans what do do!

  34. "Antiwar Obama"

    Who are you kidding? Drug dealer Barak may have voted against Iraq, but he wants bigger and better wars for the "neoCONS" – Iran, Pakistan, Africa..

    When Israel was dropping 4 1/2 million US taxpayer-paid cluster bombs on the civilian population of Lebanon, Hillary was shrieking that we need to send them more bombs because they are running out. Osama Obama did the bitch one better. He went to Israel to cheer them on and personally show his support for what they were doing.

    1. And they were using phosphorus bombs aswell, which is against the geneva convention. Their 400-strong nuclear arsenal is worrying, too.

  35. Well, well. The purists, the kooks, the conspiracists, you’re all here with your long knives. Ron Paul’s long shot was a brokered convention, but with Gott Mitt Romney’s withdrawal even that faded. He fights on, but keeping his congressional seat seems to me an important tactical move.

    Paul is the best thing that’s come down the presidential candidate pike in a long time. He’s not all things to all people, and what is your puerile reaction? You ride your particular hobby horses to death–he’s in the GOP, he didn’t push as hard for impeachment, why doesn’t he blame 9/11 on a Bush conspiracy, he ties his shoes the wrong way, on and on. Did it ever occur to any of you that Paul has a long record of voting as he says, that his presidential run (not yet over) has opened more eyes to old truths than all of your own hobby horse favorites?

    He could run third party. In fact, he did one time, as a libertarian. Result? I’m told when he came here in 1988 he was met by 19 people in the audience. When he was here last week it was 1200. He’s actually used the GOP to spread a message of liberty to more people with more of America’s attention than all of the Libertarian presidential candidates combined. But because there’s some one thing you disagree with him about, why, the man must surely be an unworthy big government traitor sitting on piles of cash.

    No wonder alternative movements go nowhere in America. They tend to populated with backstabbing cranks. Yeah, the two party system here stinks. Welcome to human nature, both that of those who only back two parties and that of those squabble on the sidelines because a candidate is only 99% pure, according to their lights.

    I used to think America gets what it deserves. I see now that the peanut gallery deserves no better. What an offensive, pathetic bunch. Ron Paul’s payment for sticking his neck out? The ingratitude and insults of a minority rabble.

  36. Asking Ron Paul to seriously risk his Congressional seat in an obviously Quixotic run for the Presidency is too much to expect. He may be an honest, principled person, but I don’t remember any press release suggestng he is a martyr.
    I think there are two reasons so many are upset with Ron Paul: 1. They thought he was a libertarian. Quite possibly so does he. He’s not and never has been – that’s why I was (to use one of Eugene’s favorite words) lukewarm on him during his run on the LP ticket.
    2: People love a martyr. There are lots of folks out there who would prefer Paul to become one so they could get on with the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

    I thought Paul the best available candidate this year in either major party, and I still do. I won’t be switching my party registration back quite yet, as the state I live in hasn’t had it’s Republican primary yet.

    1. Is it too much, then, to expect that he return the hoard on which he’s sittimg? He’s used a presidential candidacy and the credulity of a bunch of college kids to raise over $20,000,000 and gain a certain prominence that can only be helpful to him in running a congressional re-election campaign. At this point I’m so disenchanted with St. Paul that I’d just as soon see someone knock him out of contention in the Republican primary election in Texas. That way the kids that that plunked-down their hard earned money for him will never be tempted again to believe that support for a peaceful foreign policy can be identified with wusses. Paul is a disaster and, if he has one syntilla of personal honesty remaining, ought to retire from politics
      altogether. At the moment he inspires nausea.

  37. He is just siphoning votes away from antiwar Obama the longer he stays in the race. Obama needs all the help he can get as the elite are backing Hillary (elections are rigged to favor her; the media gives her favorable coverage). Ron Paul isn’t going to go anywhere in this election – forget him and let him keep his Congressional seat, not that it makes much difference to the American public whether he retains it or not. What has he done in 20 years in Congress? And you thought this mouse of a man could become president.

    Just assume he heads the LP – what’s going to change? He’ll still be the lousy candidate getting tongue-tied in debates, giving the same speeches. Why bother listening to him talk any more? I know what’s he going to say:

    “We are paying for the guns and butter …”
    “We can’t afford it!”
    “I am following Bush’s platform of no nation building ..”
    “The Republicans were elected [in the past] to end the war ..”
    “No taxes ..”
    “Hard money”
    “Sound money”
    “When we print dollars, the value of the dollar goes down”
    “How many more lives are we prepared to lose?”
    “How would we like it if the Chinese built their bases next door?”
    “Follow the Constitution!”
    “I am the only true conservative”

    and more delivered in the same screechy voice.

    No thanks.

    The man is unimaginative and uninspiring and he will perform just as dismally leading the LP as he does staying a Republican.

    The problem is the man, not the party affiliation.

    1. Eh, what an ass. It’s really amusing how some people always default to supporting some mainstream candidate. As if Obama isn’t also bought and paid for by the high party demigods. Read some of Obama’s speeches regarding the Arab/Israeli conflict before AIPAC got a hold of him and then after.

