I am not so sure about it. You see, he just makes too much sense. In Europe and probably anywhere else as well, he would be a pretty mainstream politician, but not in the US. I wish him well, although I am afraid that the dummies will choose either one of the Democraps or one of the Repugs. Just like that would make any difference, anyway.
You know what that beautiful sound is? It's the sound of people all over the country clicking their mouses and hitting the donate button here. Ron shattered his goal of $500,000 in 7 days by getting it very early this morning; he's shooting for $1,000,000 instead. There is still hope.
Pretty interesting analysis on FMNN http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=49577 The following is something I have noticed in the debates recently. More and more conservative talk on taxes, and other candidates starting to use familiar rhetoric about liberty, freedom etc. In fact, last night at the PBS debate, one of Brownback or Huckabee tried to pull the "America is the greatest country" line to save a weak debate answer, and it met only with lukewarm applause compared to other answers from candidates that hit right on target. There seems to be a sense of urgency about this election that I can't remember feeling in past elections. Americans are really listening closely to candidates, trying to disseminate their message, not easily falling for vague appeals to patriotism. It's not just Thompson, as I've noticed Republicans and Democrats trying to build on the net where Paul has already staked out territory. A recent article about John Edwards using MeetUp or Eventful to visit a small town off the campaign trail made it sound like this was revolutionary, when candidates like Obama and Paul have been doing it for months. Anyway, the FMNN article is about how the rhetoric will follow the money, and Paul is proving that his rhetoric can raise funds. Over $80,000 per day in the last 3 weeks. Politicians are some of the greatest copycats of our society.
The best part about it is even Ron Paul himself admits its the message that counts, not the man. I like Ron Paul, and I'm confident he'd make a great president, but I'd be content with any decent man with the same message. This is the ultimate goal of the Ron Paul campaign, to change our way of thinking and our actions; a man will ultimately leave office one day, but ideas are timeless.
Ron Paul just hit $1,000,000 in 6 days of ONLINE-ONLY fund-raising. Guess even our money gets spammed through the internet. This beats Edwards, who is at his 9th day of 10 going for a million and hasn't hit it yet, and Richardson, who also had a 7 day, $1M campaign, which remains at about $900,000. 3rd Quarter results should be beautiful to read.
Ron's a bonafide threat now. http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/015734.html You know you're bigtime when you're the target of DDos.
Well, it appears I was right. Ron Paul raised his Q2 fundraising 114% while everyone (or almost everyone?) fell in fundraising, and he brought in $5,080,000 this quarter. This rivals McCain, should be close to Thompson, and beats the crap out of every other "second-tier" candidate out there. The train is leaving the station, who's getting onboard?
I read one report that said he raised almost as much money as second tier candidates. So does this mean McCain is also doing better, since they raised about the same amount?
$5 million last quarter isn't too shabby, really. I'm somewhat impressed. Like Dean, Paul is showing that a primarily internet campaign is more and more viable. In a couple of cycles, the internet will probably actually convert into people voting for the candidate. For now; it doesn't seem its the case, though.
Yea, if he remains only on the internet, he WILL NOT WIN. It just doesn't have that much of a hold on people's lives and thinking like television does in this day and age. Hell, 40-50 years ago, television didn't have the grab it did, but then JFK and others used it to their advantage. As you said, in a few election cycles, maybe, but not this time around. That is part of the reason I'm actively involved in real life campaigning with my Meetup group in Orlando; it's what people need to do, at least right now and in this particular election.
Getting back to the start of this thread, it's not just about the $5 million raised. What is important is how much of that has been spent, and what remains on hand. Paul has approx. $5.3 in the war chest, which puts him likely ahead of McCain, and possibly contending with Romney, since he had to personally loan his campaign (from news accounts) $6 million dollars in Q3. Now obviously Giuliani has stockpiled a lot of money for the end game, but Thompson only raised $8 million and I have yet to see how much is left at the end of the quarter. If it's less than Paul has, that would suggest that Paul has now become upper tier in financing, because it's not just what you bring in, it's also how much you spend. And again, no one has a grassroots campaign in this election that rivals Paul's. His rallies turn out hundreds, when other GOP candidates find themselves speaking to less than 50 people at walk-in events. The signage displays, volunteer letter writing and phone call campaigns etc, are all outside the cost to run the campaign. What is going to make things interesting in New Hampshire is that Paul has been conducting secret strategy planning, and rumor has it that the state's most watched television affiliate will be doing a feature on him, again based upon pressure from the grassroots. More free advertising. And LewRockwell is reporting that ABC World News is flying out a crew to interview him for tonight or tomorrow's show. More free advertising, a by product of the underdog showing well in fund raising. I am happy today, because instead of the marginalization of Paul and his support, we're moving closer to the day when we can have a dialog strictly on his positions, rather than on the legitimacy of his campaign.
Yea, I heard ABC World News at 7? Should be fun. It's going exactly how the campaign called it: make big numbers, get millions in free publicity. They covered him on CNN about 3 times in the past hour or so, and they also had an interview with McCain, who looked beaten down, tired, and worn out. Part of it has definitely got to me these fundraising results, and if McCain has less cash on hand or even less raised than Paul, he's in big trouble. "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." - Mahatma Gandhi They can't ignore us any longer. They can't ridicule our campaign when people are stepping up with their wallets and saying "he's not just a promise of a vote, he's got my full support". Hell, Students 4 Paul has raised almost $100,000. This is poor ass college kids like myself, who are the least likely demographic to vote, and they are giving whatever money they have to show they mean business. Next comes the fighting. Smear pieces are coming up at neo-con blogs all over the internet, people are going to start attacking Ron Paul's stances hard since they have to admit he's serious now. But guess what? Ron Paul is right...so what's left to happen?
$5 million in the quarter is impressive relative to the other candidates on the Republican side. Also, you guys that support Paul are an energetic impressive group. I watched Paul during one debate. He stuck out as the lone candidate with distinctly different unvarnished guy who spoke less like a Washington based politician trying to appeal to the Active Republican Right and more like a guy speaking his own mind. Actually, I amend that....the 2nd tier candidates more naturally attuned to the right seemed comfortable in their skins. The main tier candidates of Giulani, Romney and McCain all seemed to be stretching to fit the mold. At least that was my opinion. What he most reminds me of is an independant. I've always been attracted to the guy who seemed to be the independant no matter the party they came from. They all seem to get squashed by the party regulars over time. But they keep turning up and one of them is gonna win big one of these days.
You Rock Dave! Me and you will never get beheaded. We see it for how it is. At this pace Paul will have 80 to 100 million by the end of campaign. D