Author Topic: GOP Can Learn from Ron Paul  (Read 26150 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Religious Dick

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1153
  • Drunk, drunk, drunk in the gardens and the graves
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: GOP Can Learn from Ron Paul
« Reply #105 on: January 02, 2008, 11:40:08 AM »
The New Republic   
 
Young and in Love

The congressman from Texas has the race's best batch of student volunteers.

Eve Fairbanks,  The New Republic  Published: Wednesday, January 02, 2008

I get to Ron Paul's headquarters in Des Moines just as an army of student volunteers is surging out of the doors, yelling and clutching signs. "This is the herd we can't contain!" one staffer laughs. ABC's Jake Tapper is taping a live segment in front of Mike Huckabee's neighboring headquarters, and it's time to make some mischief. The volunteers conform to a Washington reporter's expectations about Ron Paul youth--almost all boys, rowdy, eager to disrupt--until they don't.

The ABC guys are clearly charmed by the volunteers' enthusiasm, but they're also worried the kids will mess up the sound for the shot. As soon as the thirty or so volunteers figure this out, they politely troop back across Locust Street, gather in a neat clump on the corner, and fall silent. When Paul fans driving by honk at the crowd, this doesn't elicit a single happy "Woo!" from the now eerily well-behaved volunteers while the cameras are rolling. "McCain wants Huckabee to beat Romney, Huckabee wants McCain to beat Romney ... David?" Tapper is saying into the lens. Behind him, dozens of Ron Paul signs bob furiously and silently, giving the scene from the camera's perspective a ridiculous quality; I imagine it's something like watching a naval reporter talk about the positioning of two warships off-screen while, in the water behind him, dozens of frantic but polite shipwreck victims try to get the world's attention without shouting.

These volunteers' whole idea is to get the world's attention without shouting. They're the closest thing this race has to the Deaniacs of '04: Hundreds of young volunteers, who have traveled to Iowa on their own dime to knock on doors and make pleading phone calls. But where the Deaniacs got a reputation for being revved-up and angry, the Paul guys are pacific. At Paul's headquarters, they hesitate to bash other candidates, even when I goad them. They are unfailingly courteous, holding doors and always referring to their candidate as "Dr. Paul." They pepper me with curious questions. ("Are the police in Washington D.C. under federal or local authority?") After the taping, when the ABC cameraman observes to nobody in particular that "they remind me of Howard Dean's people," several of the volunteers urge him, "Don't say that!" as much to dissociate themselves from the Dean people's wildness as from Dean himself. "I know you meant it as a compliment," one especially young-looking volunteer in a pageboy cap reassures the cameraman, gently.

 

Paul's youth volunteer project, called "Ron Paul's Christmas Vacation" to entice students, was the brainchild of National Youth Coordinator Jeff Frazee, a low-key, twenty-four year old Texas A&M grad whose swept blond hairdo makes him look more likely to pull out a skateboard than your typical campaign functionary. After getting themselves to Iowa, the students are given free bunks in one of seven camps spread over the state--the Boone location, at a YMCA camp near Des Moines, has 70 Paulites; the Floyd camp, in the north, has 25; Cedar Rapids, 50; etc--as well as cereal breakfasts, a $50 American Express debit card to buy lunches, and simple dinner catered by the Hy-Vee supermarket.

The volunteers posted at the Boone camp are the elect. They get to ride to and from camp in a red school bus called the "Constitution Coach," whose donor, a die-hard supporter, pre-decorated the sides with what look like the lyrics to a minstrel ballad to Ron Paul: "He is called Dr. No ... No U.N. No ICC." A special mix CD plays on the bus, with Ron Paul country, Ron Paul rap, even a take-off of Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" called "Ron Paul, Ron Paul." "Some of it is dumb, but the rap is the best," says Brittney Lowry, an accounting major from the University of Houston whose trip out here with her new husband, Adam Weibling, constitutes "kind of a honeymoon."

