Not even I thought I'd have a Ron Paul thread, but...

[ballz2wallz]

...he seems to be really sweeping the internets as the main candidate. Sweeping the internets is what everyone else is trying to do. Maybe he's the one that the US has been waiting for?

[motivez]

Sweeping the internets isn't enough, and one misstep into something that leaves a bad taste in people's mouth is all it takes to end such a candidacy.. see: Howard Dean

..and anyone seriously considering Paul for President needs to be realistic about some of his more unpopular positions and vote's he's cast that aren't going to sit well with the majority of the American people.

He really needs to work to transform the internet support into feet on the ground and campaign donations, he's done well in the latter area, at least better than I expected he would have.. but as far as the first, I don't know.

He still has to win the Republican primaries as well.. I don't know that there's any indication that he's doing well enough to win any of them?

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by motivez

Sweeping the internets isn't enough, and one misstep into something that leaves a bad taste in people's mouth is all it takes to end such a candidacy.. see: Howard Dean

..and anyone seriously considering Paul for President needs to be realistic about some of his more unpopular positions and vote's he's cast that aren't going to sit well with the majority of the American people.

He really needs to work to transform the internet support into feet on the ground and campaign donations, he's done well in the latter area, at least better than I expected he would have.. but as far as the first, I don't know.

He still has to win the Republican primaries as well.. I don't know that there's any indication that he's doing well enough to win any of them?

He can pull a Leiberman and run Independent?

[motivez]

Unlikely I think.. and if anything he'd pull votes away from the Republican candidate, which is fine by me.

[SoFlaJDM]

drudge just had a poll up on who won the iowa debates....

paul and brownback were clear frontrunners... i reloaded and the poll was gone

[Thorgrim]

He's doing absolutely horrible

Newsweek Poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. Aug. 1-2, 2007. N=1,002 adults nationwide. Results below are based on registered Republicans and leaners.

Ron Paul 2%

And in New Hampshire, the most libertarian state I've ever seen, what does he get of people just PLANNING on voting?

1%

New Hampshire Republican Presidential Preference

If you remember, even Dean's huge surge...started out as something...

KCCI Poll: Dean Gains Support - Politics News Story - KCCI Des Moines

He has NOTHING and he's gone NOWHERE in the polls in NH

[ballz2wallz]

I'm pretty sure I specified the internets, but Thorgrim seems to have missed that important part

Articles like this have been coming out all summer.

Ron Paul is popular on the Internet, too, with more YouTube subscribers than any other candidate, the fastest-growing political presence in MySpace, a constant perch atop the Technorati rankings, and a near-Olympian record at winning unscientific Web polls. Like Snakes, he is the subject of scads of homemade videos and passionate blog posts. When Pereira mentioned the movie, he was making a clear comparison: Yes, your online fans are noisy, but will their enthusiasm actually translate into electoral success?

[motivez]

I don't think he missed the point at all, in fact his post addresses the last question in the little snippet you posted.

[ballz2wallz]

Isn't that a bit surprising though? One would imagine that internet users would be a closer approximation of what the country believes, given the number of users and the broad range of beliefs. Also, you could argue that internet users are more likely the educated ones, the ones that care, and the ones most likely to vote.

[motivez]

Thing is, it's easy to be an internet activist. You can do it in your free time without ever having to make a real time and/or money commitment.. and so while his online support is definitely large, probably moreso than almost any other candidate..

If it doesn't translate into boots on the ground for his campaign, and he can't make that shift from online candidate to grassroots phenomena, then he has no real chance as a candidate..

I don't know who's running his campaign staff, but they'd do well to start making use of the various conservative blogs to raise money, like the Democrat ones do from Daily Kos and so forth..

[Publius]

The Paul meet-up group I joined has been doing a letter and calling campaign to registered Iowa voters urging them to consider Ron Paul. Last I checked my group of 130ish had done over 1,000 letters and a couple of thousand calls.

[SoFlaJDM]

you know what? i've been thinking about joining the RP bandwagon too... is there room for me?

