Romney, Mitt GOP 742,281 47%
Romney, Not GOP 828,621 52%

FL was expected to be a Romney state and the national Party establishment favors Romney. It's speculation, but it sounds plausible on first hearing.

Here's some more rampant speculation. What's the effect of Paul and Santorum running? A win for Romney.

Think about it. If you wanted to split the base, how would you do it?

First, you'd pick someone who was a pure evangelical. Someone to peel off the evangelical vote. Someone like Santorum.

Second, you'd run a libertarian. Who's supposedly more Libertarian than anyone? Paul.

Ok. Pure speculation. But regardless of intent, the result is a split Tea Party. This should be a lesson to the establishment Republicans. If you want to win, split the Tea Party vote.

-David

sheesh.

Elizabeth is right. The Paulites that are actually thinking about electing or influencing RonPaul don't think at all. They have no reason to leave the R party, because they are perfectly at home there at this time. Their political philosophy can be summed up by: I GOT MINE. STAY AWAY

Defining Libertarianism is quite difficult, because the 2 main branches (Left and Right) have only one thing in common: A profound distrust of coercive associations (re: government).

I've discussed the political process with a lot of people who consider themselves to be Right Libertarian. Uniformly, they consider the elective process to be fatally flawed, and participate only to promote discussion of alternative ideas of association. Their support of "mainstream" Libertarians like Ron Paul is predicated on the realization that candidates such as RP have no chance to win. This is a war for the soul of mankind. A revolution dedicated to changing the paradigm of government itself. To actually win a post in the current setup would defeat the cause. An excellent treatment of their ideas is found in Realizing Freedom. Oh, and the ones that I knew thought that Ayn Rand was a weirdo ... and a terrible author.

Left Libertarianism has as many different variants as there are bacteria in cheese. Paul Goodman wrote NY Times OpEd in 1968 that gives a good "feel" for left Anarchism in the late '60's. It should be noted that most LL supporters will have nothing to do with electoral system. Both the IWW and the CNT forbid member unions from endorsing any candidate running for political office.

Or the evangelical Christians ...

They can choose when to vote: that's a state action, under their control. But how on earth can they ignore the rule about proportional delegates, and issue a decision on behalf of the RNC credentials committee? The national convention is in their state, but that doesn't mean it's their show. Or does it?

If I were setting these "rules", I think I would be looking into booking a convention center in Ohio about now.

I'm not sure the Ron Paul supporters think things through that clearly.