Ron Paul joins the rest of us in reality

No matter how many of his avid fans ran around the country preaching the gospel of small government, Ron Paul never had a serious chance at winning enough delegates to secure the GOP nomination for president. This isn't to say that he never should've tried -- Paul adds a necessary voice to the mix and has arguably done more than any other candidate in advocating constitutional conservatism. But at some point, reality sets in and the candidate and his team of campaign volunteers have to admit that the uphill climb at this point is too steep.

Today is that day for Ron Paul:

Rep. Ron Paul’s campaign conceded Tuesday that Mr. Paul probably cannot win enough delegates to be the Republican presidential nominee, though it said it still will try to play a major role at August’s convention in shaping the GOP’s rules and platform going forward.

A day after the Texas congressman told supporters he is scaling down his campaign and won’t actively compete for votes in the 11 states still to hold primaries, his campaign said Mr. Paul still will try to maximize the number of actual supporters he has going to the convention — even though in many cases they may not be able to vote for him to be the nominee over front-runner Mitt Romney.

“Several hundred will be bound to Dr. Paul, and several hundred more, although bound to Governor Romney or other candidates, will be Ron Paul supporters,” said Jesse Benton, Mr. Paul’s chief strategist, in a memo describing the state of the race.

“Unfortunately, barring something very unforeseen, our delegate total will not be strong enough to win the nomination. Governor Romney is now within 200 delegates of securing the party’s nod. However, our delegates can still make a major impact at the national convention and beyond,” Mr. Benton said.

Related:Ron Paul releases important campaign statement