Here is how events are unfolding.

The Republican Party of Louisiana has a history of protecting the establishment. They have placed a number of landmines throughout their caucus and convention processes to make it extremely difficult for Ron Paul supporters to make it all of the way to the floor of the Republican National Convention.

One simple example is a cleverly written rule, which allowed the LAGOP to abruptly change the date of the caucus. As soon as the state party realized how organized we were, the date of the election was changed from early February to late April. The date change created the unprecedented scenario of putting the Louisiana primary BEFORE the caucus. Something that has never happened before in this state and is unlikely to ever happen again.

Another example is the scheduling of the Republican State Central Committee meeting immediately after the state convention in Shreveport. The Louisiana Republican Party is hoping that the Ron Paul supporters will do something controversial at the state convention so that they’ll have an excuse to unseat some or all of the Ron Paul supporters at their RSCC meeting.

The Louisiana Republican Party is organized differently from many other states. Often, like in Michigan or Nevada, the state convention is the top governing authority of the state republican party. Unfortunately for our freedom fighters in the bayou state, this is not the case. The RSCC is the final authority and it is their bylaws that created the caucus and the convention.

The two examples above are just the tip of the iceberg. I can’t reveal our entire strategy because the establishment operatives obviously read this blog as well.

But I can tell you that we have great leaders across Louisiana who have navigated these paths before. They are working overtime to ensure that the Louisiana delegation gets all the way to the Republican National Convention!

It can be tempting to thumb your nose at the establishment whenever you get the opportunity. And they definitely deserve it!

But in this situation, getting the Ron Paul delegates all the way to Tampa and encouraging our activists to become part of the party structure should be our top priority.

Remember my warning that there were votes in a locked box taken from the state convention in Arizona?  And that the Ron Paul victory there could be reversed if someone wanted to cheat?  Well they did, and we lost it.  I am gathering the facts and it is stunning, with 100 new ballots appearing out of the Romney ether.

Worse, there is evidence that the Ron Paul victory in Louisiana, a victory that even the media acknowledged and proclaimed to the world, may be reversed as well.  I will give you the details Monday.

Meanwhile, there is evidence of a full scale purge of any Ron Paul delegate, from any state, to the RNC.  If you are a delegate, keep your head down.  They are looking for you.  More on all of that this Monday.

Meanwhile, I like to mix my bad news with a touch of positive, and when you are riding the wave of a popular counter revolution, there are so many committed believers in so many places, doing so many wonderful things, that there is always good news to report.  And the good news is this: Adam de Angeli and the Ron Paul team in Michigan, against all odds, have secured some delegates there.  It is one of Romney’s three proclaimed “home states.”  (Remember, we also picked up some in Massachusetts.)

Here is Adam de Angeli’s report:

As you may have heard, Ron Paul won delegates from Michigan last night.

Specifically:

-We won both delegates, alternates, and one “in-waiting” delegate in the first district.  Due to the RNC penalty for having an early primary, each district elected an “in-waiting” delegate and alternate in case the RNC reverses its penalty on Michigan for its early primary.

-We won both delegates and the “in-waiting” delegate in the 2nd district.

-We won both delegates and an alternate in the 9th district.

-We won one delegate and one alternate in the 4th district.

-We won an alternate and one in-waiting alternate in the 12th district.

-We won in-waiting alternates in the 3rd, 8th, and 13th districts.

-In the sixth district our slate was defeated, the party officials admitted to running an illegal caucus where rules were broken, but on the establishment’s slate we had a Ron Paul supporter (still waiting verification whether delegate or alternate.)

-We won in-waiting alternates in the 3rd and 13th districts.

But here is the most amazing thing.  DO NOT MISS THIS:

Michigan, unlike any other states I know of, had a special party rule forbidding any precinct delegate vacancies from being filled at county conventions until after the state delegates and alternates were chosen.

In other words, countless  Ron Paul supporters attending county convention were forcibly blocked from  being able to vote or make motions, because they weren’t elected precinct delegates in 2010–long before the Ron Paul 2012 campaign began.

We faced a disadvantage no other state faced.  All the state delegates were elected NOT by Ron Paul supporters flooding into county conventions, but by Republican Party regulars.

