9:57 p.m. Eastern | Wrap-up From Magdalena Sharpe, inside the NBA restaurant at the Target Center: For Sean Klein, 25, and his brother Sasha, 22, from Hollywood, Fla., the message of Mr. Paul — and the entire day — was clear.

“Holding the government responsible to abide by their own rule book, the Constitution,” Sean said.

Both brothers said they believe the only logical way Americans can fulfill their basic wants — health, happiness and prosperity — is by restricting the powers of the government, which is what they feel Mr. Paul is trying to do.

The brothers said they worry about the economy, mostly American monetary policy, and the war in Iraq, as well as the possibility of other military interventions on the horizon.

“The status quo is not working,” Sasha said.

8:25 p.m. Eastern | Real Change Ron Paul finished up a wide-ranging address to an adoring crowd looking to where both go from here, and assuring his supporters that they would go somewhere. “When an idea’s time has come it cannot be stopped by any army or any country,” Mr. Paul said.

Mr. Paul said that his “Campaign for Liberty” was the real “change” campaign, in apparent reference to Barack Obama’s campaign theme, and that John McCain and Mr. Obama shared essentially the same philosophy on foreign policy.

But Mr. Paul made no further mention of the Democratic or Republican presidential candidates. The latter parts of Mr. Paul’s speech focused instead on two themes, thanking his supporters for their past work and rallying them to carry on the cause.

“Can you imagine going from those 12 spammers we had in the beginning to what we have here tonight,” Mr. Paul said. “I firmly believe that our day is coming,” Mr. Paul said.

7:45 p.m. Eastern | Paul Speaks Magdalena Sharpe and Micah Cohen report that Representative Ron Paul has taken the floor. The crowd had swelled to its largest number of the day, and Mr. Paul noted it: “It confirms my conviction that freedom brings people together,” he says. The lights dim each time Mr. Paul speaks only to be turned all the way up along with the applause.

Mr. Paul, a slight man, speaks broadly about what he sees as the dangers of an over-reaching federal government. “There is nothing in the Constitution that says the federal government should be involved in government, at all,” he says.

Mr. Paul cheers on his younger supporters, thanking them for their responses to his campaign. He mentions how many of his young supporters, many 14 or 15, bring their parents in to meet him.

The “revolution” will not end after the election, Mr. Paul says, and adds that he hopes that his campaign for the Republican nomination, though unsuccessful, moved ahead changes he believes were inevitable anyway.

On his losing campaign, Mr. Paul does not necessarily admit defeat; he does say that he believes he was not taken seriously as a candidate and did not get all the attention his candidacy warranted. However, he said, “The more that the establishment ignored us, the more it energized you.” The crowd reacts with a roar, and the lights flicker on.

8:43 p.m. Eastern | Just Like Dad Barry Goldwater Jr., got a warm welcome here, and an even warmer response when he started his speech asking, “Are you ready for Ron Paul tonight?”

Mr. Goldwater called for the Ron Paul Revolution to take back the Republican Party, likening it to what his father had done in the 1960s. The younger Goldwater also dismissed the buzzword of the 2008 presidential election, change, as code for “more of the same.”

Mr. Paul is “our messenger, our leader, our inspiration,” Mr. Goldwater said. Mr. Goldwater went on to say that Mr. Paul’s “courage, his revolution and his candor have set this nation on course.”

Mr. Goldwater concluded, “Ron Paul campaigned with my father back in the ’60s, and now another Goldwater is campaigning with Ron Paul.” (Senator John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee, has always claimed the mantle of former Senator Goldwater, especially as he assumed Mr. Goldwater’s Arizona seat.)

7:15 p.m. Eastern | Blimp Sighting! Ron Paul has celebrity supporters, too, or at least celebrity performers. Aimee Allen, a pop music star, is on stage revving up the crowd for Mr. Paul’s speech, set to take place in a couple hours. Sara Evans, country music star, will perform after he speaks.

The weather has cleared up outside and the crowd seems to have grown, both in size in and in volume. There has also been a blimp sighting. Well, to be fair, its not the blimp, but a smaller blow-up model hanging high center stage, with the same message as the full-size one Paul supporters floated earlier this year, “Ron Paul Revolution.”

