Ron Paul Still Shaking Up GOP?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election
Salon has a profile about Paul, and it makes him appear like the darling of the left-wing.
For instance, the lead into the story goes like this, “The rambunctious GOP candidate wants to drag the U.S. out of Iraq, can the war on drugs, and overturn the Patriot Act. No wonder Republican power brokers want to boot him off the stage.”
The liberal love doesn’t stop there…
Paul has been speaking like this for years, but few ever really noticed. He often addressed an empty House chamber, boring the C-SPAN producers with his libertarian disquisitions on policy. But then he decided to run for president as a Republican, which gained him entry in the crowded Republican debates. And then former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani took a shot at him in South Carolina, demanding that Paul apologize for suggesting that the Sept. 11 attackers had been motivated by the U.S. military presence in the Middle East. “He really inadvertently gave us a boost that was unimaginable,” Paul says of Giuliani.Since then, Paul has been blowing up. The national interview requests keep coming, despite the fact that he is at the bottom of the bottom tier of Republican candidates. Last week, he flew to California to do HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher.” “He’s my new hero,” gushed the liberal Maher to his viewers. CNN has made him a near-regular Sunday feature. “I’m more Republican than they are,” Paul said of his fellow primary candidates in one appearance. This Monday, he will go to New York to sit with Jon Stewart on the “The Daily Show.” Then it is on to Tuesday’s Republican debate in New Hampshire, where Paul is sure to assume his role as the straight-talking foil to Bush-era Republican dogma.
“The big question is how many people out there are sympathetic to my views,” Paul tells me. “We still don’t know. But we are surprised to find out that it is more than anybody dreamed of.”
Honestly, I think this is really just an extension of people not wanting to be bullshitted anymore. We have too much access to too much information and we know when these guys are lying. Paul doesn’t pull any punches, he speaks his mind succinctly and now that he has a national stage, people are taking notice.
And given how popular Paul is online, I think the GOP has a Republican Howard Dean on their hands…
By modern standards, the Paul campaign is barely a campaign. He raised just $640,000 in the first quarter, compared to Mitt Romney’s $23 million and Giuliani’s $16 million. He has made only one visit to each of the three early voting states, has no organized operation in Iowa or South Carolina, and boasts a national campaign staff of just six. But Paul’s supporters, who number in the untold thousands, are certainly making their virtual mark.They have begun to dominate the Republican presidential race on the Internet, though there is no evidence yet that the buzz will translate at the polls. Paul’s campaign now has roughly twice as many YouTube subscribers (12,000) as Barack Obama, and more than twice as many as all the other Republican candidates combined. Paul regularly wins unscientific online polls, while barely causing a blip in the scientific offline ones. His name is among the most searched terms on Technorati, the blog search engine. Before his appearance on Maher’s show, online activists used the Web site Eventful.com to organize an impromptu rally for him outside the studio.
Twice as much as Barack Obama on YouTube.
In nothing else, this is gonna be fun to watch.
This entry was posted on Saturday, June 2nd, 2007 and is filed under 2008 Election. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 2nd, 2007 at 3:15 pm
The funnest part to watch is the media getting their panties in a bunch. Is his support real? Is he liberal or conservative? Who is this guy and why is he winning our online polls? The main stream media is losing control. God bless the Internet.
June 2nd, 2007 at 4:17 pm
The money numbers are somewhat inaccurate now: 2 million dollars has been donated to his campaign since his argument with Giuliani, giving him far more than any other so-called second-tier candidate, though still only about a tenth of the top three.
June 2nd, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Donklephant, I wouldn’t be so quick to poke fun at Dr. Paul. Frankly, I be scard if he got the nomination. I just got back from my 1st ron paul “meet up” and there were 19 people present, out of the 19, 6 were demo’s. he can enjoy broad cross spectrum support. Of course he will be up aginst a controlled media that slants everything to the big corperate welfare state you donkey’s love so much. you donkeys better hope the gray hairs Repubs go for one of the big 3 phonee’s or the half dead actor and don’t turn to dr. paul. He will dismantle the BIG GOV’T MULE you love so much! It is going to be funny and the joke may be on you dems!
June 2nd, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Tell the GOP they can’t win with a pro-war candidate.
Here is where to write in NH:
http://www.nhlibertycalendar.org/activism.php
June 2nd, 2007 at 9:22 pm
I would say I’m more demo in my views, but as recent polling has pointed out, 38% of Americans call themselves independents. That would be the majority between the parties folks…Republican or not, I think Ron Paul is the ONLY candidate for either party making the most sense in all the important issues, not “lets invoke emotional reactions in the masses by talking about 9/11″ ad infinitum. What I really like about that fact, is that after looking back at his track record he has ALWAYS held his beliefs to be just, and has never flip-flopped on an issue. Thats the kind of man I want running things.
