Ron Paul for President 2.0?

Time ^ | 09/12/2007 | Bill Tancer

[NapkinUser]

Kissing babies, stumping on the campaign tour and meeting with the local supporters all seems so... well 1.0. Texas Congressman and libertarian Dr. Ron Paul represents the new 2.0 candidate, with his success recruiting supporters through new social media channels. But Congressman Paul's online supporters may run far afield from the typical campaign supporter. With over 114,000 views, the MSNBC interview with Michelle Shinghal, representing Strippers for Ron Paul, showcased one of the many new and curious groups campaigning online for the Republican hopeful. With some candidates in the 2008 Presidential election embracing every facet of Web 2.0 to get their message out, from YouTube videos to MySpace profiles, your next president may be no further than a friend-add on Facebook.

There is a wide gap between what the polls tell us about campaign frontrunners and the popularity of those same candidates on the Web. The latest numbers from the Gallup Republican Poll put Rudy Giuliani on top, with 32% of support from Republican field, followed by recent announcee Fred Thompson, with 19%. Ron Paul, who has over 61,000 friends on MySpace, is in sixth place with only 3%.

Some political watchers, including poll respondents, are already considering Paul an also-ran. But Internet data paints a different picture for the candidate. According to Hitwise, for the four weeks ending Sept. 8, 2007, the most searched on candidate was "Ron Paul" with 0.54% of searches driving traffic to the politics category. "Fred Thompson" follows closely behind with 0.50%, "Joe Biden" with 0.25%, "Barack Obama" with 0.23% and "Hillary Clinton" also with 0.23%.

[mnehring]

Who? Web 2.0 Candidate, Howard Dean? Actually, in this campaign, I’m seeing Obama hitting the pure Web 2.0 sites a lot more than anyone. He started taking part in LinkedIn’s Q&A this week, he has a strong presence on MySpace, FaceBook, and the ilk, even in Second Life. The difference between him and, say, Paul is that Obama’s campaign is officially doing this as a strategy whereas with Paul, it is more like many of his people are doing this as a grassroots effort.

Note, I endorse neither Paul nor Obama, this is strictly a commentary on the use of the web.

[jrooney]

Ron Paul is now at 1% nationally according to Gallup down from his whopping high of 3%. Now that is a surge!

[lormand]

I notice two obvious things here.

• Time Magazine (media wing of democRAT party) is stumping for Ron Paul
• Internet users (trolls) are propping his candidacy

[x]

According to Hitwise, for the four weeks ending Sept. 8, 2007, the most searched on candidate was "Ron Paul" with 0.54% of searches driving traffic to the politics category. "Fred Thompson" follows closely behind with 0.50%, "Joe Biden" with 0.25%, "Barack Obama" with 0.23% and "Hillary Clinton" also with 0.23%.

That's not exactly a fair measure, since Senator Biden did most of those websearches himself.

[Stallone]

Liberal media is hoping for Ross Perot 2.0 to split the GOP vote.

Problem is, more Liberal dope-smoking morons are likely to vote for Ron Paul than Conservatives.

Thanks for electing Fred Thompson, Time!

Liberals are dumber than a box of rocks.

[ejonesie22]

Problem is, more Liberal dope-smoking morons are likely to vote for Ron Paul than Conservatives

You left out the Libertarian dope smokers as well, like some on this very site in the guise of "True Conservatives"...

[lvmyfrdm]

Ron Paul Supporters go here

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?url=www.freerepublic.com

After you realize how far traffic is dropping to Freerepublic you will see there is no reason to post
Ron Paul articles here anymore it would make better
sense to move to a growing site.

[lvmyfrdm]

Go to the 5 year view of the graph and you will get the bigger picture. The site is really in self destruct mode.
It’s just a matter of time.

[mupcat]

Time Magazine (media wing of democRAT party) is stumping for Ron Paul Internet users (trolls) are propping his candidacy

We live in a very liberal area on the northern coast of California and you'd be surprised at the number of Ron Paul signs. You could count the number of Republicans on both hands I'm afraid and none of us are voting for him. Something's up.

[lormand]

Where do you live? I was just in Sonoma County a few weeks ago.

[italianquaker]

I really believe that people watching the debates are starting to worry that he has a mental condition

[Master Shake]

Ron Paul is version 2.0? From what I’ve seen so far, he’ll need a few service packs before he’s stable....

[ex-snook]

Propagandists of the world unite. Imagine someone putting America before world interests. We may destroy Paul personally but his ideas will linger on.

Just think, Paul is suggesting that the USA should have a non-interventionist, constitutional foreign policy, a strong national defense and stay out of other countries’ internal affairs and nation building. These UN-American ideas must be destroyed before other candidates mount this wagon.

Sounds like Paul doesn’t want the USA to follow England’s descent from ‘the Sun never sets on the British Empire’ to ‘God save the Queen’. An increasing number of Americans will agree. Other candidates take note, catch up with the public.

[lvmyfrdm]

Oh my you will love the trolls, pot smoking hippy geeks.

1200 pictures for your pleasure

http://www.flickr.com/groups/ronpaul2008/pool/show/with/1279062902/

[traviskicks]

well, it will be interesting to see how all this develops...

[mupcat]

Where do you live? I was just in Sonoma County a few weeks ago.

Ft. Bragg, California. Just above Mendocino.

[lormand]

Useful idiots on parade, all of them, and out there for everyone one to see.

[lormand]

Fort Bragg huh?

Do you like Beer? I love Red Seal which is brewed in Fort Bragg, one of my new favs.

We plan on going up there next year to ride the scenic Skunk Train