In Iowa, many hundreds of volunteers worked day and night for our campaign. College kids took their Christmas vacations in the snow for freedom. Thousands of people donated to make it all possible. We had many phone calls, brochures, mailings, advertising. Revolutionaries from all over the country sent handwritten letters to every voter, and despite national media attacks and censorship, we got more than 10% of the vote. We also soundly beat a certain ex-mayor who started off the first debate by attacking a pro-American foreign policy and the explanatory doctrine of "blowback," the CIA's term for foreign intervention that causes trouble for us in return. The Golden Rule applies to nations as well as to individuals.
And speaking of debates, FOX blocked my participation in its last New Hampshire debate, but I think that hurt FOX more than us. We had a terrifically successful townhall meeting at the same time, and Jay Leno invited me on the Tonight Show again to discuss it. Many members of our movement were galvanized to overcome the bias, including me!
In our Iowa campaign, since it was a caucus, we were dealing with party activists for the most part, not the people. And some of the activists were very unhappy to hear our views, trying to scream them down! Others thought that peace violates Christianity. But New Hampshire is another story. There is a state and a people tailor-made for us. Live Free! Then there are Michigan, South Carolina, and Super Tuesday and its nearly 20 primaries. Frankly, we need $23 million more to have a chance of beating the establishment candidates.
I am working hard for our ideas, as I know you are. The attacks and even smears will increase as we do better. But they will not defeat our ideas. They cannot defeat out ideas. At this moment of urgency for America, with spending, taxes, spying, inflation, and wars out of control and threatening all we love, let us rededicate ourselves to freedom, prosperity, and peace. Already, I owe you all my thanks. Join me in this great endeavor in New Hampshire and beyond. Please make your most generous donation now: https://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate
Sincerely,
Ron
See the comments for a rant from a supporter about some other supporter.
I just wrote to the volunteer, "Please don't fight one temper tantrum with another. Hit em between the eyes, but with class.
Posts
5 comments:
Thanks lunatics in NH! Thank you soooo much!!
Erasmo Belfiore Jr. (of Pgh) wrote:
Next time, just hand Sean Hannity a box of Winchester and a rifle and say, "J...
Next time, just hand Sean Hannity a box of Winchester and a rifle and say, "Just shoot me!" The childish antics of a few just did an awesome job of embarrassing the rest of us, not to mention themselves!! Thanks for making it that much harder to circulate what Jim Quinn called, "a message America needs to hear."
Yes, that's right. Jim Quinn, who does not support Ron Paul, said he felt Paul should've been included in the debate because he AGREES with most of Paul's views. While the hawkish, but otherwise libertarian, Quinn has a better understanding of The Constitution than Sean Hannity, we still could've benefited from a friendly discourse with Hannity.
The point is, that we do not need media people to agree with us in order to get mileage out of them. If you are personable and likeable and make "good radio", Sean Hannity will be happy to debate you repeatedly, no matter how much he disagrees, He even will drop politics and show concern for you personally, like if you say you've been sick lately. Ive heard him do it.
But now he has a "When Lunatics Attack" header for the video of our supporters chasing him and heckling him profanely! If you thought FOX News sucked before, watch Hannity & Colmes tonight!! Far from being the cool, "stick it to the man", moment of triumph these people thought it was, it was a national embarrassment and a disgrace upon this campaign. It was a temper tantrum!!
As I write this, I am listening to an interview with Ron Paul. Hannity is being fair with Ron Paul, and they are agreeing on many issues. He even says Ron Paul's position on energy independence is stronger than the other candidates'. When I contrast this with the video of the clearly, PHISICALLY, intimidated staff of Sean Hanitty (especially the young lady!) retreating to their hotel, I get more and more angry! He does, literally, a fair and balanced interview with Ron Paul! We scare a girl! Awesome!
Stop acting like children! Do NOT support those who do! Discourage that shit if you see it starting to break out! Secure that "fringe mentality" shit because like it or not this is a business! Politics is a business. Sean Hannity is in business. Rush and Glenn Beck and Quinn and all the rest are in business. The business of compelling talk. They like debating Ron Paul and the like him personally, it's us they don't like!! After seeing that shit, I can believe Glenn Beck has been threatened!
You don't think Ron Paul is making it on to these shows because we yell louder do you? If you do, you're living in a fucking dream world!
It's about money. M-O-N-E-Y!! He's getting all this attention because we coughed up the dough, and, (when given more than thirty seconds to talk), he makes compelling radio, which gets ratings and makes money!! It's all business and it's important not to forget that!
