Jack Welch: The GOP Needs To Be Nice To Ron Paul When He Drops Out Because They Need His Followers

video

by Jon Bershad | 6:25 pm, January 27th, 2012

» 37 comments

Reuters announced just a few days ago that former GE CEO Jack Welch and his wife Suzy would be writing a weekly column for them. Their first one appeared today and they have been absolutely everywhere promoting it. Fortunately, it’s a bit of a doozy. In the column, they argue that Ron Paul will definitely not be receiving the GOP nomination but, even after he drops out, he’ll still be deciding the election thanks to his incredibly passionate base.

The big analogy that the Welch’s keep coming back to is that of firing people. The GOP needs to “fire” Paul carefully or else they’ll lose many young supporters who, as Jack put it, “wouldn’t usually pull the ‘R’ lever.”

From the column:

“Now, the GOP isn’t technically going to “fire” Dr. Paul. But look, even Ron Paul knows he’s not going to unpack his suitcases in the Lincoln Bedroom. At some point, his wildly entertaining, Don Quixote-like campaign for the White House is going to run out of time.

And then?

And then, GOP, watch out! Sure, it appears Paul is unlikely to mount a third-party campaign — he’s said so himself. But he’s also unlikely to spend the next few months out on the stump for the nominee, or even in dutiful silence. In fact, you can easily imagine Paul as an outspoken TV commentator from now until November, basically running without running just to keep his ideas in the mix.

But Paul is not really the GOP’s problem. It’s his followers, perhaps as much as 15 percent of the general electorate, many of them young, vocal and highly energized. Like Paul himself, they’re not exactly party regulars.”

One of the couple’s TV appearances was on Fox News’ Your World where Eric Bolling asked what the GOP should do with Paul. They proposed giving him a position the same way President Elect Obama did for his former rival Hillary Clinton. Suzy argued that, since Paul’s ideas were so “out there,” that position would have to be of an advisory capacity while Jack explained that it would be more than worth it if they could come to a point where Paul was appearing on shows like Bolling’s own The Five to talk up the candidate.

Hmmm, seems a bit optimistic but who knows?

Bolling then read a response to the column from Paul’s campaign in which they stated that they had a “great admiration for Mr. Welch” and appreciate his respect for the supporters, but thinks he forgets that Paul has a clear “path to the nomination.” Bolling summarized it as “Thanks but don’t write me off just yet.” Welch said he thought it was a good response but that he’d “bet the few cents he had that dealing with Mr. Paul will an important task for the nominee”…who clearly won’t be Mr. Paul.

Watch the clip from Fox News below:

Eric Bolling, fox news, Jack Welch, Ron Paul, Suzy Welch, Your World with Neil Cavuto

Anonymous

Shhhh, Jack!! I don’t think the Republican rank-and-file want you to say that in public. That’s suppose to be said in a quiet room
http://profiles.google.com/fatlibertarianinokc Fat Libertarian

I get sick to my stomach when I see Eric Bolling.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7RQ3BYT543OCYDUVW4U4NJVM5Y Mary

Today we see mainstream media launching a major offensive against Ron Paul. It makes sense; given a little more time during the debate last night, his polling numbers are up today. That threatens the establishment. Every time Ron Paul has begun to get a foothold with American opinion, the media pulls out the “racist newsletter!” card and flings it at him. Well, I’m here to say that I don’t think a single voter in this country is worried that Dr. Paul as President would enact some new racist policy (why would he? how would he? ridiculous!) As President, Dr. Paul would veto the excessive spending projects of out-of-control government and would bring home our troops, which would make us SAFER. Wake up, America. Please wake up.
Hanz Driver

Another horrible article.
Ron Paul has more and more support daily. These types of articles are what motivate so many to go out and promote Ron Paul. Thanks for fueling the fire of the Ron Paul supporters. keep up the good work.

Ron Paul 2012
http://profiles.google.com/fatlibertarianinokc Fat Libertarian

Give Ron a position in the administration as President.
Charles Ulysses Feney

Hey Jack… We Paulistinians will vote for your neocon stooges … When Monkeys Fly Out Of My Butt!!!
_____________________________
Ninety-Nine Monkeys For Ron Paul!

This process by which we select
Our President that we will elect
Has yielded this Year
The neocons worst fear:
The Ron Paul Hundredth Monkey Effect!

No matter how hard the media tries
To make Paul look bad in our eyes
We know his program’s correct
‘Cause we think and walk erect
And know the media only tells lies!

They’re reduced to trying to dissect
Ron on some old newsletter subject
But these media whores
Ignore neocon wars
And the Constitution they never protect.