7:04 p.m. Eastern | Less Is More Joby Weeks, 27, from Denver is here “playing hooky” from his role as a Republican delegate, he said. He said he is both a strong Ron Paul supporter and an anti-government activist. He thinks that the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks were a government conspiracy and that the federal government is too large.

During Jesse Ventura’s speech, Mr. Weeks chanted, “inside job,” when Mr. Ventura called for a reinvestigation into 9/11, though later he said he would be concerned about who carried out the new investigation.

Mr. Weeks said he also favors abolishing about half of all federal government agencies, most especially the Federal Reserve and the IRS to allow a free and unfettered market economy where competiton thrives.

As for Mr. Paul, he admires his foreign policy positions, he said. “America has become a big arms deal and Ron Paul believes in non-interventionism. I want to bring state sovereignty back, and reinstating the Constitution is what Ron Paul believes.”

Stephanie Stolba, who accompanied Mr. Weeks, said, “We need to quit focusing on rights being seen as privileges.”

6:19 p.m. Eastern |Ready to Rumble And now the marquee speakers are starting to come out, starting with Jesse Ventura, the former Minnesota governor, pro-wrestler and all-around political gadfly.

Mr. Ventura, sporting a tattered yellow T-shirt under he sports coat, blue jeans and baseball cap (which he did remove when addressing the crowd), came out fighting. He started his speech by encouraging the crowd to boo: “Booing does not bother me, remember, I see it as a sign of affection.” And so the crowd booed, loudly and often.

Mr. Ventura proudly identified himself as neither Republican or Democrat and ignited praise (boos) when he yelled out to the crowd that both parties are destroying the country.

His litany of complaints: Both the Democrats and Republicans share responsibility for the nation’s state; the national debt is inexcusable; the Constitution is being trashed; 9/11 must be re-investigated. His overall message: It is time to stand up and take the country back. How? By coming to conventions like these and by holding both your heart and your conscious responsible.

And, he said, when you support independent candidates, never let a Republican or a Democrat tell you that you have wasted your vote.

5:50 p.m. Eastern | Family Outing As Conrad Mulcahy reports, families are in no short supply at the Rally for the Republic.

The Keagle family — all 10 of them — from South Central Iowa, about 30 minutes south of Des Moines, were excited as they arrived at the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis this afternoon.

Although the family was there mostly to enjoy an afternoon of speakers, Christa Keagle, the matriarch, said she was a strong supporter of Ron Paul, in particular his stand on the importance of the Constitution.

“We like how he is bringing up the issues that too many people have been ignoring,” Ms. Keagle said as she held the youngest of her eight children, Rebekah, who was born a little over two months ago.

“He’s lighting fires to get people motivated to try to get our country back to where it was founded,” she added.

When asked why she and her husband David decided to bring their children to the event today, Ms. Keagle explained that she wants them to see a grassroots political movement firsthand.

Children today, she said, seem to have lost hope and lost track of the idea that individuals can make a difference.

“You don’t have to sit back and let everyone tell you what to do. You can make changes,” she said, addressing both her children and the question.

That message, it seemed, was already registering with her children.

After a passer-by stopped, patted Timothy,11, on the shoulder and told him to “save the Constitution”, he was asked how he felt about that kind of responsibility.

“I feel Ron Paul’s message on that is exactly perfect,” he said.

“I like it here,” he added enthusiatically.

4:39 p.m. Eastern | Twin Fans Joyce Morrell from Indianapolis and Joan Lewis from Winslow, Ariz., two sisters, have made it to Minneapolis to meet with fellow Paulites. The women describe themselves as Constitutional Republicans, meaning more conservative thinkers who want more emphasis on the Constitution in public policy.

The sisters lament the loss of rights, which they said are part of the legacy of both major parties. Of Mr. Paul, they say, “We believe about 99.9 percent of what he is saying; he is a man of value and has a lot to teach us about the Constitution.”

One issue that particuarly worries them is the lack of education being provided about the Constitution, something they said they believe would improve under Mr. Paul.

By the way: One commenter has pointed out that Mr. Paul is actually Dr. Paul, and indeed he was a practicing physician. But he is not speaking as a physician here, so in Times style he is referred to as “Mr.”

4:15 p.m. Eastern | Mr. Hope Bill Kauffman, an author with a conservative/libertarian take on the state of the nation, speaks and takes a quick swing at both the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees, saying Americans cannot look toward either of them to find hope.

