*Written by Rob Rimes.

Yesterday was a pretty emotional day for Paul supporters everywhere. The Paul campaign announced that they would no longer compete in the states that have not yet voted as it would cost too much money moving forward. In fact, here is what Ron Paul said himself:

Moving forward, however, we will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted. Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have.

This is completely understandable and really just goes to show how fiscally responsible Dr. Paul truly is, especially when comparing him to his conservative counterparts who spent themselves into oblivion and racked up some serious campaign debt. With that being said, this is only more reason to vote for the man as he knows where to draw the line and also knows what all of Paul supporters know, which is that we will all continue to vote for the man regardless of the campaign’s inability to compete with the Wall Street funded Mitt Romney. When those Occupy kids are looking for a leader it should probably be the guy whose campaign is funded by the downtrodden 99 percent as opposed to the 1 percent big bank bank funded candidates like Romney and Obama.

This doesn’t mean that Paul is completely out of this race. As was just mentioned, his supporters are loyal and will vote for him despite this seemingly tragic pitfall. The hunt for delegates will continue and ultimately, Ron Paul will continue to surprise the doubters and make a serious impact on this race. This isn’t blind faith or overly-loyal Paulbot idiocy, this is facts. I doubted the campaign’s strategy but have since learned that in the realm of acquiring delegates, they are doing a hell of a job. The media doesn’t accurately report on what’s going on in the delegate hunt and honestly, you can go to various mainstream media sites and look at their delegate counts and the numbers don’t match – corporate media is clueless. Romney may have been announced the winner in Maine but Paul walked away with the most delegates. Santorum and Gingrich have lost theirs and with 11 states left to vote, Paul could continue to be a thorn in the side of the establishment beast. As I’ve said many times, this isn’t about winning, this is about the message and gaining enough support to stamp it on the leviathan’s forehead before it is once again let loose on the masses. In other words, Paul might not win the fight but he is going to break a motherfucker’s nose.

Even though the mainstream media has been quick to gleefully write Paul off as a quitter, his forces are moving forward – just more covertly in a way that is unique and foreign to these political experts spewing regurgitated pre-written bullshit through our television and radio speakers. In order to dispel the mainstream hogwash, Paul’s chief strategist Jesse Benton sent out an official statement. Here is some of what that memo states:

Let me be very clear. Dr. Paul is NOT ending his campaign. As Dr. Paul has previously stated, he is in this race all the way to the Republican National Convention in Tampa this August. Looking ahead, our campaign must honor that trust by maximizing our resources to ensure the greatest possible impact at the National Convention. So while our campaign is no longer investing in the remaining primary states, we will continue to run strong programs at District and State Conventions to win more delegates and alternate delegates to the National Convention.

To this end, our campaign has several positive and realistic goals: 1) Having recently WON Maine, we believe we can win several more states. 2) We will win party leadership positions at both the state and national level. 3) We will continue to grow our already substantial total of delegates.

We will head to Tampa with a solid group of delegates. Several hundred will be bound to Dr. Paul, and several hundred more, although bound to Governor Romney or other candidates, will be Ron Paul supporters.

Unfortunately, barring something very unforeseen, our delegate total will not be strong enough to win the nomination. Governor Romney is now within 200 delegates of securing the party’s nod. However, our delegates can still make a major impact at the National Convention and beyond. All delegates will be able to vote on party rules and allow us to shape the process for future liberty candidates.

We are in an excellent position to make sure the Republican Party adds solid liberty issues to the GOP Platform, which our delegates will be directly positioned to approve. Our campaign is presently working to get several items up for consideration, including monetary policy reform, prohibitions on indefinite detention, and Internet freedom.

Finally, by sending a large, respectful, and professional delegation to Tampa, we will show the Party and the country that not only is our movement growing and here to stay, but that the future belongs to us…

Considering that two of the biggest states, California and Paul’s home state Texas, haven’t yet voted, there are a shitload of delegates that could easily go Paul’s way, especially since he has performed well in both of those states. The race is still as interesting as it has been all along, even though the media is ignoring Paul and pretending he isn’t even a part of this race anymore. Their “out of sight, out of mind” strategy hasn’t worked in the past and it won’t work this time. Paul supporters aren’t going anywhere and their numbers will continue to expand.

