Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, made a campaign stop in Missouri at Kansas City's historic Union Station. The Kansas City Star reports around 1,000 people attended the rally. The placement and timing of the rally were no mistake, even though Missouri's caucus is four weeks away.
Paul's speech was rare in terms of GOP presidential hopefuls in Missouri.
* The Texas representative said, according to the Associated Press, "We've slipped away from a true Republic. Now we're slipping into a fascist system where it's a combination of government and big business and authoritarian rule and the suppression of the individual rights of each and every American citizen."
* Paul also touted entitlement programs for Americans must end because the government has no money to spend on them. Once again, he used the word "revolution" when talking about his campaign.
* Paul received more than 30,000 votes in Missouri's primary on Feb. 7. He finished in third place out of three major candidates since Newt Gingrich wasn't on the ballot. The votes from that primary don't count as Republicans chose to caucus March 17 so they can choose delegates.
* The Missouri caucus is in four weeks. Kansas holds its caucus March 10. A stop in Kansas City supports both states.
* Missouri Republicans were meeting at an annual Lincoln Days gathering not far from Union Station. Some Republicans slipped out of the banquet to hear Paul speak. Kansas GOP leaders were also meeting on the Kansas side of the border at the same time as Paul's rally. Although the national candidate claimed he didn't know about the previously set gatherings, his aides did, according to CBS News.
* Among four mainstream candidates, Paul is the only one who has yet to win a nominating contest. His best showing has been in Maine, where he lost to Mitt Romney by fewer than 200 votes and just 3 percent. The New York Times reports Paul has 18 delegates out of the 1,144 needed to secure the nomination at the Republican National Convention in August. Romney leads with 105 delegates, not even 10 percent toward winning the nationwide nomination for his party.
* Missouri has 52 delegates at stake when GOP members caucus. Kansas has been allocated 40 delegates for its caucus event. Paul's campaign stop is one stepping stone to try to earn more delegates towards his goal of winning the right to take on incumbent Barack Obama in the November general election.
William Browning, a lifelong Missouri resident, writes about local and state issues for the Yahoo! Contributor Network. Born in St. Louis, Browning earned his bachelor's degree in English from the University of Missouri. He currently resides in Branson.
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