And STILL we won 3 of 14 districts, plus a delegate in the 4th.

There’s also a fairly huge body of evidence of party tricks to disenfranchise us, including documented instances in multiple counties where county party officials “edited” the state delegation lists after the county conventions adjourned.  Egregious violations of rules (and possibly statute).

The point is: if Ron Paul can win 3 of 14 districts in Michigan:  Michigan, Romney’s home state; Michigan, where rules literally shut us out from having a voice at county conventions, then he can delegates anywhere else.

The rules were rigged against us in Michigan.  But still we won national delegates.

If we could win anything here, we can win everything everywhere else.

Update:  This from Adam just mintues ago:

The e-mail I sent last night was accurate about the delegate counts, but the most important point that must be made is that Michigan has a party rule unique to us that prevented us from having a majority of state delegates.

Rule 5b, passed in 1988 in response to Pat Robertson’s campaign running a similar convention strategy as ours, states that “no precinct delegate vacancies may be filled in county conventions until all the state delegates have been chosen.”

What this means is that the state delegates were all elected by the precinct delegates elected in 2010–nearly a full year before Ron Paul announced his candidacy.  There was no way for Ron Paul supporters to take over their county conventions by filling precinct delegate vacancies.

Not to mention, in many counties the party used shenanigans to deny our delegates.  In Genesee County, for example, 42 precinct delegates and 100 Ron Paul supporters attended county convention to elect 66 delegates and 66 alternates–but rather than let the Ron Paul supporters in convention have the available seats, they filled them with their friends and family who weren’t even at the convention.  In other counties, state delegate lists were modified after the county convention was adjourned–a major violation of party rules.

So the state delegates, by and large, were NOT Ron Paul supporters.  They were ordinary Republicans.

And still, we won numerous national delegates.  In Romney’s home state.

The critical message, then, is that if Ron Paul could win this many national delegates in Michigan, with its unique party rule that kept us out of the convention, then he can win national delegates everywhere.

This report from Matt Collins:

We just elected 11 more delegates from MNGOP Convention to RNC who are Ron Paul supporters. That gives us 32 out of 37 delegates from Minnesota who are Ron Paul supporters!Or you could say that Ron Paul won Minnesota at 86%!!!!

- Jesse Benton, Campaign Chairman

Ron Paul announced today he would not be competing in the upcoming primary states, saying that he would focus, instead, on his delegate strategy.  A strategy that is working, by the way, and transforming the Republican Party.  It is something he has said many times since the February 11, 2012 caucus in Maine.

Only this time, the main stream media gave the announcement full attention and treated it like the end of his campaign.  Drudge ran it as a front page headline “Ron Paul is out.”

It is all evidence that Alfred Harmsworth’s famous quote that “news is not when a dog bites a man but, rather, when a man bites a dog” has now been offciaily turned on its head.

For the last two years the national media has been saying that Ron Paul is out.  So how could that possibly be news?  One might ask, “When has the mainstream media ever thought that Ron Paul was in?”

Bracing for a Ron Paul win in Iowa, major new outlets last January announced that if he won, the Iowa Caucus, itself, would be discredited.  According to the New York Times and the Associated Press, Ron Paul is still listed as the recipient of one, count em, one delegate from Iowa, a  state that he now dominates.

Likewise, the fact that Ron Paul supporters took a big chunk of the delegation of Mitt Romney’s home state of Massachusetts was not big news.  This was evidently not a man biting a dog.  There were no headlines, just small reports saying we were “flooding” state conventions with delegates.   We were sucker punching the front runner.  Even this, “we were stealing delegates.”  Now, that’s a trick.

It was a ridiculous assertion.   One cannot “flood” state conventions with delegates.  Nor can one “steal” a delegates, unless they mean we packed them away in vans and drove them off to camps behind barbed wired.   Each delegate was elected at District or County caucuses by delegates that were elected at precinct caucuses.  So yes, one can flood precinct caucuses with people who in turn must get elected but that had to happen last January or February.  It was then that we beat Romney in Massachusetts, and all the other states, it was in the heat of battle.