In retrospect, was this even about winning the presidency or was this about turning the Republican Party on its head and making a real difference? Is this really about shattering one half of the two-party mold in an effort to fix the system from within? If so, will it work? Either way, this game has been well-played by the Paul camp and ultimately it’s up to us everyday people to see that the message is sent and clearly understood. From here on out, this game is going to get pretty fucking filthy. Put on your gloves because we aren’t done swingin’!

Ron Paul Ends His Campaign In New Primary States … What Does It Mean?

The corporate media is abuzz with headlines saying that Ron Paul has finally seen the light, thrown in the towel, and ended his campaign.

However, Ron Paul supporters believe that – while he won’t be campaigning in the primary states – Paul is still in the race, and will be focusing on winning delegates in caucus states.

For example, Policy Mic argues:

Ron Paul announced today in a letter to supporters that he will not campaign for the popular vote in states that have yet to held their primaries.

In his under-reported IDD strategy (“It’s the Delegates, Dummy”), Paul has focused on the fact that presidential nominees are chosen by delegates, not by popular vote. Paul’s campaign has focused to date especially on states that allow committed Republican Party members to have a greater voice in the process. States like Iowa, Nevada, Maine, Louisiana, Washington, and Colorado have been states where Paul supporters have made tremendous inroads in winning party leadership positions and being influential in the national delegate selection process. While many states have yet to finish the delegate selection process, it increasingly looks like Paul could dominate the nationwide delegate process called long ago in Romney’s favor.

Paul’s announcement today fits that same vein, but will no doubt surprise many of his supporters. Not only is Paul saying “It’s the Delegates Dummy” to Mitt Romney and the national media, he is taking it a step further and saying that spending his supporters’ money on winning the popular vote is of such little importance to the campaign that they aren’t going to waste time or money on that any longer.

Does that mean Paul has dropped out? Quit the race? Suspended his campaign? Packed his bags? Returned home to lil ole Lake Jackson, Texas? No, it means quite the opposite. It means that Paul will have more ability to focus on delegate selection instead of the many upcoming winner take all states.

As has been the case from January 3 – the night of the Iowa Caucus – this is a two man race. It’s Mitt Romney v. Ron Paul. Paul, the seasoned campaigner, will be on Romney’s heels through to the RNC in August. If Romney makes 1,144 delegates on the first ballot, Romney becomes the Republican nominee. If Romney slips, the man on his heels will gladly take his place. That’s been the story since Iowa and remains the story today. The decision remains in the hands of 2,286 Republican delegates, many of whom have yet to be chosen. Will it be more of the same or will it be the man who’s spent some 40 years standing on his principle against the GOP establishment both inside DC and out?

The following videos show that passionate Paul supporters believe that Paul is still in the race:

CONTINUED at Washington’s Blog.

Rep. Ron Paul of Texas said Monday he will not compete in primaries in any of the states that have not yet voted — essentially confirming Mitt Romney will win the Republican presidential nomination.

Mr. Paul said he will continue to work to win delegates in states that have already voted and where the process of delegate-selection is playing out. He said that’s a way to make his voice heard at the Republican nominating convention in Tampa, Fla., in August.

“Moving forward, however, we will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted,” Mr. Paulsaid. “Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have.”

He did encourage his supporters to still turn out and vote.

CONTINUED at the Washington Times.

Newt Gingrich’s daughter said Tuesday that the former House speaker will “reassess” his campaign after the vote in Delaware, potentially setting the stage for his exit from the Republican presidential race.

Jackie Gingrich Cushman said her father’s campaign is slimmer but still winning over voters who aren’t yet sold on likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who was expected to win contests Tuesday in Delaware and four other states.

Gingrich has hung his comeback hopes on a strong showing in Delaware and has spent considerable time there in recent weeks. He has not won a presidential primary since finishing first in his home state of Georgia on March 6.

Gingrich’s daughter said the campaign would re-evaluate its standing after Tuesday’s vote.

“He talked about waiting for results and looking to see what happens and then potentially reassess,” she told MSNBC on Tuesday about her father, who has been under pressure for some time to drop out of the race.

