Ron Paul on CNN: Stop Pestering me with "Silly Questions" About Dropping Out

On Monday night, Texas Congressman Ron Paul appeared on CNN and exchanged some testy words with Piers Morgan after the British journalist explicitly told him to “pull out” of the 2012 Republican presidential primary.

In an interview on CNN, host Piers Morgan asked the Texas congressman on Monday night, “If I was prescribing some medicine for you right now, congressman, I think I would say the situation is looking pretty terminal for your race to the GOP nominee. Why don’t you just do the decent thing and pull out?”
Paul responded, “Why don’t you do the decent thing and not pester me with silly questions like that? That would be decent of you.”

The two seemed to trade these words in good humor, but when Morgan pressed the 2012 hopeful about his lag in the polls as well as in the delegate race, Paul pushed back firmly, insisting that his campaign is “doing quite well” as far as delegates go, before finally interjecting, “Why don’t you let me finish?”

According to Paul, his campaign is doing “very well” in states like Washington and North Dakota, and seeing some good news come out of others like Missouri.

After months of campaigning and millions of dollars spent, the retiring Texas Congressman has yet to win one Republican caucus or primary. Even worse, he’s only garnered 48 total delegates to date, a number that falls well short of the requisite 1144. Yet despite these realities, Ron Paul appears to be showing no signs of giving up before the Republican convention in August.

At this point, the best case scenario Team Paul can hope for is a brokered convention. To be fair, he has raised at least $31 million and continues to draw support from his small but loyal following. Moreover, according to Townhall.com’s PollTracker, the Texas Congressman is more competitive against President Obama in the general election than either Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich. However, given his evident failure to score one major electoral victory after months on the campaign trail, basic math suggests it’s impossible for Team Paul to clinch the nomination the traditional way.

Still, as Ron Paul’s campaign chairman has publicly stated, the Texas congressman won’t give up anytime soon because he wants to garner enough delegates to play an integral role at the Republican convention. In short, he wants to use his influence to make sure his ideas on, say, foreign policy or the Federal Reserve are incorporated into the party platform. And so, all things considered, this is perhaps the most obvious explanation for why Dr. Paul was a little bit agitated by Piers Morgan’s “silly” questions last night.