The Ron Paul 2012 Presidential campaign released the following statement regarding the results of yesterday’s election results. See comments below from Ron Paul 2012 National Campaign Manager John Tate.

“We are thrilled with the yesterday’s results. Our campaign to Restore America continues to gain ground, and we are poised to pick up even more delegates from Minnesota and Colorado adding to our delegates in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada.

“As people across the country view the results of yesterday’s contests, it is important to consider a few facts that have not been clearly reported. Not one single delegate was awarded yesterday, instead the caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado were the very first step in the delegate selection process. And there are still over 40 states left to go. The Ron Paul campaign plans to continue to vie for delegates nationwide.

“There are a few significant takeaways from yesterday’s contests to remember:

1) The Missouri primary means nothing. It was a non-binding beauty contest, and the contest that matters in the ‘show me’ state won’t take place for another month. The Ron Paul campaign is well positioned to win delegates in Missouri’s caucus a month from now.

2) As in Iowa where not 1 of the 28 delegates has been awarded yet, in Colorado and Nevada the Paul campaign will do very well in the state delegate counts. We will have good numbers among the actual delegates awarded, far exceeding our straw poll numbers.

3) In Minnesota where we have finished a solid second, we also have a strong majority of the state convention delegates, and the process to elect delegates has also just begun, the Paul campaign is well-organized to win the bulk of delegates there.

“We are confident in gaining a much larger share of delegates than even our impressive showing yesterday indicates. As an example of our campaign’s delegate strength, take a look at what has occurred in Colorado:

In one precinct in Larimer County, the straw poll vote was 23 for Santorum, 13 for Paul, 5 for Romney, 2 for Gingrich. There were 13 delegate slots, and Ron Paul got ALL 13.

In a precinct in Delta County the vote was 22 for Santorum, 12 for Romney, 8 for Paul, 7 for Gingrich. There were 5 delegate slots, and ALL 5 went to Ron Paul.

In a Pueblo County precinct, the vote was 16 for Santorum, 11 for Romney, 3 for Gingrich and 2 for Paul. There were 2 delegate slots filled, and both were filled by Ron Paul supporters.

We are also seeing the same trends in Minnesota, Nevada, and Iowa, and in Missouri as well.

“We may well win Minnesota, and do far better in Colorado than yesterday’s polls indicate.

“In the latest national poll from Reuters/Ipsos Poll, Ron Paul places a strong second with 21 percent, gaining ground on his main competitor nationally, Mitt Romney, whose support seems to be fading at 29 percent. Congressman Paul’s support has grown by 5 percentage points nationally since January, while Romney has seen a 30 percent decline in his support since January.

“This poll follows a January 30th Gallup Poll showing Dr. Paul within the margin of error of defeating Obama. Also, a January 16th CNN/ORC Poll showed Congressman Paul and Obama in a virtual tie in a general election showdown.

“Yesterday’s contests were significant, but not a decisive or a conclusive end to this race. Our campaign will keep pushing forward and continue to take our message of liberty all the way to the convention. This race after all is about delegates, not about beauty contests.”

The rise of Ron Paul continues! In the latest nationwide Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted February 2-6, among Republicans only, Mitt Romney obtained 29% (down from 30%), Ron Paul’s support grew to 21% (up from 16%), Newt Gingrich slipped to 19% (down from 20%) and Rick Santorum rose to 18% (up from 13%).

Among Republicans and Independents, Mitt Romney obtained 28% (down from 29%), Ron Paul’s support grew to 22% (up from 17%), Newt Gingrich slipped to 16% (down from 17%) and Rick Santorum rose to 16% (up from 12%).

by Ron Paul

While much has been made recently of the President’s unconstitutional appointment of Richard Cordray to be director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), lost in the hubbub has been any discussion of the unconstitutionality of, or the need for, the CFPB itself. Proponents of the CFPB claim that this new bureaucracy will help consumers by protecting them from fraudulent activity. In reality, it will only expose consumers to more financial harm.

Housed within the unconstitutional Federal Reserve, and funded not through Congressional appropriations but through the Federal Reserve’s interest revenue off the trillions of dollars of US government debt it holds, the structure of the CFPB ensures that it is run by unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats, with no effective oversight from Congress. Given broad power to regulate the activities not only of banks, but also of any other entity which the government deems offers a financial product, there is almost no limit to the scope of financial activities which the CFPB can oversee.

Giving impetus to the CFPB’s creation was the poor reputation of Wall Street banks and financial firms that developed as a result of the financial crisis. Banks which received trillions of dollars of taxpayer-funded bailouts turned around and shafted their customers by foreclosing on homes, raising credit card interest rates, and introducing numerous new fees.

But rather than keeping Wall Street in check as its proponents allege, the CFPB will end up placing further restrictions on the ability of Main Street Americans to engage in productive financial endeavors. Current law already allows only the richest Americans to invest in potentially lucrative ventures such as hedge funds because such investments are deemed to be “too risky” for the average American to invest in. The government in its paternalistic wisdom treats American investors as too stupid to know what to do with their own money, and “protects” them, supposedly, by keeping them poorer than they otherwise would be. We can expect even more of this once the CFPB is running in full stride.

The CFPB will further harm consumers by encouraging them to use only financial products which have received the Bureau’s approval. Many consumers will assume that these products are “safe”, and will fail to engage in their own due diligence, with predictably unfortunate results. We have seen this with the stock markets and the cases of Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford, where investors trusting the SEC to prevent fraud ended up suffering huge losses. Social Security is a similar case, in which millions of people placed their trust in the government to take care of them in their old age. The inability of Social Security to pay its future obligations is well understood but ignored, and millions of Americans will likely once again learn the hard way that the government cannot be taken at its word.