She hinted, as Gingrich has in recent days, that the race is fluid and that a dramatic shift could come at any time.

CONTINUED at Yahoo News.

The judge presiding over the Trayvon Martin shooting case has removed herself after George Zimmerman’s attorney said she had a possible conflict of interest.

Florida Circuit Judge Jessica Recksiedler recused herself Wednesday because of a potential conflict that relates to her husband.

He works with Orlando attorney Mark NeJame, who was first approached by Zimmerman’s family to represent the neighborhood watch volunteer.

But NeJame declined and referred them to Mark O’Mara, who is now representing Zimmerman. NeJame has since been hired by CNN to comment on the case.

Judge Kenneth M. Lester Jr. will preside over the case.

Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder for the Feb. 26 shooting of the 17-year-old Martin. Zimmerman said he shot Martin in self-defense after Martin attacked him. Martin was unarmed.

Source: WTOP.

Newt Gingrich insists his fans will not be silenced.

Mr. Gingrich, a former House speaker, on Tuesday morning threatened not participate in any future debates with audiences that have been instructed to be silent. That was the case on Monday, when Brian Williams of NBC News asked the audience of about 500 people who assembled for a debate in Tampato hold their applause until the commercial breaks.

In an interview with the morning show “Fox and Friends,” Mr. Gingrich said NBC’s rules amounted to stifling free speech. In what has become a standard line of attack for his anti-establishment campaign, Mr. Gingrich blamed the media for trying to silence a dissenting point of view.

“I wish in retrospect I’d protested when Brian Williams took them out of it because I think it’s wrong,” Mr. Gingrich said. “And I think he took them out of it because the media is terrified that the audience is going to side with the candidates against the media, which is what they’ve done in every debate.”

Mr. Gingrich soared to victory in the South Carolina last week after back-to-back debates in which he took on the moderators with as much zeal as he took on his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination. The audiences, which were far larger and encouraged to participate, cheered him on as he pushed back. First he lashed out at Juan Williams of Fox News for suggesting that Mr. Gingrich’s comments about blacks and welfare were offensive. Then he snapped at John King of CNN for opening the debate with a question about accusations that he had asked an ex-wife for an “open marriage.”

Mr. Gingrich’s performance in the debate in Tampa on Monday night was far more muted. Critics noted that he seemed to be off his game. The National Journal, which co-hosted the NBC debate, compared Gingrich to “a stand-up comedian whose routine suffers without echoes of laughter egging him on.”

Mr. Gingrich clearly noticed something was off, too. “We’re going to serve notice on future debates,” he told Fox. “The media doesn’t control free speech. People ought to be allowed to applaud if they want to.”

Source: New York Times. Video at link.

Rick Perry is telling supporters that he will drop his bid Thursday for the Republican presidential nomination, two sources familiar with his plans told CNN.

The Texas governor will make the announcement before the CNN debate in South Carolina, the sources said.

The South Carolina primary takes place Saturday.

It was not known immediately whether Perry will endorse another candidate.

Perry placed fifth in Iowa and last in New Hampshire – a state in which he did not actively compete – and had said he would launch a bid to win in South Carolina.

“South Carolinians are looking for a conservative candidate that will get this country back working again and I am it,” Perry told CNN last week.

On Wednesday, CNN asked Perry about a poll that showed him with only 6% support among likely voters in the South Carolina primary.

He insisted he was continuing with the effort to have a strong showing in the state.

“We’re convinced that that’s our goal, so the idea that we’re going to do anything else, other than try to impact this election is – that’s why we got in it. We didn’t get in it because it was our purpose in life to be the president of the United States. We did it because it was our purpose to serve this country, and that’s what we’ve been called for, and that’s what we’re going to continue doing.”

When Perry entered the race in August, he immediately did well in the polls. But a series of gaffes, particularly at debates against his rivals, sent his support plummeting.

Source: CNN.

Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman will drop out of the race for the GOP presidential nomination on Monday, a campaign advisor confirmed Sunday night.

The decision comes the day he received the endorsement of The State, Columbia, SC’s newspaper, and nearly a week after finishing third in New Hampshire- a state where his campaign focused as a pivotal launch pad for his bid.