I follow the Constitution Coach out to the Boone camp for purposes of seeing what the Ron Paul youth are like when they're not putting on a show for Jake Tapper. I don't know what I was expecting. Or I do, but I'm embarrassed to say it now that I saw the reality of the Ron Paul youth camps. Let's just say that alcohol and all controlled substances are strictly prohibited for the entirety of Ron Paul's Christmas Vacation. "I tell them the party is January 3," says Frazee. To amuse themselves after an evening of phone-banking, they play Scrabble and Yahtzee.

Working the phones, the Boone volunteers have been assigned a list of independents. This means people who can be marked down as "YCs"--"Yes Caucus"--are few and far between, but they don't seem at all worried or discouraged. Obama supporters are the easiest to "convert," they report. They're especially proud of the "mobile phone bank" they're using, a fleet of 225 go-phones purchased for the amazing deal of $50 each, 1,000 free minutes included. Despite Paul's sudden richesse--he's expected to have raised the most money of any GOP candidate in the fourth quarter--deals are very important to the Paul guys. Somebody at the camp calculated that riding the Constitution Coach rather than in cars is saving them $4,000 in gas. "Ron Paul runs his campaign like he might run his administration," an Arkansan named Nickel, who drives the coach, explains.

Actually, if the candidates were judged by the quality of their young supporters, I would now be voting for Ron Paul. Beyond just being polite, the Paul volunteers have an incredible passion for the technical mechanics of the American constitution and body of laws. As I spend time with them, I start to think: I wouldn't want a repairman working on my car who didn't know how it was put together, so why not the same with people who work on my government? (Assuming, that is, that the Paul adults mirror the Paul youth.)

Also, scrambling my assumption that his volunteers would all be computer geeks, most are history or economics majors. One kid, whose computer has apparently broken, walks through the room yelling, "Is anybody a computer science person here?" Nobody speaks up. Not that they're not geeks. Take this one typical conversation from my night at the Boone camp:

MATTHEW TREVATHAN, WITTENBERG UNIVERSITY, HISTORY MAJOR: McCain's comment about [how Paul's brand of isolationism got us into] World War II set me off! I think I'm going to write my senior thesis about it. Nobody understands why we got into World War II.

DAN SELSAM, WESLEYAN, HISTORY MAJOR: I want to write my thesis on Dr. Paul, too.

JOE HILLS, VANDERBILT, AMERICAN HISTORY MAJOR: I feel like it's because nobody understands World War I properly. I want to write a serious graphic history of World War I.

ELI SENTMAN, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: I would buy that.

BRITTNEY LOWERY, UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON, ACCOUNTING MAJOR [INTERRUPTING]: Hey guys, it's gone up to 18,983,543 and 66 cents!

"It" is Ron Paul's astonishing fourth-quarter fundraising total. The number updates automatically. When I first got to the camp, I thought everybody was following sports scores on their laptops. They were actually watching the fundraising number reload.

 

There's something that seems a little tragic about the Paul volunteers' devotion--they're spending their Christmas vacation in chilly cabins, eating Velveeta potatoes for a week, and their candidate doesn't arrive in Iowa until the day before the caucus--until I see that it's not really about Paul. They almost never mention his biography or his leadership style when talking about their movement, a startling contrast with rival campaigns like Huckabee's or Obama's. I ask Eli, the student who would have bought Joe's graphic history of World War I, whether he thinks Ron Paul has charisma. Eli pauses. "He's so nice," he replies. "He reminds me of your grandpa--your righteous grandpa." A volunteer named Eddie in a tidy checked Oxford shirt says, "He did a rally with us the first night and shook everybody's hand. It was cute."

"I like his aloofness, to be honest," observes Matthew, the World War II buff.

It's not about personality worship for the volunteers, the fetishization of a person's capacity to shine in public or persuade. It's about questions like the purpose of our Federal Reserve, which really piques these volunteers' interest, and which just so happens to get a Texas congressman named Ron Paul going, too. When Nickel muses, "I think centrists are the most extremist, because they don't believe in anything but people," it suddenly seems to make a lot of sense.