Unfortunately, video of Ron Paul supporters making asses of themselves makes compelling viewing. So Sean and FOX News can expect a ratings bump tonight, at our expense nationally. Awesome dude!!
To any who are offended, I am genuinely sorry. I am angrily ranting; this is my temper tantrum. But someone had to be the bad guy and just say it. If you all turn your backs on me, but start accepting the reality of this business, I'll consider this an honest days' work. Thank you for listening
And I'll bet Erasmo wonders why voters are avoidin' Ron Paul, the candidate of "blame the other guys first."
Well said, Jay! I wonder if the thought occured to any of these fanatics that Ron Paul himself might be embarrassed and offended by their behavior? Or is it all about them? If they are truly his loyal followers, surely they have watched the debates, and in those debates there wasn't one time where Dr. Paul disagreed with another candidate to the point of making a perfect ass out of himself. If anything, the other candidates (especially Guilliani) were rude and childish towards him. Ron Paul always handles himself with grace and dignity and is a gentleman through and through. These people are going to ruin this campaign, if not already, if they don't WISE UP.
As of Now, We *ARE* the Campaign Staff. Period. or,
Lessons From Wyoming
Let me tell you all a story of how it all went down, In the barrens of Wyoming, in an isolated town...
Wyoming's counties chose their delegates to go to the national convention on Saturday, January 5th. Some counties had little or no organization and few active supporters, but for me and the rest of our Ron Paul meetup group, it was the culmination of a lot of work and campaigning. In the end, my county gave the Ron Paul delegate got 45.6% of the vote. We stormed the barricades, crashed their party, and almost, *almost*, won it all. Unfortunately, Romney's guy got 54%. So we made a good show. If we could have switched over 4 Romney people or got 8 more of our people out, we would have had it (you can calculate this, but the result was 37-44). Oh well.
It was probably largely my fault for not doing enough early enough to get everyone registered and jumped through the hoops back in December. We had several Ron Paul supporters that could not vote because they hadn't met registration deadlines and this and that, some that even came to the caucus this Saturday (for moral support and to see it, man the table, and help however they could; they couldn't vote, due to not doing aforementioned hoop-jumping). Despite the discouraging loss, step back and I think you will realize that 45% is not exactly haplessly weak. We did well! Ron Paul clearly had more enthusiastic supporters at the caucus than any other candidate, and we won the straw poll at the caucus with a plurality. We just couldn't win the real vote because we didn't have a raw majority -- the other neo-con candidates' supporters joined hands in neo-con brotherhood to vote for the Romney guy.
Even one delegate from Wyoming would have been major victory. Iowa gave Paul 2 delegates, after a ton of focus, time, campaigning there, millions of dollars spent, etc., and they are a much larger state with millions of people. If little Wyoming with just 1/2 million people could have got 1 delegate for Paul, especially when we've had very little attention from the national RP campaign, I would have considered that we pulled our own weight.
Alas, it was not to be for my county.
And finally, I saved the best (or maybe the worst) for last: in Fremont County we also lost... by one vote. One vote.
Ron Paul is a frontrunner, make no mistake. Non-frontrunners don't get 45% of the vote. We just weren't very organized.
The lesson is this: All you meetup people need to realize: you ARE the campaign.
If YOU do not make it happen, no one else will!
Own your turf.
Your county/town/suburb/whatever is Ron Paul territory now, as of this moment.
You will inundate your streets with signs.
You will put slim jims on car windows everywhere.
You will talk about Ron Paul to merchants you visit.
You will wear Ron Paul shirt and other gear everywhere you go.
This will help you to run across other supporters who will comment on your shirt.
You will get the contact info of any supporters you meet.
You will follow up with these supporters, get them out to your meetups, go over to their houses, associate with them and work with them.
You will research your own state's convoluted process and do everything you can to convice these people to do whatever is required to have their voice heard.
This election is yours.
You are legend.
You are a one-man campaign wrecking ball.
You can't win the nation. But you can win your county or equivalent 35,000 person area. Or you can at least come up 7 votes short like me. And you can then be sad and disappointed but you can at least know you can tell your grandchildren you did *something*.
I wish I could come on this forum bearing a delegate. I really wanted to. Eight votes made the difference between sweet, sweet elation and bitter. Bitter. Defeat. Do better than me. Go win. And remember to have fun. Be a legend.
Did The thought ever occur to you that these people could possibly be plants? Politics is a dirty business, and those of us who believe in the Principles of the Constitution will conduct ourselves as Dr. Paul does.
Hagan Smith
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