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An Open Letter to the Ron Paul Faithful
CNBC.com ^ | 10/11/2007 | John Harwood

Posted on 10/11/2007 10:55:46 PM PDT by South40

Dear folks,

You guys are good. Real good. You are truly a force on World Wide Web and I tip my hat to you.

That's based on my first hand experience of your work regarding our CNBC Republican candidate debate. After the debate, we put up a poll on our Web site asking who readers thought won the debate. You guys flooded it.

Now these Internet polls are admittedly unscientific and subject to hacking. In the end, they are really just a way to engage the reader and take a quick temperature reading of your audience. Nothing more and nothing less. The cyber equivalent of asking the room for a show of hands on a certain question.

So there was our after-debate poll. The numbers grew ... 7,000-plus votes after a couple of hours ... and Ron Paul was at 75%.

Now Paul is a fine gentleman with some substantial backing and, by the way, was a dynamic presence throughout the debate , but I haven't seen him pull those kind of numbers in any "legit" poll. Our poll was either hacked or the target of a campaign. So we took the poll down.

The next day, our email basked was flooded with Ron Paul support messages. And the computer logs showed the poll had been hit with traffic from Ron Paul chat sites. I learned other Internet polls that night had been hit in similar fashion. Congratulations. You folks are obviously well-organized and feel strongly about your candidate and I can't help but admire that.

But you also ruined the purpose of the poll. It was no longer an honest "show of hands" -- it suddenly was a platform for beating the Ron Paul drum. That certainly wasn't our intention and certainly doesn't serve our readers ... at least those who aren't already in the Ron Paul camp.

Some of you Ron Paul fans take issue with my decision to take the poll down. Fine. When a well-organized and committed "few" can throw the results of a system meant to reflect the sentiments of "the many," I get a little worried. I'd take it down again.

Sincerely,

Allen Wastler Managing Editor, CNBC.com


TOPICS: Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
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To: OKIEDOC

“Got to be something wrong with a person when they justify supporting Paul.”

Pro capitalism
Pro “fence”— secure our borders
Reduce federal budget
Reduce taxes
Abolish the IRS
Abolish the Dept of Education
Abolish the Dept of Energy
Pro 2nd Amendment
Pro 10th Amendment
Strong support for property rights
Against UN
No government subsidized health care
Pro home schooling
Anti-abortion -
Strong lifelong Christian
No unconstitutional government agencies

Jeesh! Who could like that stuff, right?

I agree with those who say his stance on whether Islamic Jihadism is an imminent threat is wrong. We need to address this now. I don’t believe that we can negotiate anything with the jihadists. Force is the only answer. I also don’t believe that we wait until they reach our shores (they already have). I also believe that Bush’s original strategy was bad. The fact is we are there now and have to finish. However, it is not a foregone conclusion that we will spend whatever it takes to control Iraq. Anyone who says that has not considered what that means, because it means that we can’t defend our own shores and are subject to economic collapse...which as a policy, I’m against.

I’m amazed that Ron Paul’s message of limited government has resonated so strongly with so many people and I am equally amazed at the resistance to limiting government. There are a lot of RINOs out there.


21 posted on 10/12/2007 2:50:02 AM PDT by cowtowney
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To: cowtowney

Missing from your list: “friggin’ nuts.”


22 posted on 10/12/2007 3:09:15 AM PDT by Rudder
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To: South40

All one has to do is look at the poll here on FR on which canidate won the debate.. It says Paulute came in second.. but if you look at the breakdown of that vote (click the “details” button), most of the Paul voters were not registered voters.. and Paul came in 5th among FR members at only 7.5%.

Yes Paul people are active, but if they think they are fooling anyone, well, they must assume the general populace is very stupid.


23 posted on 10/12/2007 3:22:59 AM PDT by LowOiL (Duncan Hunter .. a man you're not ashamed to support full heartedly..)
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To: South40
I'm not a RP backer, but what a mean spirited letter.
24 posted on 10/12/2007 3:27:03 AM PDT by endthematrix (He was shouting 'Allah!' but I didn't hear that. It just sounded like a lot of crap to me.)
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To: South40
Ron Paul - Hero for America Haters at home an abroad. From a WP interview yesterday:
Texas congressman said he could see "no reason" to justify military action if he were elected president. He compared the United States to a schoolyard bully and said the country has no reason to flex its muscles overseas.

