Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul said he doesn’t plan to begin a third-party bid for the White House, although he didn’t rule out the possibility.
“I’m not an absolutist,” the Texas congressman said in an interview that aired today on the “Fox News Sunday” program. “Everyone knows I have no intention of doing that. It would be a bit of a burden.”
In the run-up to the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, Paul is trying to persuade voters that he is the best alternative to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Separate polls that NBC News and Suffolk University released on Friday found Paul in second place, and more than 20 percentage points behind Romney.
Paul’s libertarian views including opposition to the Iraq war have set him apart from his rivals for the Republican nomination. Still, he said he would need the support of traditional Republican voters to win his party’s nomination.
“The message has to be across the board,” Paul said. “I still have to attract the votes” of traditional Republicans.
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