Ron Paul rejected an appeal to endorse John McCain’s presidential bid . Paul stated he would also not endorse Obama and that voters should instead support independent candidates.
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Story Transcript
Ron Paul rejects request from McCain
Producer: Zaa Nkweta
ZAA NKWETA: Congressman Ron Paul rejected the McCain campaign’s request for an endorsement this week and urged voters to support one of the third-party candidates for president. In a CNN interview, Paul had this to say:
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REP. RON PAUL (R-TX): He doesn’t represent anything I believe in. You know, I represent, I believe, what Republicans should believe, and I campaigned on that and got a lot of support. But I can’t support somebody that virtually disagrees with all my positions.
HOST: What about Barack Obama?
PAUL: Well, I don’t think he agrees any more, and I don’t see any difference between the two candidates.
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Paul, a Republican who abandoned his White House bid earlier this year, urged Americans to vote for several independents, including Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party, former Georgia Republican representative Bob Barr of the Libertarian Party, former Georgia democratic representative Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party, and independent candidate Ralph Nader. Despite winning none of the primaries this year, Paul developed a strong following on the Internet and set a single-day record for raising money online. Thousands attended his protest last week under the GOP convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Paul espouses limited government, the end of American empire, and the closure of all US bases around the world. He is a critic of election laws that he says are designed to prevent third-party candidates from getting on ballots and participating in debates.
PAUL: I really want the American people to wake up and challenge the system. You can’t get on the debates. You can’t get on the ballots. The parties are the same. There’s really no choice in the system. We don’t have good democratic process here.
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