Now?  We are trying to make nice.  Like our attempt to “give” him the delegation from Arizona, an offer his man refused to make.  So after three attempts to give him a majority we reluctantly won instead, thank you.

If the victory in Arizona proves true, and remember, there is a tantalizing and suspicious delay, will it mean that Ron Paul has won the right to be nominated on the floor of the Republican National Convention in Tampa?  There is some controversy on that.  The Arizona delegates are supposed to be bound on the first ballot, although that didn’t stop some of them from voting for Pat Buchanan in 1992.   It isn’t over yet, there are some Ron Paul states that have been won at the County or District level, that still need the formality of winning the state convention, but barring parliamentary jujitsu, it could very well happen.  It is big news.

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The final slate was 62% Romney, 22% Santorum, 4% Gingrich and 4% Ron Paul.  A devastating defeat for the majority.

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Paul delegates who had give up weeks and months of their lives to get elected as delegates at the precinct and county levels were scandalized.  Taking a chapter from Missouri, they tried to convene outside the venue in the parking lot, claiming a plurality and calling to do things in order.  But was it too late?   Challenges will surely follow.

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Meanwhile, in Phoenix, Arizona, cocky Romney forces led by Nathan Sproul saw defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.  Ironically, the Ron Paul forces came to the state GOP convention to play nice.  They offered a deal.  ”You know our knack for organizing?” They said, ” You know we have the numbers? Why don’t we make sure there are no surprises and nothing embarrassing.  Your candidate has the nomination, we will give you 50% plus one of the delegation to Tampa, that gives you the majority, and let us have a nice delegation of the leftovers for our man too.”

But no.  The Mitt Romney forces insisted on scorched earth.  ”You can have one,” they said.

The Romney team then proceeded to fall apart.  It was so bad that Ron Paul operative Shawn Dow couldn’t have given them a victory if he had wanted it.  Said a Ron Paul staffer, “No matter how we tried, the Romney people wouldn’t move off their one delegate offer.  We had no choice.  We had to win.”

Sydney Hay, a Ron Paul spokesman who is sometimes seen on the Bill Mahr Show and once won a congressional nomination in Arizona , gave a positive, conciliatory speech to the convention.  And Josh Romney was well received by all.  And then, in a moment poorly handled, he returned to the microphone to pitch his daddy’s green ballot, with the Romney slate.

Yes, indeed, at that point there were boos but they came from the whole floor, even from Romney supporters who had worked hard to get their names considered as delegates.  No one was in the mood to let outsiders dictate a list of his friends who should go to Tampa.  It was yet another example of a poorly run machine.  The Romney kid should never have been given such an assignment.

“Why make Josh Romney get involved in a precinct level fight for delegates?” asked Sydney Hay. “Here was a presidential candidate’s son down in the gutter in a  fight.  They never should have put him in this place.”

Ron Paul took 11 of 18 delegates decided in the district caucuses.  It was the “at large” delegates that were left in the air.  The Romney forces stalled for hours, hoping to outlast the Ronulans who stayed put as Romney delegates, disgusted with their own organization, finally began to drift away.

In a last ditch effort the Romney forces tried to declare that there was now no quorum and other motions were offered.  When the vote for the “at large” delegates was finally taken it was sealed, under lock and key, with the promise that “tomorrow we will count those and sort things out.”

Uh huh.

Finally, the lights were turned out and the Ronulans were sent home, exhausted and weary, unaware that they had probably just made history and put their man into nomination at Tampa.  For the Romneyites, the unthinkable had happened.  It is not done yet, but Ron Paul may very well see his name entered into nomination in Tampa.

This last weekend was perhaps the most mean spirited of all.  One has to wonder, if Mitt Romney has won the nomination, why can’t they communicate that message to the state conventions?  The fact is that something bigger is happening than the nomination of a candidate.  The Republican Party is being remade in the image of Ron Paul, the Thomas Jefferson of our generation.  The Ronulan invasion continues.  It is not a conspiracy. It is organic.  It is natural.  And it cannot be stopped.

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Update:  Friends in Oklahoma insist that the convention which continued on the parking lot outside was indeed legal, had the quorum needed,  and resulted in another win for Ron Paul.  I hope they are right and we need to support that process legally and follow the challenges involved.