They speak death to Paul’s message of Life
‘Cause they only know how to sow strife
But now masses reject
CNN’s neocon disrespect
And FOX news is really the Devil’s wife

But we howl and we hoot at their ire
For we know that their only desire
Is to see America wrecked
Now even presstitutes detect
That Paul’s campaign has unquenchable fire!
______________________
Charles Ulysses Feney
Anonymous

I, for one, hope he endorses Gary Johnson.
Anonymous

What is it with Fox? Sean Hannity, Bill O’Relly, Eric Bolling, all of them BIG MILITARIST! None of them have ever served in the military, they are simply coat holders. You fight, we will hold your coat and play cheerleader. Fox News Loves CHICKENHAWKS!!!
Anonymous

Eric Bolling has NO CLUE about this: Hear it firsthand from the CIA what we’re not seeing or being told that causes the blowback. (It’s not Americans)
http://youtu.be/3otk4g4aYiM
Anonymous

Don’t forget the media is controlled by the CIA who pick our presidents. Nuff said?
Anonymous

that easy enough Jack. The republican pick just needs to wear a Sasquatch suite in the first debate with Obama. Of course he’s going to have to reveal some of his interplanetary policy too. But, if they all die from breathing the Chemtrail fumes the government is dumping on them from above the clouds, they will be a moot issue.
Anonymous

Don’t upset the rubes, eh Jack?

By the way, is it true you stood behind Russert and Matthews when “Shock & Awe” started so the Bushies wouldn’t cancel any of GE’s potential massive war contracts if MSNBC talked out of school?

I know you fired Donohue and Banfield for that reason, but it never hurts to burnish those war mongering credentials, does it?
Anonymous

The Ron Paul people are not going to vote for either Obama or the GOP candidate unless it’s Paul. they will go for Johnson if he’s on the ballot in their respective state.
Dead_Air

Could someone please explain to me why Welch goes on FOX when he spent all those years running GE?
Anonymous

Really? That is tin foil hat territory.
http://www.facebook.com/p.timothy.davis Tim Davis

I love reading posts (and the “thoughts”) from you Ronulans… He doesn’t have a chance. He will never have a chance. You guys ALL act and do the same things liberals do. Thats why the online polls, etc, always show “over-whelming” support for him, but it never translates to the ballot. But good luck on your indoc… :-)
Charles Ulysses Feney

Dear Jack:

We’ve already got your four kids, and we’re comin’ for your old lady next!

Love,
Ron Paul fanatics
Hout Bosques

Let’s work through this.

First – all such “horrible”-ness originates not in this Mediaite report, but in the bubble existence of the fabulously wealthy Welch & spouse. The furtherest Jon Bershad’s report goes in this report on their first column in Reuters this: “who knows?”, which is totally ambivalent. And if your trying to express criticism of Mediaite for publicizing their column, then you miss the entire point of Mediaite, which is about selected aspects of media messaging, of which this selection fits easily within it’s normal frame of reference.

Second – you’re expressing dismay at the ‘promotion’ of Ron Paul, but Mediaite isn’t ‘promoting’ Ron Paul by simply reporting a media column attacking his use of the Republican party apparatus. Clearly he already HAS used that apparatus, and for several decades.

I’m going to assume now you’ve given up on your criticism of Bershad & Mediaite for publishing this report, because you really can’t answer any of that except by promoting totalitarianism or by resorting to Mitt Romney’s notion that some things ought only to be discussed away from the public in the quiet of back rooms. If that’s what you think, then you’re not really committed to republican democracy in the first place so there’s no point in debating with you.

Now, on to the Welch column.

First – we only have two major parties. They don’t derive from the Constitution. A certain percentage of the founders were so concerned with organized partisanship in politics, they wanted the Constitution written in such a way as to prevent them. On the other hand, a significant number of other founders wanted the Constitution set up to actually identify what they saw as inevitable, in order to allow Congress to regulate them from abusing the system. Thomas Jefferson spoke & wrote in favor of both positions, and also to the compromise of leaving parties out of the Constitution entirely. This led to the odd interpretation that Jefferson was in the first group, whereas his subsequent activities in founding the Democratic Republican party, the forerunner to both the current parties, meant he changed his mind. He did not; instead, he wanted American parties to evolve on their own. And they certainly did that: the two major parties that currently each own a piece of the name of Jefferson’s party bear next to no resemblance to the party he founded. Without going into detail, each has experienced the benefits & hazards of populism, yet each is still around because each has managed to find a way to absorb populist movements; if either didn’t, it would die.

