Posted on 11/22/2007 8:25:31 AM PST by George W. Bush
The Ron Paul Factor
By Matt Towery
Thursday, November 22, 2007
As we continue to poll and observe the various states involved in the early caucus/primary battles for the Republican presidential nomination, one thing is becoming increasingly clear to me: While Ron Paul may lag behind most of his GOP competitors in the polls, the intensity of devotion from his supporters makes his candidacy deserving of more attention than it's gotten to date.
His sometimes-quirky mannerisms and oddball demeanor fly in the face of what most Republicans traditionally look for in their presidential nominees. And his comments startle many for their bluntness and contrariness to long-running establishment GOP thinking.
That's exactly why Paul could have an unexpected impact not only on the Republican nomination process, but also on the November general election as well.
Consider that over 600 people turned out for a rally for Paul in Reno, Nevada, recently. The media described the crowd as a mixed group that included many college students.
That's another indicator of the potential impact of the Paul campaign. I recall in 1980 when establishment Republicans and conservatives were backing George H.W. Bush, John Connally or Howard Baker for president.
But on college campuses, the birth of the modern College Republicans movement was feeding off of the support of frustrated college students for the maverick in the race, Ronald Reagan.
Don't get me wrong. I am not predicting Paul will pull a Reagan and somehow beat out the GOP's establishment contenders. I will suggest that Paul may fatally damage several potential candidates, and perhaps the entire Republican Party, if he breaks away and runs as a legitimate third-party candidate after Tsunami Tuesday's primaries in early February.
Paul blends a unique mixture of cynicism over the health of the economy, loud opposition to the erosion of civil liberties, plus a stand as the only GOP candidate who's flat-out opposed to the war in Iraq.
Those issues unite a seemingly disparate group of voters who collectively feel that 20 years of the presidency being shared between two families -- the Clintons and Bushes -- is more than enough. They are voters who have found their mouthpiece in Paul, who's willing to voice their frustration over Republicans, Democrats and whoever and whatever else represents "The Establishment."
Paul could be deadly to someone like conservative Mike Huckabee, who is steadily rising in many polls but can't be assured of the devoted turnout of his supporters, as Paul almost surely can.
Paul's words have also taken away some of the ink that should have gone to Fred Thompson, who entered the race as the supposed "I'll say anything and throw caution to the wind" candidate, but whose measured and often boring campaign speeches have consistently fallen short of their billing.
Unlike many GOP candidates, Paul hasn't tried to have his cake and eat it, too, on the subject of President Bush. He has little or nothing charitable to say about the president. And with new revelations coming from Bush's own press secretary about "who knew what when" in the CIA leak scandal, Paul's distance seems all the wiser.
How do I think Ron Paul will impact 2008? It's at least possible that he'll fare better than expected -- and not just eventually in scattered primaries, but as early as next week in the much-awaited CNN/YouTube debate in Florida. Paul is often quicker and less plastic than his counterparts, and could do well in such a format.
But where will Ron Paul really do his damage? It could be by seriously damaging the Republican establishment his followers so despise.
How? By running as a third-party candidate. In critical "Red States," where the vote may turn on just a small percent, Paul could block any hope of a GOP victory.
That would likely mean a Hillary Clinton presidency. But it might also mean a true remake of the Republican Party for the future. The abandonment of the get-along, go-along Republican Party is something that many, including and beyond Paul's supporters, would like to see.
Matt Towery is a former National Republican legislator of the year and author of Powerchicks: How Women Will Dominate America.
Yes, only 16 year old dope smoking democrats support RP. s/
On a serious note, I am in HK and confirmed with the US Consulate that the USS Kitty Hawk will not be coming to port. Many were holding out hope that Beijing would change their mind. Would have loved to have seen it.
Lovely. Your candidate’s supporters spent the entire time the rest of us were having Thanksgiving dinner with our families google-bombing against Fred Thompson. You should be proud.
I do not believe Ron Paul can fatally damage the GOP. I do believe that many hardcare Ron Paul supporters wish he could.
” Your candidate’s supporters spent the entire time the rest of us were having Thanksgiving dinner with our families google-bombing against Fred Thompson. You should be proud.”
Sageb1
Guess by your logic everyone that posted today, regardless of the topic, do not love their families? Or does your logic only apply to RP supporters?
Yes. Thompson staffers have not been able to keep their websites up. They have been google-bombed 24/7. And it is Ron Paul people. I got back from Thanksgiving dinner and all of Thompson’s official site and blogs were gone or pushed down the page by Ron Paul supporters and Lew Rockwell himself. They also bomb articles about other candidates with the express purpose of keeping Fred’s own sites and and pro-Fred bloggers off the first page. They hit him hard 1 hour before his fundraiser and took the sites down, then they started again this morning.