"There's nobody in this world that could possibly attack us today," he said in the interview. "I mean, we could defend this country with a few good submarines."

"And here we are, so intimidated and so insecure and we're acting like such bullies that we have to attack third-world nations that have no military and have no weapon."

Ron Paul: Give Peace a Chance-no possible reason
to ever launch military action or initiate a war
(Wash Post - 10/11/07)

Try and explain/repair this Paulestinian "Faithful"!


25 posted on 10/12/2007 3:43:16 AM PDT by drpix
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To: South40

The Paulie WalNUTS strike again.


26 posted on 10/12/2007 3:58:20 AM PDT by GOP_Proud (I'm really tired of the Paulie WalNUTS.)
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To: LowOiL
well, they must assume the general populace is very stupid.

The general populace is very stupid otherwise there would be no democrats or rinos.

27 posted on 10/12/2007 4:02:03 AM PDT by from occupied ga (Your most dangerous enemy is your own government, Benito Guilinni a short man in search of a balcony)
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To: BKerr
He has the strictest, Constitutionalist message in our Grand Ole Party and for some reason our party hates him for that.

You are sooo wrong. We object because he's a nut. He has insulted me with his expressed feelings about 9/11. That is ALL the reason I need to discount him.

28 posted on 10/12/2007 4:03:41 AM PDT by GOP_Proud (I'm really tired of the Paulie WalNUTS.)
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To: cowtowney

I don’t care if I agreee with every position he has. Your list means nothing to me. His feelings about 9/11 leave me cold. It supersedes anything else he has to say. Go away Ron Paul.


29 posted on 10/12/2007 4:05:31 AM PDT by GOP_Proud (I'm really tired of the Paulie WalNUTS.)
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To: South40

VOTE ROSS PAUL.........

VOTE RON PEROT.........

ah, vote early and often!


30 posted on 10/12/2007 4:08:03 AM PDT by stimpy17 (Home of the free because of the Brave.)
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To: stimpy17

Vote ronpaul OFF THE ISLAND!


31 posted on 10/12/2007 4:18:41 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: GOP_Proud

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF3NtEWj6ws


32 posted on 10/12/2007 4:20:39 AM PDT by cowtowney
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To: BKerr
"He has the strictest, Constitutionalist message in our Grand Ole Party and for some reason our party hates him for that. That makes me wonder if the Republican party has drifted too far to the left from where I, and Ron Paul, stand."

When did the Republican party or even the majority of the "founding fathers" ever believe in the crackpot interpretation of the Constitution in Ron Paul's message?

Paulestinians on FR have already attacked Reagan for the Cold War, Radio Free Europe & and aid to foreign freedom fighters like Solidarity (in Poland). They've seen T. Roosevelt(Republican) and his Panama Canal and JFK for his Moon Mission as usurpers of the Constitution. They've vilified every American President since Lincoln (the 1st Republican President).

But, tell me, when did they approve of America? Surely it wasn't with Jefferson and his "unconstitutional" Louisiana Purchase. Nor could it be with James Monroe and Monroe Doctrine, justifying foreign intervention throughout the Western Hemisphere. It can't be with the Hero of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 - Andrew Jackson - and his invasion of Spanish Territory Florida, during the undeclared 1st Seminole war.

Who left the party? Who went over to the side of the hate America left?

33 posted on 10/12/2007 4:30:55 AM PDT by drpix
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To: South40

I suggest that Ron Paul may be end up being funded by the Clinton campaign because of his incredible effectiveness at destroying the GOP from within.

A decade or more ago we allowed Paul to label himself a Republican since he looked like a guy who could win in that district. He didn’t fight with him even though he never played nice with others. We admired his stance against asking for or taking pork because of this constitutional argument against it.

But at some point in the last year(s), he has decided that the GOP is a greater evil than Al Qaeda. He has become Pat Buchanan (another guy who USED to be in the GOP before he became obsessed with personal attention) of the new century. He is beating the DNC to the punch in attacking the GOP for things we do wrong and things we ‘should’ be doing (like withdrawing our troops from around the world and just surrounding the US with a giant moat or a wall).

Ron Paul is now the Lefts favorite ‘Republican’. The fact that we are pretending to have debates with 9 people on a stage and including people who will never win anything in their entire lives just adds the free publicity. We can actually allow people to believe that Ron Paul ‘won’ a debate amongst actual Republicans by accusing everybody else in the GOP of being traitors to the Constitution and ‘selling out our party’ (a party which Ron Paul didn’t actually belong to until he decided to run for Prez. He is a libertarian, remember?).