Second – the evolution, or at least the history, of each of the two current major parties, reflects enormously on the impact of populism & power. The Welches are a power couple, and their column reflects a preference for power & the order established power brings over populism & the disruption populism can bring. Ron Paul espouses an eccentric mixture of policy positions almost all of which challenge establishment power, & so are seen as populist. For the Welches to seek to control Ron Paul is simply predictable – even though the history of the evolution of each of the two major parties shows that their openness to populism is what keeps them relevant.

Third – it’s too late. Ron Paul chose to be a Republican more than a half century ago. After he took time off from Congress, he returned as a populist. Could he have chosen to do that in the Democratic party? He not only didn’t, he couldn’t have: while Paul opposes much of the ways in which Republicans use power, he opposes much more of the ways in which Democrats use power, and if he’d gone independent from his return, he wouldn’t be where he is now, with a such a prominent platform to speak from. But now there he is, and if he were forced out by the GOP establishment, his base would leave with him, and with them millions of Republican votes. It’s not true that the GOP doesn’t benefit from Paul running his eccentric movement within the Republican party, & polls show just that. If he left, or was forced out now, his absence would have something like the effect that Ralph Nader had in his independent run for the presidency in 2000, except on steroids, and to the detriment of the R party, not the D party.

Fourth – have they not SEEN the Ronulans? Have they not LISTENED to them. Yes, there are a lot of principled libertarians among them, but for the most part they are almost exclusively white largely marginalized mostly males. Just look at what Paul did to build up his ‘base’: those newsletters. They don’t now encompass ALL his support, not by any means – but they are its spine, & it’s impossible to believe any of them have ever voted Democratic since Reagan committed to the Southern strategy.

Finally – this is sign of what the Republican establishment does every four years. If they’ve won the White House, then it’s all Morning in America & We’re Open For Business, hell bent towards another & deeper separation from democracy & equality. If they’ve lost, then it’s all Release the Kraken of populism to build up the party vote base for the next battle – which means dampening down all that populist energy in time for the November vote so they’ll support the latest establishment power selection, like always – like every single time since 1952, when they drew lucky with the Ike sweepstakes (We know from Harry Truman that Eisenhower seriously considered running as a Democrat at least as late as 1948, and from Truman’s reaction of feeling “betrayed”, probably even later.)

So this Welch column is normal normal for the power establishment, not just in the GOP but in both parties: an effort to draw the populists back into the fold.
Hout Bosques

Maybe – certainly that’s true to some extent. But I don’t think it’s realistic to think that if Paul doesn’t run independent, they’ll ALL vote for Johnson, or that they’ll decline to vote entirely. Look at this way: right now, the national polling includes Ronulans in the head count of self-identified Republicans, & it’s fair to assume that a bunch of them are in the mix of Rs indicating preferences for Romney or Gingrich over Obama. The one thing I think we can be most sure of is that they’re most unlikely to vote for Obama – unless the GOP completely ticks them off by trying to emasculate Ron Paul, in other words, doing what the Welches prescribe.
Hout Bosques

Simple: it’s money. He’s filthy rich & all his friends & acquaintances, everyone he talks to, is also filthy rich.
Hout Bosques

That misses the point. Ron Paul himself would agree with you. The point is, this year is the Last Stand of Ron Paul. This is it. He’s 77 & he’s not going to run again for Congress. So – just considering how determined he’s been with his messages, and for SO long – 14 years since he returned to Congress with this mixed bag of libertarian & contrarian & populist policies – do you think it’s at all likely he’s going out quietly?

I certainly don’t.
Anonymous

“Jack Welch: The GOP Needs To Be Nice To Ron Paul When He Drops Out Because They Need His Followers”

LOL. Listen, Welch. As a Ron Paul supporter, I can tell you with 100% certainty that my vote will never, NEVER, go to Gingrich, Romney, Santorum or Obama. I believe in a United States of America with a small constitutional republic as her government, where maximum personal and economic freedom reigns unchallenged, and where the constitution is treated as the absolute law of the land and not as a worthless piece of paper. The four people I listed above don’t believe in any of these principles. They believe that the role of POTUS is to rule, not to serve. They believe in a top down government, not a bottom up. They are all statists / authoritarians / war mongers / wanna be monarchs.
So knowing these facts, why the f**k would I or anybody else who believes in freedom, prosperity and peace ever want to vote for these horrible people?
Anonymous

The analysis brushes off the very real probability that Paul wouldn’t accept a subsidiary position in the administrations of those remaining on the stage. He’ll be looking out for his son’s higher aspirations and that’s already determined to be coming from outside the established wings. He might reason that accepting a slot in an administration not governed by his interpretation of libertarian philosophy runs the risk of undercutting by dilution his core support by associating with any failings that administration might produce.

