Ron Paul: Political Ninja

This news probably won't be much of a surprise to those who have followed the GOP primary closely, but for those who haven't and are wondering why Ron Paul still hangs in there, here's your answer.  He has a plan, a plan that acknowledges the useless theater that is the primary voting process for many states and all the media horserace sensationalism that surrounds it.

It's a straightforward approach that he's never kept a secret.  Essentially any state where the GOP convention delegates are determined by a caucus, the public vote carries no real weight.  It should, but it doesn't have to.  Here's an article that covers the basics:

Ron Paul Quietly Amassing An Army Of Delegates While GOP Frontrunners Spar

In a caucus state, the process for choosing delegates to send to the GOP convention in Tampa, is pretty involved.  It starts with local meetings where volunteers are chosen to go to county meetings.  Those county meetings then send on a smaller number of volunteers chosen from the local levels, and so on up the ladder to the state level until you get to the core group going to Tampa.

Ron Paul's campaign strategy is to get enough of his precinct-level supporters to volunteer to become delegates to the county conventions so that they outnumber other campaigns. "Their strategy is to gobble up as many of these slots as they can," said Putnam. 

Then, if you manage to stack the beginning of the process with Ron Paul delegates, as the system moves through the county conventions and the district and state-wide conventions the chances of Ron Paul-supporting delegates emerging at the end and being chosen to go to Tampa is greatly increased.

So has it worked?  Yeah, kind of.  Because it takes so long to work through the caucus process, actual results for some of the earliest states are just starting to come in.  Iowa voted first.  Mitt Romney first got the nod as the winner.  The media went nuts with that.  Then Iowa admitted there were problems with their counts and a bit of scandal bubbled up.  The media went nuts with that.  Then Iowa announced that Rick Santorum actually won the state and the head of the Iowa GOP resigned.  More media going nuts.

Turns out none of that mattered.  It's recently come to light that Ron Paul won Iowa when the votes that matter worked themselves out.  Or maybe he didn't win, but he at least tied for first.

Breaking News: Ron Paul Wins Iowa! (Yes Iowa)

He's also won Minnesota, Maine, and Nevada.  That's not what I was hearing on the news during those states' election nights, but that's how the final votes played out.  The Christian Science Monitor goes into what this all means:

Why Ron Paul's Big Wins In Maine And Nevada Matter

A possibility looming on the horizon for Mitt "Seriously... who do I have to blow to finally be given the GOP nomination?" Romney is that he does the whole presumptive-candidate thing for the next few months and then learns that Ron Paul has finagled enough delegate votes away to prevent the assumed coronation.

And that point?  I grab the popcorn and enjoy "Real Housewives of the GOP" crazy train for all it's worth.