[beez]

The RP meetup groups have been doing a ton of canvassing/voter outreach on their own. His supporters tend to be pretty rabid. I've donated twice already, myself

[Thorgrim]

I don't see any big list of people who are actually doing ground work for RP (writing letters and making phone calls is the easiest and least successful thing to do)

Iowa was flooded with Deaniacs going door to door, operating campaign headquarters, etc

So, either all these online activists are lazy and aren't doing anything...or people really don't care what you have to say

Either way, RP is at about 1% in NH and Iowa...and he's had how many months to build that up, and now he had millions of dollars and still not a budge

Don't kid yourself, people leaning towards the GOP and away from the Democrats are FULL of libertarian-minded people, and its either a religious conservative or a big government conservative...really they have almost no choice, it has to be RP

If the primary results come back, and he doesn't get a significant number, then you know those "estimates" of 10-20% of americans being of a "libertarian" mindset are way off and it's more of an internet fad than a political movement

BTW a bunch of hippies, a big spectrum from doctors to waiters, at DailyKos, have raised 25 million for Democrats...and that's just one site

I thought libertarians were very successful, and were all over the internet, why isn't Ron Paul covered in cash?

The big government democrats have raised far more from small donations (20-100 bucks) in one quarter than Ron Paul has raised all together

[Donkey®]

At least it keeps you guys out of the mmorpg servers.

[DosEquis]

Originally Posted by Donkey®

At least it keeps you guys out of the mmorpg servers.

[jimeigh]

Originally Posted by Thorgrim

I don't see any big list of people who are actually doing ground work for RP (writing letters and making phone calls is the easiest and least successful thing to do)

Iowa was flooded with Deaniacs going door to door, operating campaign headquarters, etc

So, either all these online activists are lazy and aren't doing anything...or people really don't care what you have to say

Either way, RP is at about 1% in NH and Iowa...and he's had how many months to build that up, and now he had millions of dollars and still not a budge

Don't kid yourself, people leaning towards the GOP and away from the Democrats are FULL of libertarian-minded people, and its either a religious conservative or a big government conservative...really they have almost no choice, it has to be RP

If the primary results come back, and he doesn't get a significant number, then you know those "estimates" of 10-20% of americans being of a "libertarian" mindset are way off and it's more of an internet fad than a political movement

BTW a bunch of hippies, a big spectrum from doctors to waiters, at DailyKos, have raised 25 million for Democrats...and that's just one site

I thought libertarians were very successful, and were all over the internet, why isn't Ron Paul covered in cash?

The big government democrats have raised far more from small donations (20-100 bucks) in one quarter than Ron Paul has raised all together

well its obviously because Libertarians are inept, lazy, loud, and stupid!

is that the answer you were fishing for?

[Thorgrim]

Originally Posted by jimeigh

well its obviously because Libertarians are inept, lazy, loud, and stupid!

is that the answer you were fishing for?

Actually I'm waiting for them to admit they are as significant as the Green Party

Which is only an insult if you are high and mighty about the LP or general libertarian "movement"

But I am VERY OPEN to seeing ANY NUMBERS that show otherwise, this Ron Paul thing is their big chance to show off after all those dismal election performances

I mean seriously, ever since BBS started in the early 90s...go read libertarian's "This year we're growing so much!" statement...go back and read the past about 15 years of releases...it's quite hilarious when you read them all together

[Ardentfrost]

Anyone have ways to get "official nationwide volunteer" counts? I see two numbers for RP: 20k and 30k... don't know which one is right. The 20k number was reported only a week ago, 30k after that (on some show). The only thing I can find for Obama is something from June where 10k was claimed.

You'd think those counts would be easy to find.

At any rate, don't think the Green Party has ever had that many volunteers I also think that those numbers are probably comparable or more than other candidates.

PS. I'm assuming these are physically-doing-stuff volunteers... not all the apparent hackers fucking with Fox News polls

[Thorgrim]

still, Arden, all those volunteers should have convinced SOME libertarians-leaning indepedents or GOPers to atleast PLAN on voting for RP?

What does he get, 1% still

That's unacceptable if he has "real volunteers"