You have to give Ron Paul supporters credit for enthusiasm, if not sense. Grant Slater reports for the Associated Press:
The Web fans for Paul's anti-establishment campaign run away with online polls and blanket Web sites with caps-locked, exclamation-point endorsements of the contrarian Republican, even though he measures no more than 2 percent in most national opinion polls.The supporters have an entrepreneurial drive and get their political news from Internet sources outside the mainstream media, especially blogs and news aggregators that rely on popular vote to determine news value.
* * * * *
Gallagher claims to have started the first group for Paul supporters on Meetup.com, a Web site geared toward the kind of networking that helped presidential candidate Howard Dean's supporters organize in 2004.
In the six months since, more than 30,000 people have joined Meetup groups in more than 700 places across the country. Paul's Meetup presence surpassed Dean's in just two months, said Andres Glusman, vice president of Meetup.com.
"Because people have the power to self-organize here, it's obvious that he's hitting a chord that is resonating with people in a way the media is not acknowledging," Glusman said.
Read the entire story at the above link. Obviously, Paul isn't going anywhere in the primaries, but he could be setting himself up for another third-party run as the Libertarian Party candidate, benefiting from all this exposure in the GOP field which an LP-er couldn't normally attract. To do so, though, he would have to give up his House seat, which could be a deal-breaker for him. Whichever Republican took the seat could count on heavy national party support to prevent Paul from taking it back in 2010.
Assuming he doesn't win the Presidency, of course. ;-)
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2008 Presidential Race, Independent, Republican
Tags: Libertarian, Paul, presidential campaign, Republicans
Comments (7)
"Obviously, Paul isn't goin... (Below threshold)1. Posted by Kyle | August 31, 2007 9:43 PM | Score: -2 (2 votes cast)
"Obviously, Paul isn't going anywhere in the primaries,"
--how is that obvious? momentum is building, my friend.
1. Posted by Kyle | August 31, 2007 9:43 PM |
Score: -2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on August 31, 2007 21:43
2. Posted by bryanD | August 31, 2007 10:52 PM | Score: -3 (3 votes cast)
Thanks for the Ron Paul post.
Your penultimate sentence, "Whichever Republican took the seat could count on heavy national party support to prevent Paul from taking it back in 2010" illustrates the Hats and Caps, Guelfs and Ghibillenes mindset which, taking a cue from
*where?*, has turned the framing of national questions (big gov't or small/ nationalism vs supranationalism) into some kind of partisan leap-frogging contest in which the "prize" is a totalitarian state. Maybe not Moaist but feudal. *Mexican trucks*cough*
Yes: Democrats, hard socialists (in the American context), Republicans, soft.
Democrats, soft authoritarians, Republicans, hard.
It's ALL 2 steps forward, 1 step back to the same finish line, the final abrogation of the US Constitution.
Who is the model for this new ideal the Republican Party pants after?
I'm guessing Woodrow Wilson. In which case see Col. House, bizarro power behind the throne, author of "Philip Dru, Administrator".
2. Posted by bryanD | August 31, 2007 10:52 PM |
Score: -3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on August 31, 2007 22:52
3. Posted by DoubleU | August 31, 2007 10:53 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
momentum is building, my friend
said the snail to the sloth.
3. Posted by DoubleU | August 31, 2007 10:53 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on August 31, 2007 22:53
4. Posted by bryanD | August 31, 2007 11:24 PM | Score: -2 (2 votes cast)
Attn: don't press DoubleU's link. *blush*
I don't know if he's a worm meister or a retard (since I'm a Firefox guy, I happily still don't know) but you'll need to ctrl.alt.del to get out of it. Unresponsive splash. *BONK*BONK*
Web 10,000 BC.
4. Posted by bryanD | August 31, 2007 11:24 PM |
Score: -2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on August 31, 2007 23:24
5. Posted by Jim Addison | September 1, 2007 12:14 AM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Thanks, bryanD - I've disabled his spamming link.
Unfortunately, your first comment only reminds me to caution everyone that psychodelic drugs should only be taken as prescribed.
Kyle ~ I just know, man. It's wisdom born of age. Trust me. ;-)
5. Posted by Jim Addison | September 1, 2007 12:14 AM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on September 1, 2007 00:14
6. Posted by DoubleU | September 1, 2007 7:18 AM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Spam link? Worm meister? HA!
I was trying to see how many Paulionians I could catch. It was in the drop down menu when I filled in the form so I went with it. It will work with FireFox if you don't have the NoScript addon, although it works best and is the most fun for IE users. I fixed it, although the new link takes you to a blank page.
6. Posted by DoubleU | September 1, 2007 7:18 AM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on September 1, 2007 07:18
7. Posted by kim | September 1, 2007 10:51 AM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Ron Paul is getting buzz on RealClearPolitics. It will be interesting to see who he ultimately supports for President. He may well command a small but reliable bloc.
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7. Posted by kim | September 1, 2007 10:51 AM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on September 1, 2007 10:51