June 3rd, 2007 at 12:22 am
Ron Paul is hope for America. The people now know that both parties have no interest in what most of the American people want or need but instead what is good for them. Congressman Ron Paul with a long history of where stands makes you RESPECT him. And is is a sad thought to think about when the last time you RESPECTED the President of the United States.
June 3rd, 2007 at 7:21 am
Ron Paul appeals to Americans of all ages. On Eventful, Ron Paul is at the top in demands among College Students.
http://eventful.com/demand/hottest?q=location_type:venue_id
After following Ron Paul since the 70’s, it is exciting to see his message finally resonating across America - across party lines - across age and demographic groups. After years of lies from our elected politicians and our government, maybe America is ready for the truth. Ron Paul needs our energy - spreading the word to our friends, neighbors, and family. And in order to win the nomination, let’s face it, he needs your money and mine. Give as much as you can - money talks in politics - no amount is too small. He is up against candidates funded by big business, big banks, and the military-industrial complex. This might be our last chance to elect a President who WILL follow the Constitution and start a march back to our founding principles as framed in the Constitution.
June 3rd, 2007 at 10:40 am
[...] Justin Gardner chimes in on two subjects: (a) Bush asking for more international AIDS prevention money; and (b) Ron Paul, just in case you thought the latter would go silently into the night. [...]
June 3rd, 2007 at 11:22 am
Ron Paul is a constitutionalist.
Ron has never voted to raise taxes.
Ron has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
Ron has never voted for the Iraq War.
Ron has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.
Ron has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.
Ron has never voted to raise congressional pay.
Ron has never taken a government-paid junket.
Ron voted against the Patriot Act.
Ron votes against regulating the Internet.
Ron voted against NAFTA and CAFTA.
Ron votes against the United Nations.
Ron votes against the welfare state.
Ron votes against reinstating a military draft.
Ron votes to preserve the constitution.
Ron votes to cut government spending.
Ron votes to lower healthcare costs.
Ron votes to end the war on drugs.
Ron votes to protect civil liberties.
Ron votes to secure our borders with real immigration reform
How can you not love this guy listen to him he is truly a man who tells the truth We the People are taking our country back and restoring the republic
and returing America back to America not the Homeland.
June 4th, 2007 at 12:41 am
Who IS Ron Paul? They still need to know!!
NOBODY explains Ron Paul
BETTER than Ron Paul himself!
Here is an interactive audio archive of
Ron Paul speeches and interviews as a resource in chronological
order.
http://www.ronpaulaudio.com
June 5th, 2007 at 7:02 am
I get a little concerned whenever the mention of a candidate’s name sparks a bunch of robot posts in every blog I read. He may well be a terrific candidate and a good man, but this kind of “marketing” is a turn-off.
June 10th, 2007 at 10:34 am
DJ, I am not a robot…..I love this guy Ron Paul. Time has really changed our country from what it was meant to be. It happened little by little while few people really noticed. Nobody could steal liberty and freedom all at once, it happened little by little over time.
I think Ron seems drastic to some because he wants to restore what was lost quite quickly….these are things such as the IRS and federal income tax that have been around since 1913, and newer items such as medicare etc….basically these are things people who are alive now are used to, but they should not think these things are correct in my opinion simply because it is what has been around in their lifetime.
I say restore the republic, bring back the constitutional rule of law, and god bless Ron Paul….he has my vote.
Again, I am NOT a robot, I am a 33 year old guy living in the Cleveland Ohio area who thinks what we have now is a mistake.
June 12th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
I am not a robot either, and frankly the current general assumption that all Ron Paul supporters ARE robots is insulting. Ron Paul is offering us the first step to restoring the Republic. Yes, we’re a little over-excited about a candidate that protects our natural rights, but I feel that should be understood in the face of some much federal abuse. It’s refreshing to say the least.
So many people are convinced to think that large-government programs protect their freedom, and that we NEED these programs or else our standards of living will fall, are clearly ignorant of our natural rights. I understand this will be a difficult shift for the majority of the public. However, unless we do something now, the corruption in D.C. will run unchecked.
Ron Paul is the only honest candidate…
I’m voting for the constitution
Caroline in VA
June 20th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
Since Dr. Paul doesn’t have the backing of the huge corporations like most of the other rep. candidates, and since we all seem to feel that he is one of the few truly worthy candidates this is the best way that I know of to help him.
As far as being a robot is concerned wouldn’t it be more mindless to just listen to people like shawn hannity and rudy gulliani who want us to believe that the rest of the world hates us for our freedom, or that we bear no responsibility for the way that the people of the middle east feel about us. Regardless of the foreign policy decisions that our government has made like giving saddam hussein the very gas that he used to kill his own people, or helping to install the shaw of Iran, or any of the other crazy things that we do to ‘protect our “national interests” (oil).
August 10th, 2007 at 10:20 am
[...] written about this pretty extensively [...]