Singing a quick verse from the Ray Charles song, “Hit the road, Jack,” he tells the major party’s nominees, “don’t ya come back no more no more no more no more.”

He attacks Senator Barack Obama, accusing him of seeing people in small town America as losers (apparently picking up on Mr. Obama’s “bitter” comments at a California fund-raising event this spring).

Cheers erupt when Mr. Kauffman refers to Mr. Paul as a man worthy of 1776. That is where the nation’s hope lies, he seems to say.

3:29 p.m. Eastern | Welcome, Republicans Jeff Palmer, an alternate delegate from Durham, N.C., has been a Ron Paul supporter since Mr. Paul announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination. Mr. Paul is still a Republican and refused to continue his candidacy as an independent or Libertarian (though he also has yet to endorse his party’s nominee, Senator John McCain).

“I am amazed at this event and how this campaign has grown organically,” Mr. Palmer said. Indeed, Mr. Paul’s popularity caught people by surprise, but many people who became supporters identified with him during the early, crowded Republican debates. Before anyone knew it, Ron Paul lawn signs were popping up all over America and his Web site (and those of his supporters) was bringing in gobs of cash.

Alternate delegates have been encouraged to pass out V.I.P passes to delegates at the Republican National Convention to encourage Republicans to cross the river to this event. The goal is to “amaze them with Representative Paul’s message,” Mr. Palmer said.

Clarification: Alternate delegates to the R.N.C. who are Ron Paul supporters are being encouraged by the Paul campaign to pass out V.I.P. passes to their fellow Republican delegates, to entice them to visit the Rally for the Republic.

2:10 p.m. Eastern | Who is Ron Paul? More from Magdalena Sharpe: The crowd continues to trickle in. The hall desn’t look jam packed, but perhaps many of us have a distorted view after Senator Barack Obama’s acceptance speech before nearly 80,000 people at Invesco Stadium last Thursday.

A little off schedule, but full speed ahead, Tucker Carlson starts things off, at around 1:15 p.m. He ticks off three things the crowd should know about Mr. Paul.

1. He doesn’t care what those in Washington think. His point of view is ‘adults disagree and that’s just a fact.’

2. He is a sincerely decent human being who is kind to people around him.

3. He has absolutely zero interest in controlling the government.

(We’re not sure what that means, but the crowd ate it up.)

1:45 p.m. Eastern Colonial Spirit Is the Rally for the Republic also an excuse to dress-up? The mood is Colonial, with no wigs but plenty of Tricorne hats and bonnets.

The Davis family, here from Springfield, Mo., have gone all-out for the occasion. Charity and Aaron Davis and their 4 children: Zion, 8; Zacaharia, 7; and twins (enter twin city pun here) Alma and Auloria, 10, are all decked out in their finest colonial duds. “The Constitution is a big part of our home-schooling curriculum,” says Mrs. Davis, and their attire is meant to evoke that time-period. So does this visit officially constitute a field trip?

1:15 p.m. Eastern | Rain or Shine Magdalena Sharpe reports from the Target Center: The rainy weather has done nothing to stop Paul supporters from coming out in large numbers to participate in the Rally. Mr. Paul has not run the most traditional of campaigns, and it appears so far that his RNC counter convention will also follow its own off-the-beaten-path schedule.

The speakers are set to begin momentarily, with Tucker Carlson opening things up.

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MINNEAPOLIS — Here in the other Twin City, the wait today is not for President Bush, not for Gov. Sarah Palin, not even for Senator John McCain. No, the wait is for a man who until this year was a little-known congressman from Texas. We speak of none other than Ron Paul.

Mr. Paul’s unsuccessful candidacy for the Republican nomination — from which he has since retired — spawned a national movement. And that movement is coalescing here in Minnesota today, as Paulites, libertarians and others with anti-war, low-tax and pro-privacy leanings gather at a “Rally for the Republic,” at the Target Center here.

The event, which is expected to attract as many as 18,000, is a counter convention to the Republican doings in St. Paul.

The events are set to begin soon, with a long list of speakers, including Mr. Paul himself later tonight. The day will not end with any nominations; Mr. Paul, who is merely running for re-election to Congress, is no longer seeking the presidency or any other national seat. But it’s sure to be filled with fiery speeches, colorful characters and rebellious rhetoric.

A team of Times reporters will be reporting on the “Rally for Liberty” throughout the day. Stay tuned.