Romney delegates on the attack.

Josh Romney’s green slate.

- Abraham Lincoln

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to confirm that most of America’s presidents are “mama’s boys.”

It must make Sigmund Freud smile for one of his most enduring discoveries was how the perceived favorite child of a mother is empowered for life.  Consider the overwhelming evidence that mothers play a key role.  Many recent presidents were literally named after their mothers but none of their many siblings.

Ronald Wilson Reagan named after his mother Nelle Wilson.

Richard Milhous Nixon named after his mother Hannah Nixon.

Lyndon Baines Johnson named after his mother Rebecca Baines.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy named after his mother Rose Fitzgerald.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt named after his mother Sarah Delano.

Woodrow Wilson named after his mother Janet Woodrow.

And on and on it goes back into history. Rutherford Birchard Hayes named after his mother Sophia Birchard.  Of course it is not a perfect formula or Marvin Pierce Bush would have been elected president, not his older brother, George W. Bush, but it is common enough to defy any odds.

“You are a Delano,” FDR’s mother, Sarah Delano used to tell him, “not a Roosevelt.”

“I was a mama’s boy,” said Woodrow Wilson, “no question about it, but the best of womanhood came to me through those apron strings.”

“God bless my mother,” Abraham Lincoln supposedly said to his law partner William Herndon,” all I am or ever hope to be I owe to my angel mother.”

Keep in mind, the above famous quote, attributed to Lincoln’s law partner, may never have really been uttered.  Yes, it is featured prominently in almost every biography of Lincoln and appears in the first pages of Pulitzer Prize Award winning books but recent research shows that  the time and place named by Herndon  just couldn’t have happened and so, now even the quote is suspect.  But there is no denying that Lincoln loved his mother and perhaps, even more, his stepmother, who gave him the gift of books.

When I wrote The Raising of President I blind copied some of the above information to five psychologists, asking them to each give me their opinion.  I was especially intrigued why so many of the children who were namesakes of their mother went on to become presidents.

All five answered back with the same conclusion. When the mother took that infant to her breast she felt a special bond with the child who would bare her name for life and the infant could feel it.

I am only a layman who doesn’t pretend to understand such things but if it is true, if a baby can “feel” favoritism then just imagine the power and the impact for good or bad a mother, or a father’s words have on their children?   I was reminded of the experiments conducted by the Royal Horticultural Society.  If the human voice can empower a plant, then it must surely cause powerful reactions for good or bad on a human being.

There is a very predictable family formula for strong leaders, good and bad.  They have an attachment to the mother and an absent father.  Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedung all fit the pattern as neatly as Washington and Jefferson.

Andrew Jackson’s father died before the future president was even born.  His mother died when he was 14 years old.   Even when alive, she was often gone .  As a nurse she tended the wounded during the Revolutionary War.

When Andrew Jackson died as an old man, many years later, his body was full of bullets, including one lodged near his heart and too dangerous to remove.  They were the result of a life of action, including duels and wars.  It was as if he wanted to be worthy, the equal of those Revolutionary War soldiers who took his mother away from him as a boy.

In a sense, Andrew Jackson’s life was one long  journey back into the arms of his mother.

Read about mothers of the presidents.

And start reading The Raising of a President right now on Kindle.

Meanwhile, some journalists are scrambling in embarrassment, having assured their corporate masters that the whole drama is over.  But if Ron Paul can take delegates in Romney’s home state of Massachusetts, right under his nose, what other surprises are in store?

For the moment, the leading argument inside the Romney camp is being driven by Washington old hands who are urging the campaign to come down hard on the Ronulans, in the tradition of the John McCain – Robert Dole campaigns.  Keep the convention tidy, exclusive, show that they are in control and organized.

The counter argument, which comes from some of Romney’s own personal team,  is that it is too late, “that ship has already sailed.  There will be a sizeable Ron Paul delegation on the RNC floor anyway, we have the nomination, so let’s be nice, let’s take a page from the Reagan playbook and bring them into the fold.”  Or so they say.