In the hands of the volunteers, I'm becoming a Ron Paul convert, and I have to get out. On the way to my car, I take a peek into one of the cabins. There are 17 bunks crammed on the lower floor, boys' stuff scattered everywhere. Posted on the door is the only sign of raucousness I've seen the whole night: a Hillary brochure with little Hitler mustaches doodled onto her pictures. As I examine it, a burst of laughter comes from the cabin's second level. Suddenly it occurs to me: Did I get stuck with the earnest ones over in the main hall, and this is where the wild, blow-up-the-establishment Ron Paul people are?

A few people are shouting at once, and I can't make out what they're talking about. Girls? Nasty gossip about Mitt Romney? Then a phrase rises above the jumble. "That's why the French had mercenaries!"

They're debating the comparative merits of how governments throughout history have spent their revenue.

Eve Fairbanks is an associate editor for The New Republic.



Copyright ? 2007 The New Republic. All rights reserved.

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=4a9629c8-4063-4aa6-b5a7-de49cfb49e48
I speak of civil, social man under law, and no other.
-Sir Edmund Burke

Amianthus

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7574
  • Bring on the flames...
    • View Profile
    • Mario's Home Page
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: GOP Can Learn from Ron Paul
« Reply #106 on: January 02, 2008, 11:53:16 AM »
You know, I've pretty much kept my mouth shut about Ron Paul for a while now.

I will say this, though. In a staunch Republican state like North Carolina, there are Ron Paul bumper stickers and signs all over the place.

And in the Democratic stronghold of Minneapolis, MN, there are Ron Paul bumper stickers and signs all over the place.

So, I would say that he seems to have wide bi-partisan support.

I like him as a candidate second only to Michael Badnarik, who is not running this time around.
Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight. (Benjamin Franklin)

Religious Dick

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1153
  • Drunk, drunk, drunk in the gardens and the graves
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: GOP Can Learn from Ron Paul
« Reply #107 on: January 02, 2008, 12:16:44 PM »
You know, I've pretty much kept my mouth shut about Ron Paul for a while now.

I will say this, though. In a staunch Republican state like North Carolina, there are Ron Paul bumper stickers and signs all over the place.

And in the Democratic stronghold of Minneapolis, MN, there are Ron Paul bumper stickers and signs all over the place.

So, I would say that he seems to have wide bi-partisan support.

I like him as a candidate second only to Michael Badnarik, who is not running this time around.

I see him as a sign that people have had enough of what they've been getting. Do I think he'll win? No. But in the meantime he'll cause some pain to the establishment status quo.

Chippin' away at the stone, piece by piece. And Ron Paul is on course to whack a pretty good chunk out of it....
I speak of civil, social man under law, and no other.
-Sir Edmund Burke

Religious Dick

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1153
  • Drunk, drunk, drunk in the gardens and the graves
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
I speak of civil, social man under law, and no other.
-Sir Edmund Burke

Universe Prince

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3660
  • Of course liberty isn't safe; but it is good.
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: GOP Can Learn from Ron Paul
« Reply #109 on: January 02, 2008, 01:20:26 PM »

A man with integrity and honor would not only take responsibility for the newsletter but also give an explanation as to why it was allowed to go on for so long.


Would he? Perhaps. Or maybe he would consider it none of your damn business, take the blame for letting it happen and move on. Kinda like what Paul did. Or rather, exactly what Paul did.


And a man of integrity would not furnish a newsletter bearing his name if he didn't practice oversight of the product. That would border on fraudulent marketing.


Not micromanaging the newsletter would be fraud? I kinda doubt that. Other people ran the project while he was busy being a doctor and a Congressman. I'm not saying he didn't make a mistake. I'm just saying the man probably had other important priorities at the same time.

Of course, I would say a man of integrity and honor would not change his political positions according to what is politically expedient at the time, like Romney and Giuliani seem to have done. So again, you can pick on Ron Paul, but he still comes out looking better than the alternatives.
Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash and I'm delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever.
--Hieronymus Karl Frederick Baron von Munchausen ("The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" [1988])--

Religious Dick

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1153
  • Drunk, drunk, drunk in the gardens and the graves
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: GOP Can Learn from Ron Paul
« Reply #110 on: January 02, 2008, 01:27:18 PM »
Because they want to vote for Romney - right?

