On the Cover of the…
...Decatur Daily. I awoke to find that my ugly mug was the lead story (which also dropped below the fold, contained two large photos and was continued on page A6) in my local paper.
Well, the ugly mug wasn’t the story, local Ron Paul support was. The first part of the article dealt with the Ron Paul presence in north Alabama, highlighting many of the non-traditional (for mainstream candidates, at least) campaigning mechanisms employed by Paul supporters.
Televised debates, newspaper articles and political rallies are the way most Americans find out about presidential candidates.Signs on telephone polls that ask passersby to Google a candidate, stamped $5 bills and Christmas parade floats are new methods to reach voters.
Meet Ron Paul for president.
Supporters of the Texas congressman are trying new tactics nationwide to earn him the Republican nomination.
There are “Google Ron Paul” signs along U.S. 72 in Limestone County and U.S. 31 in Decatur. Supporters entered the Decatur and Athens Christmas parades with floats that said, “All I want for Christmas is Ron Paul for President.”
And this reporter received a $5 bill in change at Hibbett Sporting Goods in Athens that had Ron Paul stamped over Abraham Lincoln’s face.
Paul supporters also take advantage of technology with sites online at MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and Meetup, and by writing blogs and sending e-mails.
Such grassroots efforts are about name recognition, said Stephen Gordon of Hartselle, chairman of the Alabama Libertarian Party and a Paul supporter.
The article dealt with who supports the presidential candidate:
Gordon said the grassroots tactics give apathetic voters a sense of involvement.“A high percentage haven’t engaged in politics before, but feel he is the voice of the people,” Gordon said. “They are excited. We have college students, high school graduates with blue-collar jobs and home school moms. I’m excited there are a lot of women involved. Most supporters are independent. A few are Democrats and some are Republicans.”
I don’t remember my exact wording, but what I tried to express is that grassroots tools (such as MeetUp) have provided formerly apathetic voters a change to become involved in the political system.
He said those who support that philosophy are spending 15 to 40 hours a week volunteering for the campaign.“Some people are adopting stores for the holidays and handing out literature and putting up signs in their yards,” Gordon said.
Of course, there’s always the other side to present when reporting on an issue. The Daily also spoke with Jess Brown, a “political professor at Athens State University.”
Says Brown:
“They’ll be curious about who Ron Paul is, but what counts is how many of those will vote in the Republican primary and how many will agree with his libertarian isolationist view,” Brown said.
My question is why Alabama taxpayers should help to financially support a political science professor who doesn’t even know the simple difference between isolationism and non-interventionism.
I also wonder how Brown will react to the simple fact that the Ron Paul campaign/movement just completed the “most successful fundraising day in American political history.”
Front page photo taken by John Godbey of the Decatur Daily.
December 17th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
How much did Paul end up raising Sunday? The only numbers I have seen was Politics 1 saying that he had raised 3.6 million as of 8:30pm Sunday night
December 17th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
6.3 million
December 17th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Press conference in about a half hour. There’s differing figures going around right now, the consensus is somewhere around 6.02 million from online donations, but it’s unclear how much of the offline donations added to the total last night were from the 16th specifically.
December 17th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Steve,
Congratulations on your newfound fame.
Derrick
December 17th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Yeah I see on Paul’s website where they state 6.02 million was raised. Very impressive. I am confused by one statement that was included on Paul’s website. It stated that the previous record was held by Kerry at 5.7 million. But everywhere else I have seen (politics 1 is the most recent) has stated that the record is 6.2 million held by Hilary.
So just trying to figure out if Paul did or didn’t break the record
Either way it was very a impressive total
December 17th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
The 6.2 number is seen as a book-keeping facility by the Clinton campaign. While the facts aren’t 100% sure we have:
1) Clinton campaign having a number of fundraisers leading up to the day in question with no value reported, but all value reported on what is the last day of each cycle.
2) Clinton campaign not trumpeting the fact that it raised more than Kerry’s previously held record. Maybe its because they knew it wasn’t ‘true’ so they didn’t want to have it examined.
The theory is that if the Clinton campaign had actually broken a previous record (gotten donations all within a midnight to midnight period), why not get all the free publicity? So therefore it may not be what it appears to be.
December 17th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
A lot of reporters have labeled Ron paul’s donations as “unconfirmed” “pledges” and that they aren’t verified until FEC reports come out.
If you use the same standard for Clinton and Romney, it has already been verified through FEC that Clinton and Romney are liars.
Clinton was over several days of big fundraisers and Romney’s were Pledges, not actual donations. RP’s are processed credit card donations and all online from individuals.
December 17th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Well even if you don’t count Clinton’s numbers then the next highest is Obama at $6 million (again see todays Politics 1)
December 17th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Wow, what next? The old media is still being stubborn. I heard a while back that an infomercial was in the works. Does anyone know if this is still the case?
December 18th, 2007 at 1:28 am
the infomercial is for Iowa and it is up on the utubes now.
December 18th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Gordon, why does it look like you are extremely drunk in that picture?
December 18th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
disinter—LOL.
We were setting things up and I think I was running one way while waving to someone behind me. I didn’t get drunk until much, much later.
December 18th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
What amazes me about Dr. Pauls campaign is that more Americans can’t see the light. We know, as sure as it’s warm in Southern California in the summer, that the establishment supported candidates, whether Rep. or Dem. are all basically shills for corporate America. You know, that entity that has done such a fine job where this nations economic health is concerned.(I think we even owe Mexico money) Yet, despite all of this, millions of people will continue to dutifully vote for one of the corporate shills. They wouldn’t even consider taking a chance on Dr. Paul, who has Americas best interests at heart, and only Americas and Americans best interests at heart.
“IF YOU KEEP DOING WHAT YOU’VE ALWAYS DONE, YOU’LL KEEP GETTING WHAT YOU’VE ALWAYS GOTTEN.”
December 18th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
While everyone is in love with Ron Paul, we are forgetting that he is not spending his money and in the end, he’s not getting the Republican nomination, and he’s going to have a big fat bank account to run for congress for the rest of his life.