Huntsman appears to have received little if any boost from New Hampshire, still placing at the bottom of most national and South Carolina polls in the low single digits.

Matt David, a spokesman for Huntsman, told the New York Times, that Huntsman will endorse Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

Huntsman, a former two-term governor of Utah, formally entered the presidential race in June well after many of his GOP rivals like Romney who had already formed campaign organizations and fundraising networks. His resignation as President Obama‘s first ambassador to China became effective in late April. His stint in the Obama administration was viewed skeptically by some voters, but Huntsman defended it as service to the country.

From the beginning, Huntsman had vowed to be a different kind of candidate – from his early videos highlighting his love of motorcycle riding to his demeanor in the GOP debates as the adult in the room.

But as the campaign developed, Huntsman began drawing sharper contrasts with his rivals, especially Romney.

When the GOP front-runner said before the New Hampshire primary that he liked “being able to fire people” – a comment that was taken out of context during remarks on health care – Huntsman responded that it indicated his opponent is “slightly out of touch with the economic reality playing out in America right now, and that’s a dangerous place for somebody to be.”

Source: USA Today.

Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has cancelled her South Carolina trip and will hold a press conference at 11AM ET according to NBC News.

This is in addition to Rick Perry canceling SC events and flying back to Texas to reassess his future.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney won the Iowa caucuses Tuesday night by eight votes.Romney narrowly edged out former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

Michele Bachmann finished last in the Iowa caucuses.

Source: Count on 2.

UPDATE (11:30 A.M):

Rep. Michele Bachmann will “suspend her campaign,” a senior campaign official told ABC News today, hours after placing last in the Iowa caucuses and vowing to continue in South Carolina.

Bachmann cancelled plans to travel to South Carolina this morning and scheduled an impromptu news conference for later today.

Bachmann staked her candidacy on Iowa, the state in which she was born and raised. In September, campaign manager Keith Nahigian called Iowa a “must win” state.

Bachmann placed sixth out of the six candidates competing here in Tuesday’s first-in-the-nation caucuses, receiving only 5 percent of the vote and losing in Waterloo, the town where she was born.

Iowa became the backdrop of her presidential bid when in June sheannounced her candidacy in her hometown of Waterloo.

It became the springboard for her stint, albeit short-lived, as the GOP front-runner after she secured the top spot at the Ames Straw Poll in August.

And today it became the insurmountable hurdle that ended her run for the White House after she finished dead last among the GOP candidates competing in the Iowa caucuses.

Bachmann, a three-term congresswoman from Minnesota, emerged on the national political scene riding the wave of Tea Party activism. As the founder of the Tea Party Caucus in Congress, Bachmann’s socially conservative, family-oriented approach initially captured the support of staunch conservatives and evangelical Christians.

Bachmann has five children of her own and has taken in 23 foster children.

She supports a constitutional amendment defining marriage between a man and a woman and opposes abortion under any circumstances. She came under fire in June after a gay patient treated at the Christian counseling centerBachmann and her husband own told ABC News that the clinic tried to “pray the gay away” using so-called reparative therapy.

She also took some heat after implying that the HPV vaccine, which rival candidate Rick Perry mandated as Texas governor, could cause mental retardation in young girls, a claim the American Academy of Pediatrics said had “absolutely no scientific validity.”

When it comes to the economy, which the majority of voters say is their No. 1 issue this cycle, Bachmann touts her experience as a “federal tax litigation attorney,” a.k.a. tax evasion prosecutor for the IRS.

Her tax code tag line is often that every American should pay at least some income taxes, rather than just 47 percent who currently pay them. Bachmann says that broadening the tax base will pay for tax breaks for high-income earners.

Bachmann’s 11-point jobs and tax proposal, the “American Jobs, Right Now” blueprint, also calls for ending taxes on repatriated profits and expanding domestic energy production.

She claimed that Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s flat-tax plan, which he announced in October, is an “imitation” of her plan.

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; thank you Gov. Perry for using my ideas for your tax plan,” Bachmann posted on her Facebook wall shortly after Perry announced his plan.

After a similarly poor showing at the Iowa caucuses Tuesday, Perry said he will take a few days off to “determine if there is a path forward for myself in this race.”

Source: ABC News.