GOP candidate and libertarian-at-heart Ron Paul has never been one for the headlines (possibly not by choice), which is why his slow accumulation of delegates through a crafty state convention strategy has unfolded largely beneath the political radar. But Rick Santorum (remember him?) is on the case. Today on ABC News’ This Week, Rick Santorum — once a Romney rival but now a loyal surrogate — highlighted the dangerous possibility of a Tampa convention melee:
>I’m concerned that Ron Paul and some of his supporters out there are looking for a platform fight. And I want to make sure that we have strong, principled conservatives there who stood with me in our primary fight to go there and counterbalance the effect of the Paul folks.
Looking at just the numbers, Santorum may be jumping the gun just a tad. The latest AP count gives Ron Paul only 136 delegates — the New York Times puts him at 137 — barely half the number candidate Santorum amassed before bowing out of the race. But in an e-mail to supporters (and the Washington Post) on Wednesday, Paul claimed his campaign will send “nearly 200 bound delegates” to the August convention as part of a nearly 500-strong contingent of delegate supporters.
This will certainly fall short of whatever’s needed to stave off a Romney nomination, which is now assured, but Paul’s forces could still cause serious embarrassment to a Republican Party desperately trying to coalesce around a worryingly moderate and gaffe-prone candidate. If Ron Paul gets his way, the mere threat of disruption may be sufficient to tempt the Romney campaign into a harder stance on immigration or a rollback of international obligations.
