Ron Paul news
 

Great site for tracking Ron Paul on a daily basis. Paul did win my poll for Republicans earlier, and the Iowa straw poll comes up in 27 days. Paul seems to be picking up steam.http://www.dailypaul.com

Anything I can do to help his cause...

I don't know who Ron Paul is, but I thought the thread title was "RuPaul news" and felt compelled to check in.

Anyway, good luck with your Ron Paul guy.

Make a check out to " R. Paul" and send it in. Tell yourself you sent it to RuPaul. You'll feel good and have still helped out a good cause!

Your man, Bubba, has been profiled in this week's New York Times Magazine, surely one of your favorite publications. Did you read it?

That's definitely an entertaining article on Ron Paul from the Times.

Thanks for the link, I've been searching for a great daily Ron Paul news site since for ever!

Morning bump for Bubba. I'm really curious as to which is stronger: his interest in Paul or his distaste for the NYT.

Anything and everything that helps get the Ron Paul message out is good with me. It would be like watching Pat Buchanan on Chris Matthews, once Pat is gone so am I.

One thing made me laugh, that's the NYT writer's statement about 'Every wacko fringe group in the country.' I mean, this is a NYT writer, anybody to the right of Al Gore probably qualifies as 'wacko fringe' to him!

A lot has changed since this thread was first posted. I have to admit I am just really getting caught up on Ron Paul and he makes a great impression. Past consistency says a lot about what you can expect in the future and it is hard to find kinks in his armor in this area. Anybody catch him on face the nation this morning?

If we had 200 Ron Pauls running for Congress (and winning), it would not matter who sits in Executive, everything would be DOA.

If we had a Congress full of Ron Pauls, the world would be a lot better off. Honest, genuine, straightforward. Everything that politicians usually aren't. Paul is now 4th place in NH and is gaining steam. I saw him on Face the Nation and he was great. He'll also be on The View this week so that should be interesting. Rudy is a liberal, Romney a flip flopper, Thompson a dud, McCain an amnesty lover, and Huckabee with no cash. Paul is everything those guys aren't and more.

+1

Don't forget McCain is also a hot head, do we really want him meeting with World leaders that may piss him off?

I think I am offically on the Paul bandwagon.

No, I don't want McCain anywhere near the oval office and meeting World Leaders. The top 4 Republicans would just be another George Bush. People want change and neither of those guys will win in a general election. If Rudy wins the nomination it will be the death of the Republican Party.

Welcome to the Paul bandwagon! "The freedom message brings us together, it doesn't divide us." -Ron Paul

Any talk about if he'll run as an independent if he doesn't get through the primaries?

One has to be careful in that Paul is not part of the political machinery. Those that are preaching against an expansive federal govt will come up against those, on the left and right, that will protect their power. What we need are 1) major (i.e., popular) candidates that are libertarian-minded and 2) an informed electorate that can recognize and support libertarian-minded candidates are the local, state and federal levels.

He has repeatedly said he wouldn't run as an independent, but who knows what would happen if he got a sizable number of delegates and a decent sized war chest.

Yes. They always ask him that question and he answers the same thing every time- I have no intention of doing so. It's too difficult to do anything as a 3rd party because you can't get in the debates and you have to work to get on the ballots unless you're Ross Perot with billions of dollars. I agree with cartman though. He has to say he won't run 3rd party now because he's still running as a Republican, but if he did decent in the primaries and had a lot of money, who knows.

He said after one of the earlier debates that he would not.

And in Ron Paul's case, #3 - unique and innovative ways to reach traditional non-voters.

What fascinates me about Paul his college campus and Internet Presence. It seems that the polls don't really tell his popularity - I've driven by Ron Paul rallies in two different states over the last few months. They're a common sight in Boise. (And they were also outside World Series Game 4 in Denver) It's kind of a similar deal to Jesse Ventura 8 years ago (though that on a much smaller scale).

But can he get all these people to vote, and in republican primaries? I think he'd be an interesting factor as an independent. But no way he finishes higher than 4th in the primaries.

He's rising in momentum, but not nearly enough to make a dent in Iowa in New Hampshire. But if he had another 8-12 months?

I know, but that's not where the electorates are. I believe a libertarian message does resonate among many voters because of the disenchantment with the status quo and the ever-increasing powers and expenditures of the federal govt. But many would be hard-pressed to have the guts to affect change at all levels. Both Reps and Dems can be libertarian-minded (remember that the late Sen. Proxmire was a D-WI). But with the growth of the entitlement and 'don't care, let someone else do it' mentalities, it would take something drastic to actually affect change in Washington.

Is it really that unique? Or just a replication of what Howard Dean did four years ago, and John Anderson did without the Internet in 1980? And so far, it's not clear that he will be as successful as either of them were.

True, and that was kind of my point about Paul needing to run as an independent. Dean was an internet/college campus darling, and then crapped the bed at the primaries because those people don't vote until November. Since everyone was expecting him to do better in those early votes (and because Dean himself imploded), the momentum stopped immediately.

It almost seems like Paul has his eyes set for November rather than now, so it's kind of surprising to hear that he's apparently shut off that avenue.

I'd say you're selling the Dean campaign a little short. It may have started with him being an internet darling, but he was clearly the front-runner heading into the primaries in every poll and pundits' mind. It's not like Zogby and Gallup were just polling college kids that didn't turn out to vote or something.

Once Gore endorsed Dean, the DLC (ie the Clintons) were scared to death that they would lose their grip on the party and started funding anti-Dean ads in Iowa as did Dick Gephardt's campaign. It's hard to say how much of effect these ads had, but in the final days before Iowa, the Democratic voters started to worry that Dean would set them up for a blowout loss and a lot of votes swung to the more "electable" Kerry. The screaming speech probably ruled out the idea of any kind of comeback.

Ron Paul hasn't reached that front runner level, but I've actually wondered, looking at what happened to Dean, if he might be better served to stay an underdog until the last minute.

During Paul's big day of 4mil in donations the average donation was almost 100$. That means 40,000 donors, roughly, gave that 4mil. That's good, but even if you say Paul has support 100 times greater than those who donated, that's still a very low number of supporters.

Paul may be important if some of his ideas get incorporated into the general discussion ala Perot and the debt. More likely, though, is that Paul is a phenomenon that will have little to no effect on the election or the policies of the country.

A key thing to remember in New Hampshire is that independent voters can vote in either party's primaries. New Hampshire is perheps the most libertation-aligned state in the primaries, if not the country. I don't know how the rest of the primaries vote.

You're right. I'm pretty much just clinging to false hope that something interesting could actually happen in American presidential politics.