MSN Tracking Image
  MSNBC.com
Thousands Switch Parties: Is There A Primary Reason?
Tampa Bay Online
updated 3:10 p.m. CT, Tues., Jan. 1, 2008

By Karen Branch-Brioso of The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - The Democratic National Committee voted Aug. 25 to punish Florida for scheduling its Jan. 29 primary earlier than party rules allow, and stripped all its convention delegates.

Since then, 17,808 Hillsborough voters switched political parties, a Tribune analysis of party-switching data shows.

About 2,500 more switched their party affiliation in Pasco County.

Are they upset with the DNC move?

Some may be. Both in Hillsborough and Pasco, more than 600 voters switched out of the Democratic Party.

The national party penalty didn't seem to influence a number of others. In the same period, 4,082 Hillsborough voters switched their party affiliation to Democrat. (As did 751 Pasco voters.)

A similar action by the Republican National Committee ? nixing half of Florida's convention delegates ? also doesn't seem to have had much impact.

In Hillsborough, 399 voters switched from Republican to something else; 3,417 switched to the GOP.

The growing ranks of independent voters grew even more. From Aug. 25 to Dec. 27, 9,291 Hillsborough voters switched from some other affiliation to "No Party Affiliation."

A couple of thousand had left blank the party affiliation section of their registration.

When that happens, election officials mail a warning: If you don't belong to one of the major parties, you can't vote in a party primary. Those who verify they want no party affiliation ? or don't respond ? are added to the ranks of the NPAs.

Are you a party-switcher?

Tell us why.

Call reporter Karen Branch-Brioso at (813) 259-7815 or e-mail her at kbranch-brioso@tampatrib.com.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22454560/
MSN Privacy . Legal
? 2008 MSNBC.com
I speak of civil, social man under law, and no other.
-Sir Edmund Burke

BT

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 16141
    • View Profile
    • DebateGate
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 3
Re: GOP Can Learn from Ron Paul
« Reply #111 on: January 02, 2008, 01:28:54 PM »
Paul isn't presidential timber. He lacks management skills, The newsletter is the example.

Paul reminds me a lot of Dean. Without the executive experience.


Universe Prince

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3660
  • Of course liberty isn't safe; but it is good.
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: GOP Can Learn from Ron Paul
« Reply #112 on: January 02, 2008, 01:50:50 PM »

Paul isn't presidential timber. He lacks management skills, The newsletter is the example.


I think you're trying to build the newsletter into something much bigger than it really is. You want an excuse to dislike Paul, and this is it. Obviously, I disagree.
Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash and I'm delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever.
--Hieronymus Karl Frederick Baron von Munchausen ("The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" [1988])--

Cynthia

  • Guest
Re: GOP Can Learn from Ron Paul
« Reply #113 on: January 03, 2008, 11:06:05 PM »
Hey, I am not trying to tell Christians what to do. I just was pointing out that evangelism has always been a major feature of Christianity, if not since the crucifixion, certainly since St. Paul. All the major sects of Christianity send missionaries. Ron Paul, like perhaps many Christiand does not do this personally, but if we compare him with Huckabee, who was an active Baptist preacher, and Mitt Romney, whi spent the usual two years as a Mormon missionary, he is less fervent at his evangelism than either of those.

Paul may be a sincere man and a good man, but that does not mean he would make a good president. Maybe he is a good Christian, perhaps he isn't, that is nnot all that important to me.The idea of shrinking the government into something puny does not seem like too clever an idea in an age when transnational conglomerates, who have destroyed unions and crushed governemnts of smaller nations are growing more and more powerful.

I think he is less fascist than Giulani, less wacky than evolution-denying Huckabee, less opportunist than Romney, less bellicose and less militarist than McCain, but Republicans in general have always seeed like a bad idea to me. Of course all the GOP candidates have Juniorbush beat, and Cheney is worst of all.




oxymoron---sincere/politician

Who is more likely to be sincere? A devoted religious individual or a person balancing on a beam desperate to be "elected" by milliions?