The immediate question coming to a head this weekend and next is should Ron Paul’s name be allowed in nomination at the RNC in Tampa?  If the process is played out naturally, organically, that is exactly what will happen, for Ron Paul will have a plurality in more than the five states required to place his name in nomination.  Some in the Romney camp are fine with that.  “We need these people for the general election.  Let them have their day in the sun.  It will add drama and attract a larger viewing audience.”

But the prevailing mood of some in the Romney camp is to shut down the process, to use their power to stop it from happening.  It risks angering the Ronulans who will feel cheated by bitter power plays at state conventions this month and next but the Romney Hawks argue that allowing the Ronulans any more room will turn the convention into a fiasco similar to the 1992 convention.  That was the year that the RNC had Pat Robertson and insurgent candidate, Pat Buchanan, give speeches and  the George HW Bush – Dan Quayle ticket went down in defeat in the general election.

The Romney angels counter that this is not 1992.  That Pat Robertson and Pat Buchanan represented the most conservative base of the GOP at a time when they should be reaching out to a wider, general audience, while Ron Paul represents youth, Hispanics, independents and even Democrats, the very votes that Romney must now have to win a general election.  A recent Rasmussen poll has Ron Paul beating Obama and Romney only tying him.  “If we don’t have them in the general election,” say the more angelic Romneyites, “Then we lose.”

Whatever happens, the ball is now in the Mitt Romney court.  If the Hawks continue to prevail and they keep playing dirty at the state conventions they will stop Ron Paul from being nominated and probably their own chances of winning a general election.  They will also have a sizeable number of angry Ronulans on the floor of the RNC all with iPhone cameras to record every ugly moment of disunity.

What to do?

Next Wednesday, May 9, 2012, will be an important day.  I will be online that night at 9PM to talk with anyone who wants to join the discussion.  Here is the link.

http://www.facebook.com/DougWeadOfficial

Well, the cat is out of the bag.  Saturday’s district conventions in Louisiana gave the Ron Paul campaign 74% of the delegates heading into the June state convention where the delegation to the Republican National Convention in Tampa will be finally determined.  Another state, another unseen victory for the Texas congressman.  And, it should be noted, another embarrassment for the apparent nominee, former Governor Mitt Romney.  Now, the question is this.  How many other states have their own surprises coming?

Months ago the Ron Paul campaign looked at Louisiana and decided that the best strategy was to concentrate on the caucus.  The rules in Louisiana  apportion 20 of the states delegates from the votes in its statewide primary, which was held last March and 24 delegates from it caucus system which elects delegates at the precinct level to go to district conventions where they elect delegates to go to the state convention where the final delegation will be chosen.

What would you do?  Spend your money trying to win the 20?  Or spend your money trying to win the 24?  Former Pennsylvania Senator, Rick Santorum, former Speaker, Newt Gingrich, and former governor, Mitt Romney, spent their money competing for the publicity of the statewide primary, which Santorum won and which he proudly and tearfully acknowledged before a national television audience last March.  Our hapless New York Times and Associated Press duly reported that the delegates in Louisiana would be awarded 15 to Santorum and 5 to Romney.  Ron Paul was not even a mention.  But as Lee Corso would say, “Not so fast.”

The actual delegates will be chosen at a state convention in June which Ron Paul supporters will now dominate.  Not just by a bare majority but by 74%.   It means what they will not only get their 24 delegates to Santorum’s 15 and Romney’s 5, but they will also decide who the delegates representing Santorum and Romney will be.  Ain’t it sweet?  And it is the brainchild of Jesse Benton – John Tate’s masterful delegate strategy run by our intrepid,  Dimitri Kesari.

Shortly after the Newt Gingrich victory in South Carolina the hope for Louisiana seemed like a long shot.  There was even talk of helping Gingrich there, to blunt Romney and Santorum.  But the campaign surged and the moneybombs came through (thank you) and men and women at the grass roots refused to give up in the face of sometimes hostile party operatives.

Saturday, it all paid off and Ron Paul won majorities in contests in Congressional Districts 1, 2, 5 and 6.  The decision in district 4 was close, with Ron Paul winning almost half.

