Editing Ron Paul (section)

=== Endorsement after ending campaign ===
[[Image:Rally for the Republic.jpg|thumb|Paul's ''[[Rally for the Republic]]'', held in Minneapolis, Minnesota on September 2, 2008]]
At a September 10, 2008, press conference, Paul announced his general support of four third-party candidates: [[Cynthia McKinney]] ([[Green Party of the United States|Green Party]]); [[Bob Barr]] ([[Libertarian Party (United States)|Libertarian Party]]); [[Chuck Baldwin]] ([[Constitution Party (United States)|Constitution Party]]); and [[Ralph Nader]] (independent). He said that each of them had pledged to adhere to a policy of balancing budgets, bringing the troops home, defending privacy and personal liberties, and investigating the Federal Reserve. Paul also said that under no circumstances would he be endorsing either of the two main parties' candidates (McCain—Republican Party, or Obama—Democratic Party) because there were no real differences between them, and because neither of them, if elected, would seek to make the fundamental changes in governance that were necessary. He urged instead that, rather than contribute to the "charade" that the two-party election system had become, the voters support the third-party candidates as a protest vote, to force change in the election process.<ref>{{cite news |date=September 10, 2008 |url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/10/paul.endorsement/ |title=Ron Paul urges voters to skip McCain, Obama |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160408202249/http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/10/paul.endorsement/ |archive-date=April 8, 2016 |work=CNN |access-date=September 10, 2008}}</ref><ref name="kugel">{{cite news |title=Ron Paul: Washington's True Maverick Talks Bailouts, the United States Constitution and Re-Making the US Dollar |first=Allison |last=Kugel |url=http://www.pr.com/article/1110 |newspaper=PR.com |date=October 15, 2008 |access-date=June 16, 2011}}</ref> Later that same day, Paul gave a televised interview with Nader saying much the same again.<ref>{{cite news |title=Ron Paul & Ralph Nader interview by Wolf Blitzer |url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0809/10/sitroom.01.html |access-date=February 27, 2012 |publisher=CNN |date=September 10, 2008}}</ref>

Two weeks later, "shocked and disappointed" that [[Bob Barr]] (the Libertarian nominee) had pulled out of attending the press conference at the last minute and had admonished Paul for remaining neutral and failing to say which specific candidate Paul would vote for in the general election, Paul released a statement saying that he had decided to endorse [[Chuck Baldwin]], the [[Constitution Party (United States)|Constitution Party]] candidate, for president.<ref name="campaignforliberty1">{{cite web |url=http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=547#. |title=A New Alliance |author=Paul, Ron |date=September 22, 2008 |access-date=September 22, 2008 |publisher=[[Campaign for Liberty]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081212045449/http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=547 |archive-date=December 12, 2008}}</ref> Paul withdrew from active campaigning in the last weeks of the primary election period. He received 42,426 votes, or 0.03% of the total cast, in the general election.<ref>{{cite web |title=2008 Official Presidential General Election Results |url=http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/fe2008/2008presgeresults.pdf |publisher=U.S. Federal Election Commission |date=January 22, 2009}}</ref>