In any case, who here thinks Paul would be satisfied with Treasury Secretary without assurances that he’d be allowed to pursue his critical concerns when its been shown under Obama that cabinet level persons need not even be a factor to an administration’s governance?

It’s a convention speech and influence through caucus votes on the party platform. That’s where the Republican party can win him over (by which I mean he’ll agree not to cause any trouble by speaking out in any way against the nominee), or drop the ball.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Zach-Coogler/683770602 Zach Coogler

Does anyone else here think it is funny that the man speaking in this article is Welsh, the former CEO of GE? THE VERY CORPORATION that owns several of the major media outlets like MSNBC, NBC, CNBC…just to name a few. GE is the SAME corporation that has annually renewed contracts with the government to manufacture and produce military equipment in a time of war or in a time of an approaching war (such as what we are dealing with in Iran, now) I mean it is QUITE OBVIOUS, and also insanely hilarious, that the news thinks knowledgeable people don’t see the amusement in this whole excuse for a real informing interview. OF COURSE, Welsh is going to get on here and promote everyone and everything EXCEPT Ron Paul. Ron Paul is the ONLY candidate willing to bring about REAL and POSITIVE change to this country. For Christ’s sake…the man spent his career monitoring a company that made it’s billions off of war…so what makes you think he would back or endorse any cause for a candidate that is to eliminate the war? I THINK YOU ARE A JOKE WELSH! Oh, and by the way, your “wife” is like 40 years your junior. Let’s just say she isn’t in it for the boinking. Sounds like a gold digger problem to me. Maybe you and Gingrich should sit down and have coffee. RON PAUL 2012!!
Jackson Baer

I think Ron Paul will take a solid 3rd in Florida and force Santorum out of the race. Paul was fantastic at the last debate showing his comedic side and came off as really likable.

RON PAUL 2012

http://www.whatthehellbook.com/the-book/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=262l6tbHSlU
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1190134026 Barry Dalton

Now, now.

This is what Country Club Republicans do.

Let them pat Paul on the head and maybe they’ll invite him to their next garden party.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1190134026 Barry Dalton

you make some decent points, but I have to disagree with your statement:

” Mediaite isn’t ‘promoting’ Ron Paul by simply reporting a media column attacking his use of the Republican party apparatus ”

Ever heard of the truism, “all press is good press”?

It may not be their intent or purpose to promote Ron Paul, but that is one of the results.

Editors, as you noted, pick and choose, i.e. “select” what to cover. If they choose to cover Ron Paul, that means they are not choosing to cover someone else, say Thaddeus McCotter, Gary Johnson, Fred Karger, or Buddy Roemer, to name a few.

To say that editorial decision is not promoting Ron Paul is a bit naive.

One of the primary reasons we have an intransigent 2 party system in this country is because the Press, both left and right but mostly centrist, collectively chooses not to give serious coverage to anyone who is not part of the Democratic or Republican establishments.
Adam Rodriguez

We will see. But we need to vote in lock step with one another against republicans and democrats.
Anonymous

help you find your love…..sugarcupid. C○ m】 –, a nice club for people to date.

help you find your love…..sugarcupid. C○ m】 –, a nice club for people to date.
Anonymous

I heard on the news today our guy is in 3rd place in Florida. Moving on up to the big time. Go Ron Paul you can make it. 14 points and gaining, put all those doubters to shame.
Anonymous

Sorry, but not ALL Ron Paul supporters would vote for another Republican who support the 1%. My son says he will support Obama is Paul isn’t in the race.
Anonymous

From what you are saying, the Ron Paul supporters also support the NO TAXES for the 1%????
So much for the 99% having to pay taxes so the Jack welch’s can pay ZERO. THAT is what a vote for another Republican will do.
Anonymous

True. I guess I should not have stated absolutes.
Anonymous

No, it’s because he is a republican. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckenberg =- lots of these guys are filthy and they wouldn’t go on FOX. Of course, they like 75% of the richest people are democrats.
Anonymous

No, it’s because he is a republican. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckenberg =- lots of these guys are filthy and they wouldn’t go on FOX. Of course, they like 75% of the richest people are democrats.
Anonymous

Ron Paul isn’t dropping out and his core supporters won’t back anyone else, now what?
Anonymous

Now hear this.

We will not vote for a republican nominee that is not Ron paul. Now read that again until it sinks in..

We will write him in, abstain, or double down on our contributions and grass roots efforts if he goes third partry.
NO negotiating, no speeches, no cabinet posts, no deals of any kind. We want our country back.

Ron Paul is the only chance the republican party has in the 2012 election, so get it through your thick skulls.