The libertarian announced yesterday that he's no longer actively campaigning in states that have not voted. Ben Jacobs decodes the move:
His name is still on the ballot, he’s still accumulating delegates who will be bound to him in Tampa, but he avoids any responsibility for his electoral performance. If he does well, it’s a sign of the popular appeal of his message. If he doesn’t, well, he wasn’t really trying. Paul can escape blame for poor electoral results while continuing to help his fans take control of the party machinery state by state. The strategy may be passive aggressive, but it just could allow him to obtain the most elusive prize in electoral politics: power without responsibility. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Weigel guesses that Paul wants a lower profile when he loses in Kentucky, where Rand Paul is a senator: "Eight days out, Paul wants us to know that his crushing defeat in the state will have no impact whatsoever on Rand Paul's rising star." Brian Doherty says Paul's statement has been misunderstood:
[T]he announcement was more or less merely a public declaration of what had been the campaign's style for the past few weeks, featuring few of the smaller public events that make up a full-fledged campaign and more just giant campus rallies. The campaign was indeed likely down to only about a million dollars cash on hand, and seems ill-inclined right now to do more big calls for cash.
Jonathan Bernstein wonders what Paul will do at the convention:
My best guess? Ron Paul pushes for votes on a few platform issues, and settles for platform committee losses on most of them but gets one or two minor victories, with something about the Fed probably the most likely. After that, his delegates then behave themselves in Florida but do wind up trying to generate some favorable publicity for him (and Rand Paul) without doing anything to harm Mitt Romney. And since reporters will be looking for stories, they’ll succeed, at least to some extent.
Allahpundit thinks we will be seeing much more of Rand:
Rand’s positioning himself so that he was one foot in Paulworld and one in the mainstream of the GOP. If he can keep them there, he’ll be a player in 2016 or 2020.
(Photo: A supporter of Republican presidential candidate, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) waits for Paul's arrival at his campaign event on January 10, 2012 in Manchester, New Hampshire. By Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
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