I managed to get one Fred site back to the top, but there should be 5 or 6 there. There are 2 and 1 doesn’t work, so they google-bomb it so that it remains at the top of the page. Go ahead and check out the page.
See for yourself.
There are so many positive news articles and so many things he has written recently, but who the heck would know if you can’t find the stuff. You guys say Ron Paul deserves a voice. Thompson staffers are not doing anything against Ron Paul.
You wonder why no one wants to listen to anything Paul has to say. It’s because of this behavior by his supporters.
Check out the nasty articles that are being written by Paul people just for google-bomb purposes. They’re all there.
Funny. When I came back, I had to go all the way down the news/activism page to find replies to articles because most people are busy. I’ve been alone on holidays. I didn’t spend my time spamming and google-bombing.
And while you’re at it, check out 2 libertarian websites.
http://mvdg.wordpress.com/2007/11/22/ron-paul-bad-for-libertarianism/
Again, they have been posting and replying all day today and into the evening.
I “view all” by the way. Never know what you might miss.
Point?
When you read the articles, you should read the posts as well. You will see a spilt and most times a majority of those who support RP. Another words the opinion of the writer is his opinion and we can agree or disagree, just like we do here.
500 dollar donation from the nitwit Black and now RP supporters are all nazi’s. Don’t forget who black supported in 00/04. When the primaries are over and RP loses, if Fred is the nominee and black supports him, what will your candidate and you yourself say about his support?? I bet zilch.
I like RP’s mangers response on the subject of black, they did not know who he was, until someone in the media pointed it out. They do not support his idea’s and too bad he donated because he is not getting a refund. Of the 9 million plus dollars raised, 500.00 is nothing. The real winner, though he is a loser, is black, he is getting what he wanted, exposure.
It is the same old rehashing of issues, that have been debunked, by RP detractors that make me laugh the most.
I think of all the non RP supporters, I tip my hat to the Hunter supporters who add value to the discussions on the RP threads.
If the detractors of RP spent more time on getting their candidate elected, as RP supporters do, their preferred candidate would most likely be doing better in the polls and have a better war chest to fight the two big rino’s in this race.
Can’t wait till Iowa and New Hampshire are in the history book.
I think Duncan Hunter is going to surprise a lot of people like RP will.
Good luck to you,
Google-bombing has a huge effect. They are also doing it on Google News and plain old Google web.
I can safely assume then that both of you support the google-bombing.
Sad that FR has members with no class.
Fire ants.
No one on Fred’s team wants Black’s support.
And by the way, I like Duncan Hunter a lot.
Believe me 99.9% of RP supporters don’t want blacks support. I would give him his money back and be done with it. Like I wrote earlier, Black is enjoying the exposure just like he enjoyed the exposure during the florida recount marches he did. Giving his money back would not stop RP’s critics who make this the issue. They would find issue with something else.
RP’s support is growing every day. There will always be evil thinking (i’m rehashing now) people in the crowd. I know from experience having worked on Bush 41’s campaign and supported both terms of GW’s.
The hit pieces and the innuendo’s really haven’t started. Just wait, the detractors will have hit pieces on all that threaten Rudy’s chances. JMO. A Hillary & Rudy race. Two liberals fighting it out.
I take it you are a FDT supporter? Regardless, I have seen a push by a few Freepers for a Thompson/Hunter ticket. I would rather and would support a Hunter/Thompson ticket. Not to be confused with the writer Hunter Thompson, rest his soul.
A better match up would be a Paul/Hunter ticket. What a balance of a ticket. One can dream.
There really isn’t all that exposure for Black, although I’m sure he’d like to think so.
Ron Paul has not really said anything about any of the looney tunes who support him because he wants the money. Didn’t he have to give more illegal cash back just this week or last? And what’s with the Alex Jones troofer interview the night before Thanksgiving?
Your freeper pal said he doen’t think google-bombing has any effect and that Thompson supporters can find him online. He’s talking about people who already support Thompson. Isn’t the whole point getting one’s message out to the average individual, not political junkies? Fred Thompson is not trying to stifle Ron Paul, but Ron Paul’s supporters are trying to stifle Fred Thompson. They push support of Huckabee just to take Thompson down. Kind of odd behavior, don’t you think?
That might come back to bite you all if you’re so against nanny-staters.
I would love a Thompson/Hunter ticket.
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