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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: WWTD
The other candidates may giggle into their microphones whenever Paul speaks, but I bet they're all green with envy over the grassroots organization Paul has.

Yeah, they're working so hard, that in some polls, Paul can get a whole 4%. Of course, he drops back to 2% the next day, but. . .

41 posted on 10/12/2007 6:22:08 AM PDT by MEGoody (Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.)
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To: piytar
The analogy to Hitler here is completely justified given Stormfront's support of Ron Paul.

I hate to tell you, but the Neo Nazis have never supported a liberal over a libertarian or conservative. That doesn't mean that the candidate was anything like them. They supported Bush over Gore and Kerry, yet Bush appointed the first Hispanic Attorney General, appointed the first two, black Secretaries of State, appointed the first black National Security Adviser, a black Secretary of Education, etc.

42 posted on 10/12/2007 7:31:54 AM PDT by BKerr (I've changed my mind - Dr. Ron Paul 2008!)
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To: South40
Back in the real world, last weeks Gallup. Note Paul's negatives, fully 50% of those who know who he is. Hillary country. He can thank his supporters for some of that.


43 posted on 10/12/2007 7:35:17 AM PDT by SJackson (isolationism never was, never will be acceptable response to[expansionist] tyrannical governments)
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To: cowtowney

Here are some more ‘Conservative' votes by RuPaul:

Voted NO on federal crime to harm fetus while committing other crimes.

Voted NO on forbidding human cloning for reproduction & medical research.

Voted NO on barring transporting minors to get an abortion.

Voted YES on funding for alternative sentencing instead of more prisons.

Voted NO on more prosecution and sentencing for juvenile crime.

Voted NO on military border patrols to battle drugs & terrorism.

Voted NO on allowing school prayer during the War on Terror.

Voted NO on allowing vouchers in DC schools.

Voted NO on passage of the Bush Administration national energy policy.

Voted NO on implementing Bush-Cheney national energy policy.

Voted YES on barring website promoting Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump.

Voted NO on speeding up approval of forest thinning projects.

Voted NO on reforming the UN by restricting US funding.

Voted NO on requiring lobbyist disclosure of bundled donations.

Voted NO on prohibiting lawsuits about obesity against food providers.

Voted NO on prohibiting product misuse lawsuits on gun manufacturers

Voted NO on prohibiting suing gunmakers & sellers for gun misuse.

Voted NO on decreasing gun waiting period from 3 days to 1.

Voted NO on emergency $78B for war in Iraq & Afghanistan.

Voted NO on $266 billion Defense Appropriations bill.

Voted YES on more immigrant visas for skilled workers.

Voted YES on providing $70 million for Section 8 Housing vouchers.

Voted NO on promoting work and marriage among TANF recipients.

Voted NO on treating religious organizations equally for tax breaks.

44 posted on 10/12/2007 9:58:26 AM PDT by South40 (Amnesty for ILLEGALS is a slap in the face to the USBP!)
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To: iopscusa

If we would just finally, and openly, excommunicate Ron Paul the lefties might actually rally to him. And then we could finally start giving him money so he would have a successful anti-war, anti-GOP campaign and steal the real lefties from Hillary (whom they all know is really a sell-out).

If Ralph Nader isn’t going to have the balls to run, then we might have to push Ron Paul to run in the Green Party.

The DNC should be the party who is the most afraid of a viable third party since the anti-war movement is a party in itself now and the DNC is tripping over themselves to keep it within them own borders. But if Hillary is the annointed leader, they might determine that she just ain’t quite Bush/Iraq/Military/American hatin’ enough for them and demand that Kucinich/Paul run on the independent ticket.

Oh, by chance, to dream.....


45 posted on 10/13/2007 9:01:37 PM PDT by bpjam (Harry Reid doesn't represent me. I'm an American!)
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