What does it mean?  It means you should review some of the posts written on this blog and read carefully what was predicted.  As of now, the Ron Paul campaign is ahead of anything anticipated and is doing more with less than any modern presidential campaign in recent memory.  It means that there are more surprises coming.  It means that Ron Paul will be a factor in Tampa.

Onto Texas, where liberty may once again make its last stand on May 29, 2012 in the Texas Primary.  Remember the Alamo.

Notation Update:  It gets better.  This from a member of our Louisiana team.

Doug can you please correct something in your post (even better than you state). Because of the allocation rules of bound delegates in the beauty contest primary – only 15 of the 20 primary delegates were awarded!! The other 5 get awarded at state convention WE now control! 

So…only 10 delegates are bound to Santorum and 5 delegates bound to Romney (from Primary). No other delegates are bound.

To summarize:

-20 delegates (all can be Paul backers, 5 bound to Paul, 5 bound to Romney and 10 bound to Santorum)
-18 CD Delegates (Paul can easily get 12, could get up to all 18 if we work with Santorum/Gingrich people)
-5 by “executive committee” – no clue if we have supporters on this thing and they go to RNC as uncommitted.
-3 party leaders.

Now, here are the facts.  No delegates to the Republican National Convention have been chosen from either state.  The selection of the official delegation from Washington State will take place May 30, 2012.  And the official delegation from Iowa will take place June 16, 2012.

Last Sunday night I reported on wins for Ron Paul in Minnesota and Iowa at the state’s respective district conventions.  Delegates were indeed chosen in Minnesota, at the district level, to be part of the official state delegation to the RNC in Tampa.  But not in Iowa.  The rules are different there.

The wins that I referred to in Iowa had to do with committee selection and the elections of district delegates to the state convention that could lead to a Ron Paul heavy delegation to the RNC.  The point to keep in mind is this.  It hasn’t happened yet.

In the end, Rachel Maddow will likely be right.  In fact, it will likely be better than what she is saying. She either got inside information from our campaign on the makeup of those delegates to state or she had her staff at MSNBC make phone calls to the delegates themselves to determine their favorite candidates.

By the way.  I misspoke on her show when I incorrectly claimed that Ron Paul had carried a county in 2008 that he had not actually won.  My point was right, that a Romney county chairman had postponed a county caucus that Ron Paul was expected to win, and one that he did eventually carry, but he had not won that county in the last cycle.  So mistakes are easy to make.

Which brings me to one more correction.  The International Business Times claims that Ron Paul will win a majority of the delegates from North Dakota.  Nada.  That will not happen.  In fact, that process is done and it is one of the states where the Ron Paul people were ambushed by Romney’s Goldman Sachs brigade.  While  Ron Paul beat Mitt Romney, who came in third place in the North Dakota state vote, Romney still won 60% of the delegation at the state convention by a combination of lawyers, parliamentarians, the elimination of paper ballots and controlling the audio visuals.  As the former state chairman said, “What could the Ron Paul people do?  Go up and write a delegates name on the screen?”

The point  here is to be accurate.  And when a mistake is made to correct it.  Which is a lot better than the New York Times or the Associated Press seem willing to do.  They have still refused to correct their lists of delegates that are now wholesale fiction.

So what does it all mean?

It means that journalists are beginning to catch on to the truth of the Ron Paul delegate strategy which is very different from what has been reported.  It means that we are on schedule to win many of those delegations from a number of states.  It means that a brokered convention would surely have happened if the Santorum and Gingrich campaigns had not collapsed.  And is less likely but still possible even now, along with other options, such as placing Dr. Paul’s name in nomination.  But it also means that things can go wrong.  It isn’t done yet.

Journalism is dead in America.  This is the age of entertainment.  Keep that in mind.  And double check your sources.

My earlier miscue:

Now, at last, we know there is a reason why.  Romney IS Obama.

At least that is the claim of scientists at Rothdale’s laboratory in Lead’s, Ireland who publicly announced yesterday that both men were actually cloned in the King’s College – Chicago University experiments of 1956.  Dr. Geoffrey Gordlers of Newcastle made the announcement and took questions from a stunned university audience at the Goldman Sachs Student Center.  As far fetched as the report may be there is indeed compelling evidence that is hard to explain.

Consider the following video evidence.