DXPG

Total Pageviews

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Ron Paul Rally Strikes Tone Critical of Republican Party

By SUSAN SAULNY

TAMPA, Fla. â€" Thousands of boisterous supporters of the libertarian Republican presidential contender Ron Paul filled the Sun Dome at the University of South Florida on Sunday afternoon, striking a deeply critical tone against the Republican Party and its convention that begins here this week.

“Commentators will say that this is the extreme wing of the Republican Party,” said Doug Wead, the master of ceremonies and first of a long list of scheduled speakers. It is not, he said, adding, “Their meeting starts tomorrow a few miles away.”

The rally, on the eve of the kickoff of the Republican's nominating convention, was seen as an unpredictable element in an otherwise highly scripted week for the party, as legions of fans of Mr. Paul, a longtime House member from Texas, descended upon Tampa, with their larger intentions somewhat unclear. Would they try to disrupt the convention? Or distract from the moment in the spotlight for Mitt Romney, as he accepts the party's nomination?

For the moment, any agitation is limited to this highly organized rally, where many people are carrying signs and shouting for the elimination of the I.R.S. and the Federal Reserve banking system, sometimes even expressing disagreement among themselves.

“End the Fed! End the Fed!” a member of the audience interrupted while Walter E. Block, a libertarian professor at Loyola University in New Orleans, spoke about abortion and the importance of “saving babies.”

“Go home!” some other audience members protested.

The crowd seemed to grow impatient for Mr. Paul himself, instead of the dozens of surrogates who are in line to speak.

“If a libertarian can't come to a place like this and get a hearing without being booed, then we're a disgrace,” Mr. Block said.

Mr. Paul was not expected to be onstage for several hours.

Earlier, Mr. W ead said that when Mr. Paul does arrive on stage, “I promise you today, Ron Paul will get more than 89 seconds.”

The remark was a swipe at the organizers of the debates during the primary, when Mr. Paul often was not given as much attention as the other candidates.

Mr. Wead also referred to Mr. Paul as “a clean boat in a sea of garbage” and rejected the idea that the libertarian rally was a distraction from the official convention. “Isaac is a distraction,” he said of the approaching hurricane. “This is liberty.”