Link Whether it's Washington, Alabama, New Hampshire, or South Carolina, the message is the same. We want our freedom, our rights, our money, and our country back, and we're willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen. Thousands are driving from all over their states to show support resulting in straw poll victories for Ron Paul with percentages as high as 81%. Dr. Paul has placed in a total of 16 straw polls now, tying him with Romney and thrusting him far beyond Giuliani in terms of visible support, and not a word about the trend can be heard from the mainstream media. To put this into perspective, there were over 4,800 articles in the mainstream media about the Iowa straw poll in which Mitt Romney spent over $200,000 ensuring his win, while there are a whopping 162 mainstream articles combined from all five straw polls in which Ron Paul was victorious. Most of these mentions are no more than a one-senence blurb incorporated into an article about a more general topic. But, this is the Internet, and we have access to the truth: Straw Poll Victories FIRST PLACE (5) New Hampshire Taxpayers, July 7 ~ 1st 65.3% North Carolina, Gaston GOP, August 13, ~ 1st 36.6% New Hampshire, Stafford, NH, August 18 ~ 1st 72.7% Alabama, August 18 ~ 1st 81.2% Washington State, August 21 ~ 1st 28.1% SECOND PLACE (5) Utah GOP, June 12, 2nd 5.4% LibertyPapers.org conference, June 16 ~ 2nd 16.7% Georgia, Cobb Co. GOP, July 4 ~ 2nd 17% South Carolina, Georgetown Co., July 28 ~ 2nd 18% West Lafayette, Indiana, August 18 ~ 2nd 11.7%
I believe that it's been published that Romney spent more than $200k. He spent well into the millions and IIRC had to lend his campaign $6 million last quarter.
He won't get anywhere. The two party system will not let him but it's good to see someone slightly conservative break ranks from all parties even if I don't agree with him on everything.
Interesting that nobody is talking about the source of these polls or how they were conducted. Everybody knows that Ron Paul is popular with Liberals and foreigners. http://ronpaul.meetup.com/110/calendar/2007-09 That sort of thing probably has nothing to do with it. Ooops, here's another http://ronpaul.meetup.com/32/calendar/6034625/ The only thing these people are accomplishing is bankrupting Ron Paul based on rigged polling results that give him a false sense of importance. This is why he continues to be ignored. The MSM is not stupid. Even with attempted rigging http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/08/12/023738.php Ron Paul placed fifth with 9% of the votes. If Ron Paul didn't have a bunch of silly people trying to pad the ballot box maybe he and his supporters would be less clueless about the position he's in so he could actually run a real campaign.
Yes; this is what we call delusion. The polls RP wins have like 200 total votes to them and are sponsored by some minor west central chapter of the republican party of podunk alabama. The media only reports on statewide straw polls; not every joe-bob that runs one from their basement. Sorry RP supporters. Statewide polls show him at 1% (at best) in any state in the country, outside the interweb. Curious, atari, do you believe that these percentages for Paul are representative of his actual statewide support?
Actually, UROC gave Paul their endorsement, and they are the most prominent contingent of Barry Goldwater conservatives. And to date, reports are that Paul is the leading recipient of donations from the military. Not to mention that he gave a Q&A at Google that was their biggest turnout for any Presidential Candidate to date. Paul's campaign is one of the richest of the Republican Candidates. He's not been a top earner, but he has also not spend nearly as much as Tancredo, Hunter and others. Going into the 3rd Q, he had more money on hand than John McCain. Paul is running a substantial campaign. He's already harnessed the grassroots movement via the internet, his campaign is incredibly financially sound, and via that grassroots campaign, has received a lot of free publicity. Just his dominating internet presence alone earned him a lot of airtime discussing his viral marketing strategy. What's most brilliant is how his supporters have harnessed MeetUp to create defacto campaign fundraising headquarters nationally. The last count (without checking) that I heard was that there were over 600 meetup groups and some of those have upwards of 200 members. I don't think many of the other Republican candidates have that kind of national presence, at least, not without paying for it.
Paul did manage 3rd and 18+% in the Illinois Straw Poll, with second place going to Fred Thompson, who may not even run as things get later in the game. I expect Paul to come in no worse than 3rd, and as high as second in Texas. He also finished 2nd in Utah at the state GOP Convention. I can't speak for Atari, but I would offer this. Paul's results are indicative of his national appeal. If the selection of a Republican candidate was held today, I doubt he would win. But in 4 or 5 months, I'd say that his odds go way up.
anyone notice that most of these polls are for counties, and not for whole states? RP, what an idiot.
Are you suggesting that Ron Paul is responsible for the fact that thus far more counties have had straw polls than states? I'll remind you that he finished 5th in Iowa, 3rd in Illinois and 2nd at the Utah GOP Convention.
You are aware that John McCain is broke and out of the race right? John McCain has never been a strong contender this time around. His pro-Iraq War stance pushes the democrats away and his immigration plan pushed the rest of the people away. He's done for. He'll be lucky if he gets another term as senator. It's already been proven that RP supporters are intentionally skewing the numbers. In valid random sampling polls, RP gets close to 0%. In straw polls where his idiot supporters arrive enmass for the sole pupose of padding the ballot box, he gets higher numbers. They're simply invalidating the results. Why do you think the exit polls in 2004 had no bearing on reality? The same reason RP's results in straw polls have no bearing in reality. It's not even close to a true random sample. His beaten wife position makes it clear he's an idiot unsuitable for high office. His supporters giving him a skewed view of reality are going to make him go bankrupt running a campaign he can't win. At least John McCain had honest supporters that didn't lead him to believe he was doing better than he was.
It's extremely odd mate. It is almost as if these people enjoy having these scumbags in charge of them.
With all respect, this statement is disingenuous. When voters show up in large groups to support their candidate, that is an endorsement of the campaign. The straw polls aren't meant to reflect the national or even state campaign support. They are to show the amount of actual support that candidate can draw to these events. I've also mentioned several times that the so-called scientific polls do not reflect the demographic of available voters that Paul represents. I'll agree that it's not a random sample. See above. How many people say they will vote on a phone poll and do not bother on election day? The measurable here is the actual # of voters that Paul can rally to an event, to spend their money, travel and speak through a ballot. If that paradigm wasn't valid, then Romney wouldn't have bussed, housed and fed the people he brought into Iowa to vote for him. The beaten wife analogy has been debunked numerous times. You can continue posting insincerely, or to spread misinformation however even the Michigan GOP Chair who irrationally reacted to Paul's debate remarks on the war has withdrawn his position and admitted it was incorrect to ascertain that Paul was supporting a "beaten wife" policy. As posted before, Ronald Reagan himself said of Paul, Paul is a former Air Force officer, he introduced legislation in Congress to formally declare war on Iraq, and has introduced legislation that the US authorize the use of mercenaries to pursue Bin Laden and Al Queda in places we cannot go militarily or for diplomatic reasons. You obviously missed my reply to you earlier in this thread when I wrote that FEC reports are that Paul is the leading recipient of donations from the military. So if you're willing to continue down the "beaten wife" path, then I'm going to ask you if feel that the armed forces also endorse a "beaten wife" approach to foreign policy by supporting Paul so strongly.