Romney campaign using dirty tricks, and Chicago-style tactics. Any of this sounding familiar yet?

By Allan Stevo

Author of “How to Win America for Ron Paul and the Cause of Freedom in 2012″

Also see Allan’s videos at LibertyVlogger.com

After
Ron Paul’s campaign captured an estimated 60% of Oklahoma’s available
delegates at the congressional level, Mitt Romney’s campaign started to
realize they had a problem on their hands in the Sooner State. It was
apparently a problem they didn’t feel they could handle.

Romney’s campaign has convinced a former member of the Santorum
campaign team to round up Santorum supporters for Mitt Romney and to
make sure they attend this weekend’s state convention, a task Romney’s
campaign has so far not been very good at.

David Van Risseghem, Rick Santorum’s Oklahoma state coordinator, sent
out an e-mail May 9 to Oklahoma Republicans attempting to get them to
turnout in opposition to Ron Paul and therefore presumably for Mitt
Romney, the only other candidate in the race. The note was apparently
sent from an e-mail address owned by the suspended Santorum campaign.

The vitriolic note from the Santorum campaign stated, ”It’s time for
all values voters to work together to keep our communities safe for the
next generation. Several Ron Paul activists want to legalize
recreational drug use, decimate obscenity laws, and sanction
prostitution.”

These ideas seem to be an attempt to slander Ron Paul, as these
viewpoints do not seem to appear anywhere on his campaign platform, nor
do issues of state law seem to be an issue that a federal congressman
deals with. Having taken an oath to uphold the Constitution, Paul does
not believe he has constitutional authority to do anything not mentioned
in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution. Paul certainly has no
authority to override state laws.

In the note, Santorum’s campaign theorized that this weekend’s
Oklahoma Republican convention might get nasty: “There will assuredly be
a passionate struggle for control of the convention, the national
delegation, and the party’s future.”

Taken in its entirety the note seems to be a call to action to
Santorum supporters, asking them to attend the convention in opposition
to Ron Paul and in support of the man trying to stop him from winning
the nomination: Mitt Romney.

This is an interesting move by Santorum’s campaign since Santorum’s
camp supports military veterans and Paul is the only veteran in the
race. Santorum supporters are pro-life and Paul is pro-life. Santorum
supporters are opposed to the debt and Paul is the only candidate to
propose a solution to the debt that will eliminate the federal budget
deficit within the next generation (in fact, it will do so within 3
years). Santorum supporters like limited government and Paul is very
strong (especially when compared to Romney) on the issue of limited
government. Santorum supporters don’t support the Wall Street bailouts,
while Romney did. Paul, in fact, has never supported a bailout or a tax
increase. The Santorum campaign has oddly sided with the highest bidder
as opposed to the more principled candidate.

The note from Santorum’s campaign is again another sign of a
struggling Romney campaign in the face of Paul surging. It now looks
like Paul may win as many as 12 states and may even have ardent Paul
loyalists outnumbering Romney loyalists at the Republican National
Convention – the highest legislative body of the Republican Party.

Mitt Romney believed and the media has reported that after Santorum
left the race the rest of the nomination process would be easy for
Romney. To the contrary, it’s become evident to many watching that he is
unfit as a leader in the GOP as he can’t inspire convention goers – the
most dedicated of Republicans – and he has so far failed at uniting the
party.

A Romney nomination spells defeat for the Republicans, as it will no
doubt leave Paul’s supporters feeling alienated, perhaps even searching
for a candidate outside of the GOP.

Romney, the presumed front runner, instead of working to bring some
15%-30% of the Republican Party into the fold is spending his April and
May alienating these Ron Paul supporters with rumors, dirty tricks, and
ugly Chicago-style tactics.

One would wonder if the only way the Republican Party will have a better summer would be for Romney to just drop out.

In the note, the Santorum campaign acknowledged the media blackout of
Ron Paul’s delegate success stating: “This Saturday, in Norman,
Oklahoma, Ron Paul’s people intend to complete their grand design and
add Oklahoma to the growing list of state delegations they already
control. The national media is largely ignoring the recent developments
in many state and district conventions.”