ABC’s Bret Hovell exclaims that “Ron Paul supporters are taking over CPAC!”
Libertarian Texas Congressman Ron Paul — who has a large and occasionally rowdy backing throughout the country — was scheduled to speak here at the Conservative Political Action Conference at 4:30
Friday afternoon.Large conferences being what they are, the schedule is running a little behind. But Paul’s mass of supporters started streaming into the hall on time, filling it up to near capacity and marking the biggest crowd of the day.
Georgia Congressman Tom Price, scheduled to speak at 3:30, but wrapping up closer to the start of Paul’s scheduled slot, was inadvertently heckled by the crowd — not necessarily for anything he said, but because Paul’s passionate fans felt the need to shout his name several times during Price’s remarks.
Shortly thereafter, when a group of young conservative activists were presenting brief remarks, one joked that he knew why such a large crowd had gathered: You’re here to see me, he said.
“Ron Paul!” the crowd corrected him, almost in unison.
CPAC is a large conference but small in the grand scheme of things and thus subject to organization, like the Iowa Caucuses. Mitt Romney and Ron Paul supporters have dominated CPACs in recent years. Both have enthusiastic followings among the college students that are the main audience for CPAC.
Regardless, I hereby go out on a limb and predict that Ron Paul will not win the Republican nomination for president in 2012. Nor will he be elected president on any other party’s ticket, as an independent, as a write-in, or in any other manner. His supporters are enthusiastic but few.