Why bother to even have a Democrat party when we can just have Ron Paul personally defeat whomever the GOP is putting up? The Democrats won’t even need to have debates of their own since there is nothing they will say which will be more damaging or destructive than the average Ron Paul soundbite.

And speaking of the Democrat party, remember the last Democrat President to get 50% of the vote? Well, it sure as hell wasn’t Bill Clinton. Clinton only had to get 43% back in 1992 since Ross Perot managed to split enough of the GOP vote to ensure that the Razorback Retard got to be President for 8 years. And remember what Ross Perot managed to add to our nation? The ‘Reform Party’ which quickly became a place for third tier GOP candidates to sneak off to when it was apparent that they were too far out of the mainstream to get a vote in the GOP.

But Ron Paul, hero of the ideological pure and channeller of the Founding Fathers themselves, is going to prove that he is no Ross Perot. He will succeed where Perot failed. Paul will win the GOP nomination by getting all of those anti-GOP voters and then help elect a GOP congress comprised of new anti-GOP members who will enact his legislation of (hell, who even knows).

But the last Republican who ran against the Republican base in a GOP primary was John McCain and he failed to win anything. But I’m sure Ron Paul will succeed where McCain and Buchanan failed. Paul will be able to convince all of the anti-war, American hating socialists on the Left to cross party lines and vote for the GOP. No need to wonder what kind of actual aftermath something like that would have in real life since the odds are so insanely unlikely.

Oh hell, I’m just sick of this bizarre Ron Paul cult. I was sick of the Perotistas back in 1992 and I told every Republican I knew that it was suicide then. But I’m sure that it won’t make any difference at all for me to point out again that when we find our own Howard Dean in the GOP it isn’t a good idea to follow him. I’ll just be told that I’ve ‘lost touch’ with (fill in the blank).

Have a great time under President Clinton! (again) But don’t expect a Thank You card from Hillary for all your hard work. She is notoriously ungrateful.


34 posted on 10/12/2007 5:13:40 AM PDT by bpjam (Harry Reid doesn't represent me. I'm an American!)
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To: DakotaRed; South40; isthisnickcool

>> No matter how much Pauliacs flood these online polls, he still stand a snowballs chance of getting elected.

Heh heh... and that’s only the start.

Ron Paul will be defeated not only in the (R) primaries, but he will lose his seat in Congress. Having exposed himself as a cut-n-run “it’s America’s fault” truther, he’ll have a tough time getting elected in Congress. We Texans don’t buy that stuff.

It’ll give him lots of free time to start up that Truther think tank he’s always had his heart set on...


35 posted on 10/12/2007 5:56:45 AM PDT by Nervous Tick
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To: bpjam

Ron Soros Paul is now the Lefts favorite ‘Republican’.
If he runs as 3rd party will he drain votes from the Dems or the Reps?


36 posted on 10/12/2007 5:57:33 AM PDT by iopscusa (El Vaquero. (SC Lowcountry Cowboy))
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To: Route66

No life? These guys are screwing with the next election big time; this is basically criminal. My feeling is there is somebody in Paul’s pocket who is a whiz at bombing these polls and websites.


37 posted on 10/12/2007 6:00:51 AM PDT by Amalie (FREEDOM had NEVER been another word for nothing left to lose...)
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To: South40
"Some of you Ron Paul fans take issue with my decision to take the poll down. Fine. When a well-organized and committed "few" can throw the results of a system meant to reflect the sentiments of "the many," I get a little worried. I'd take it down again."

I hate to tell you this, Allen, but this is true of every poll you put up on CNBC. So why do you only pull the ones you don't like?

38 posted on 10/12/2007 6:02:37 AM PDT by norwaypinesavage (Planting trees to offset carbon emissions is like drinking water to offset rising ocean levels)
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To: South40
. . .a dynamic presence throughout the debate

I guess so. . .if you call being on the edge of hysteria "dynamic".

39 posted on 10/12/2007 6:16:33 AM PDT by MEGoody (Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.)
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To: BKerr
I've just changed to being a Paul supporter since this last debate

Specifically, what did he say that changed you into a Paul supporter?

40 posted on 10/12/2007 6:19:00 AM PDT by MEGoody (Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.)
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