      As far as all the quotes you derisively point at, I assume you are for invading other countries, for imperialism, for taxes, for flawed economic policy, and against the Constitution?

      What a nasty bunch of sore losers we have here.

    2. Obama and Clinton voted the same on all war related issues since they starting serving together. His antiwar stance is probably a white lie waiting to be unveiled. Bush I – No new taxes was broken. Clinton – No new taxes was broken. Clinton II – whose idea was perjury? Ya think. Bush II – Humble foreign policy no nation building. Broke the first one but accomplished the second in spite of spending trillions.

      Dr. Paul has a proven record of opposing the war and its funding, Whereas Sen. Obama has never failed to fund this unconstitutional and “illegitimate war.”

      http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2007/cr032007.htm

      We people filled the Congress with Democrats but where is Oboma. Is he filibustering this illegitimate war? Democrats voted to depose Saddam. They voted to go to war. They continue to make war now that their back. [insert scornful sigh here]
      Dear Senator,
      Call up Mike Gravel. He got his experience blocking legislation to continue the draft. If you end the war funding you’ll have my support. So get some stones or get off the stage, your bothering me.
      Stan D.

  38. In the end Ron Paul is, and always will be a politician–he promises alot but delivers nothing. That’s unfortunate.The so called revolution is over before it begins. And forget about the citizens taking up the pitch forks, they are too busy asking the government for free medical care, free prescriptions drugs, free day care, free college education, and all the goodies of the nanny state.

    There is now no ant-war candidate. Yes, Obama might be against this war–at least that’s what he says–but he is an interventionist just like all the others. So if it’s not Iraq, it will be Dafur, or some other nation into which we can pump blood and treasure.

    But whoever it is that occupies The White House we can be more and more certain that The United States will be at war with Iran. The Israelis want it, and AIPAC wants it, and whatever they want they get. After all it is only about one percent of The American population that is being called upon to make the ulitmate sacrifice while everyone cheers them on from the bar room, the dorm rooml or the living room, as they wait for tht government check in the mail that does so much to buy compliance.After all if it’s not your kid tht’s dying, who cares?

  39. “He got all our money, how DARE he not win!” What a bunch of losers. You don’t even know the first thing about winning an election. You sit in front of your magic screens typing away and think you’re actually doing something worthwhile. I’ll bet good money not a single one of you whiners has done any canvassing in your precinct. I’m betting you don’t even know what precinct you are in, much less who your precinct captain is. How many of you signed up for Ron Paul’s Grassroots program and made phone calls? Even 10 calls? Carp, carp, carp, and not a one of you has actually done any work to make sure Ron Paul got elected, anything outside of sitting in your chair.

    That’s why Ron Paul didn’t win. Not because he didn’t spend your money right—he got more mileage out of every dollar than all the other candidates got with their millions. I worked for Ron Paul to win in my state. I and countless others put in 8-10-14 hour days getting the vote out—-phone calls, canvassing, handshaking, attending district conventions and precinct meetings, talking to everyone who would stand still long enough. Dozens canvassed door to door every weekend, even when it was –10º. When we were shut down by blizzards, we made phone calls. Our work yielded us 21% of the vote in our state. In 1/8 of our state’s districts Ron Paul came in 1st place, in another ¼ of our districts, he came in 2nd place—for one reason and one alone: Volunteers went door to door and talked to all their neighbors and friends. Hard work wins votes. If you want him to win, there is no substitute.

    Ron Paul hasn’t quit-—he’s refocused his efforts on whatever victory is still attainable. He still has a core base of volunteers working for victory. No, it won’t be a brokered convention—-that speaks more to the party machinery than it does to any failing in Ron Paul—-but neither will it be a cakewalk for McCain. Ron Paul and his volunteer army are going to make him fight for every delegate he gets. What are you going to do? Just whine and bellyache.

    1. Right on! You are 100% correct. Most of these whiners just sat back and expected other people to do all the dirty work.

      To use an oft over-used and mis-used phrased:

      FREEDOM ISN’T FREE

    2. Hi mom, I met Dr. Paul though his articles here on antiwar.com my favorite site on the world wide web. But as in Michigan our work is not done. Now comes the party’s conventions. Keep the delegates pumped and make sure they show up. Learn the rules. Convert any you can. Plus it’s essential to keep those signs waving until the convention. Radio seems easier but what’s one more ad compared to a guy standing in the sun, rain or snow again signing Dr. Paul’s praises.
      With the party regulars still going for Romney the real dropout shows that McCain is not the party member’s choice. The party is looking for a leader and a winner. Paul’s voters will only vote antiwar. The only way for the party to win is to join the revolution, so to speak. Our votes plus the Old Guard =? Victory! It will take that much.
      I believe they want to join up. Dr. Paul says some have lost their way. Many seem hungry for truths that have been hidden or denied. It’s time to ask them to join the fun. It’s a big tent. Let’s talk and be friends as well as neighbors or not. Freedom from the guilt of causing death by policy is more than fun brings bliss. Well done and thanks mom.

    3. You re a sheroe, prairie mom. Immense thanks to you and all the volunteers for Ron Paul for President.

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