This is why people who like Ron Paul hate Jesse Benton. They had to have known how a press release like this would be spun. I don’t understand the logic behind this, or what good they expected to come from it.
The only thing I could imagine is they figured this would “rally the troops” to give and give big for the moneybomb this week, but they could have easily done that in another way.
Well…that, or perhaps there’s more to this strategy, and the idea is to make Paul’s campaign look weaker than it is. It’s possible they felt that he was getting too much attention for his delegate strategy and that it put more of a target on the delegates and the process. It’s possible they think that by making an announcement like this, they make it seem like the campaign is weak, and is crumbling, and is gearing up for it’s “inevitable downfall”…and warming up to make a deal.
Perhaps they think that if this seems to be the case, there will be less interest and motivation from the Romney campaign and the GOP footsoldiers, and the RNC in trying to mess with the delegate process and Convention rules. If they assume he’s going to crumble and assume Romney’s got it in the bag, they won’t care as much and won’t feel like it’s really necessary (i.e. worth the risk of creating a scandal) to try any big shennanigans.
I honestly don’t know. But those are the only scenarios I can think of.
:EDIT:
re: hating Jesse Benton