"less wacky than evolution-denying Huckabee"

  "It's outside the 40 yard line, this Caucus".....(Chris Matthews)....from Hardball.

Oprah should just run for office. Women are leaning towards Obama. Change is the only thing that is contant and real. So, perhaps this race will more about the women who vote, as opposed to the women who run for vote.

I am excited to see that Huckabee and Obama are in teh "perfect storm".


« Last Edit: January 03, 2008, 11:08:09 PM by Cynthia »

Religious Dick

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1153
  • Drunk, drunk, drunk in the gardens and the graves
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: GOP Can Learn from Ron Paul
« Reply #114 on: January 05, 2008, 02:12:04 PM »
State GOP withdraws as FOX debate partner

49 minutes ago

Manchester ? UnionLeader.com has learned that the New Hampshire Republican Party has quit as a co-sponsor of tomorrow night's nationally televised GOP forum on FOX News.

The 8 p.m. event at Saint Anselm College -- the last debate before Tuesday's primary -- had become controversial when FOX refused to include Ron Paul.

More details will be posted shortly.

http://unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=State+GOP+withdraws+as+FOX+debate+partner&articleId=fecf75e6-240c-4ef4-80f0-637736adf6fd
I speak of civil, social man under law, and no other.
-Sir Edmund Burke

Religious Dick

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1153
  • Drunk, drunk, drunk in the gardens and the graves
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: GOP Can Learn from Ron Paul
« Reply #115 on: January 05, 2008, 03:08:02 PM »
Barry Goldwater, Jr. to Campaign for Ron Paul in NH
Sat Jan 5, 2008 12:32pm EST
 
CONCORD, N.H.--(Business Wire)--Congressman Ron Paul will be joined in the last days of the New
Hampshire campaign by former Congressman and conservative stalwart
Barry Goldwater, Jr.

   "We are truly honored to have this legendary conservative family
here to support Dr. Paul and bring his message to New Hampshire
voters," said Jared Chicoine, NH State Coordinator. "A Goldwater
endorsement sends an unmistakable message about what Ron Paul really
means to the Republican Party."

   Son of the late conservative senator from Arizona, Mr. Goldwater
himself served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Carrying on his father's legacy of fighting for small government and
individual liberty, the former Congressman endorsed Ron Paul for
President in November of 2007.

Ron Paul 2008 Presidential Campaign Committee
Kate Rick, 603-726-0202

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS80232+05-Jan-2008+BW20080105
I speak of civil, social man under law, and no other.
-Sir Edmund Burke

Lanya

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3300
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: GOP Can Learn from Ron Paul
« Reply #116 on: January 07, 2008, 04:33:01 AM »
Planned Parenthood is America’s most trusted provider of reproductive health care.

Religious Dick

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1153
  • Drunk, drunk, drunk in the gardens and the graves
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: GOP Can Learn from Ron Paul
« Reply #117 on: January 16, 2008, 03:10:41 AM »
 15, 2008,  11:37 pm
Paul Beats Giuliani (Again)

By Michael Cooper

The bad news for Rudolph W. Giuliani Tuesday night in Michigan was that Representative Ron Paul of Texas appears to have beaten him handily again, just as he did in Iowa.

With 89 percent of the precincts reporting at 11:20 p.m., Mr. Giuliani was in a distant sixth-place, behind Fred D. Thompson, who was in fifth place, and Mr. Paul, who was in fourth place and who received more than twice as many votes as Mr. Giuliani.

The good news for Mr. Giuliani is that Mitt Romney?s victory leaves the Republican field unsettled ? which is what he needs if his unconventional strategy of waiting until Florida on Jan. 29 to try to eke out his first victory is to work.

?It?s clear after tonight that while the race remains fluid and competitive, our strategy remains on track,? Tony Carbonetti, a senior adviser to Mr. Giuiani, said in a statement.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/paul-beats-giuliani-again/
I speak of civil, social man under law, and no other.
-Sir Edmund Burke