Ron Paul on CNN Amer Morning 7:40ish am ET 3/10

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/03/10/intv.ro...

Transcript of the Interview:

RP : It’s not over. It’s certainly winding down. There are a lot less primaries left. Super Tuesday has passed and McCain has the nominal number. But you know, if you are in a campaign for only gaining power that is one thing. If you are in campaign to influence ideas in the future of the country, the campaign is never over. So this has been a tremendous vehicle for us. We have gotten 350 thousand people together. I tell you what, they don’t want to quit. They want this. This is just the beginning. They are very much involved
in influencing the party, and getting involved, and becoming candidates. So the true revolution on the change of the party as well as change of the country, is ongoing. So we feel very good about it, which means I am still in the race but certainly in a manner that is less energetic than it was six months ago.
There were so many primaries.

CNN: but the bottom line is though, you’re going to continue to contest in the upcoming primaries?

RP : Sure I will go and Pennsylvania is coming up and North Carolina is coming up with a lot of supporters there. I feel more or less obligated because there might be 30,000 volunteers in Pennsylvania waving signs. I don’t feel good walking away from them. Some of them actually believe that a lot of good will come from these, and a lot more has come to this campaign that I ever dreamed. I didn’t think that it would last that long, or would energize the many or raise so much money. So we are really excited about what is going on.

CNN: So Congressman, so when people say, ron paul is……. out of the presidential race…… that’s true, not true ,partly true? How would you describe it?

RP: well, I would think in a nominal sense, you know one of the odds was overcoming delegates of John McCain or his delegates discerning , so that way is over. But the campaign to get maximum number of votes and the maximum amount of delegates to participate in writing platforms and talking about the future, I mean, I think we are very much involved and very much alive.

CNN: So you’re still trying to influence this race, you’re still trying to get your issues out there, there are some people who are saying that the best way you can do that is to will be to launch a third party candidacy or a independent candidacy. What do you say?

RP: well, I don’t think it’s very practical. I think the Republican deserves to have a at least a conservative to vote for. Right now, the Conservative base does not support John McCain because he is identified more with the liberal democrats. So therefore why should they be disenfranchised. Although you know the odds are slim but they still have the right to vote for somebody that stands for traditional republican conservative principles, limited government, personal liberty. I means this is something the republican used to brag about and preached so they deserve a chance to vote for that.

CNN: so McCain is out there in the campaign trail now, saying that he is trying to unify the party, he is trying to re-energize the party, are you suggesting he is not the guy to do that?

RP: Well, I would suggest that unity might be secondary to principle. I mean what do we believe in, I mean if you can unify a party and reject your principle, what is unity worth?
I would say it’s a healthy thing to have a discussion and debate that is the campaign is all about.

CNN: but will you support John McCain?

RP: I am not unlikely to support John McCain unless he changed his views. I mean he does not represent anything I talked about for 30 years: Non-intervention foreign policy, personal liberty, civil liberties, Free market, no McCain/Feingold, no child left behind. I mean he doesn’t stand for any of those things. So how could I reject everything I talked about for 30 years and galvanized 350,000 people, say…ah Ok now it’s all over, unity is the most important thing. Now I endorse John McCain. Nobody would understand that. And I certainly would have a difficult time adopting to that.

CNN: Well the flip side of that coin, you are the only
Republican calling for a withdraw from Iraq would your supporters, you’re not going to become the president and be in a position to effect that, would they be better off voting for democratic candidate?

RR: Oh I don’t think so, because I don’t think they are very sincere. I mean if you look at Obama’s voting record, he has voted not to end the war, he has voted to finance the war. So his rhetoric he is playing to the people that come my way, but he is every bit as much as an intervention. He wants to send more troops in Afghanistan. He wants to broaden the military. So I think it’s a fraud what he is talking about when he wants us to really get out of Iraq. But I think that is politics.

gcarroll-grand rapids, mi

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/03/10/intv.ro...