Posted on 11/17/2007 10:59:07 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The meeting of Ron Paul activists was well under way when organizer Steven Talcott Smith offered the kind of basic advice you probably wouldn't hear at a gathering of any other Republican presidential candidate's supporters.
"By the way," Smith told the Internet-driven "meet-up" of about 40 people at a library west of Boynton Beach, "by the end of this year everybody in this room should plan to be a Republican."
Florida's Jan. 29 Republican primary is, not surprisingly, limited to registered GOP voters. But a Republican pedigree or a familiarity with the elections process cannot be taken for granted with Paul supporters.
The campaign's libertarian vibe and its appeal to Iraq war opponents and to people who have shunned politics in the past make it decidedly different from a traditional GOP effort.
Retired physician Paul, 72, is a longtime Texas congressman who was the Libertarian Party's 1988 presidential nominee. Known for his strict-constructionist view of the Constitution, Paul is anti-tax and pro-gun and wants to reestablish the gold standard and abolish the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Reserve. He's the only antiwar candidate in the Republican presidential field.
Paul is a second-tier candidate in national and Florida polls. But he has been raising first-tier money, including an establishment-befuddling, South Florida-linked $4.2 million over the Internet on a single day this month.
"It's incredible. ... I've got to applaud him," said longtime Tallahassee Republican operative Brian Ballard, who's raising money for Arizona Sen. John McCain's GOP presidential bid.
Some supporters of Republican hopeful Fred Thompson have paid the ultimate tribute to Paul by scheduling their one-day Internet fund-raiser - on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. The event, organized outside the Tennessean's campaign, is billed as Fred's Giving Day.
Even before Paul's Nov. 5 cash spike, he raised nearly as much money in the third quarter of 2007 as McCain: $5.3 million to $5.7 million.
Paul's one-day haul from about 12,000 individual contributors focused attention on the campaign and buoyed the spirits of his backers.
"The spirit of freedom in the donors created the big-money push, and that seemed to bring the media along," local Paul backer Dean Taffel told the west Boynton meet-up. "And now Ron Paul is on Face The Nation ... and now we are really ready to roll, and I think a lot of people are here tonight because (they) feel much better about the campaign."
In typically decentralized fashion, the $4.2 million raised on Nov. 5 was not generated by Paul's official campaign organization but by a California enthusiast's Internet video that inspired a Miami Beach supporter to launch a Web site.
Trevor Lyman, 37, is the head of an Internet music promotion business who says he has never voted.
"I should be ashamed of that," Lyman said this week. "I've always cared, but not enough that any candidate felt any different than any other."
Lyman said he first was attracted to Paul because of his opposition to the war in Iraq. He later was drawn to his "extremely consistent" adherence to the Constitution and his views on monetary policy.
After James Sugra of Huntington Beach, Calif., posted an online video that suggested raising $10 million for Paul on a single day by getting $100 contributions from 100,000 supporters, Lyman registered the www.thisnovember5th.com domain name on the Web in hopes of doing just that.
Nov. 5 is Guy Fawkes Day, the anniversary of a thwarted 1605 attempt to blow up the British Parliament and kill King James I. Lyman said the Nov. 5 fund-raising date was not inspired by nostalgia for 17th-century violence but by the 2006 movie V for Vendetta, in which the date figures prominently as a protagonist in a Fawkes mask rebels against a totalitarian state in a futuristic Britain.
Lyman and others are promoting another Internet-based money-raising blitz pegged to another act of centuries-old rebellion: Dec. 16, the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.
The Internet is an integral part of the Paul campaign.
There are an estimated 1,110 Internet-based meet-up groups like the one in west Boynton with about 67,000 members nationwide, campaign spokesman Jesse Benton said. The groups are not officially connected to the campaign organization, Benton said, but the campaign maintains contact with meet-up leaders.
Palm Beach County's meet-up group has about 200 members, said Smith, 34, a software entrepreneur who lives in Boca Raton.
At the west Boynton gathering Tuesday, Smith initially planned to offer tips on how to promote Paul in conversations with other voters. But he said he found better material on YouTube.com in the form of a video produced by Paul supporters.
In the video, Paul supporter Craig Rowland of Vancouver, Wash., advises Paulites to focus on issues of interest to the people to whom they are talking rather than their own pet issues. He also counsels against time-wasting arguments, the trashing of other candidates and conspiracy theories.
"If you have to lower your voice to talk about it, it's a conspiracy theory," the video likeness of Rowland told Palm Beach County activists.
For Paul backers, the decentralized and individualistic Internet is more than just a tool to communicate and raise money.
"The DNA of the Internet is freedom," said Smith, a member of the Libertarian Party before registering with the GOP this year so he could vote for Paul in the primary.
Smith says he never voted until 2004, when he cast a reluctant vote for President Bush because he found Democratic nominee John Kerry "odious."
Many Paul supporters at the west Boynton meeting were newcomers to politics.
"I've had no prior political experience whatsoever," said Christina Henley of Jupiter, who said she spends 50 to 60 hours a week volunteering for Paul. Henley works as a distributor of a nutritional supplement drink and said she is studying to be a naturopathic doctor.
Many Paul supporters are involved in alternative nutrition. Paul, who has a "health freedom" section on his campaign Web site, has opposed efforts to put greater federal regulation on dietary supplements and natural remedies.
Rahn Skipper, who manages a bamboo nursery in Loxahatchee, recently switched from no party affiliation to Republican so he could vote for Paul. Never active in politics, Skipper brought his guitar to the west Boynton meet-up and performed a Paul tribute song that he wrote, Read Your Constitution.
Paul's nontraditional campaign and its supporters from outside the major parties present a huge opportunity, Smith said.
"He is one of the few people who is drawing people into the party," Smith said. "If you have a feel for marketing and the cultural zeitgeist, you understand the potential of this campaign."
Smith believes Paul can win. But if he doesn't, Smith said, Paul's effort still can be a milestone, similar to the 1964 Republican presidential defeat that launched the modern conservative movement.
"In the worst case," Smith said, "this could be like the Goldwater campaign and have effects decades down the road."
Rasmussen has Ron Paul at 5 percent nationally.
Ron Paul’s “support” is nothing more than Democrats trying to get him more prominence so as to hurt the likely candidates. I vaguely recall FReepers sending money to Sharpton in 2004. Same thing here.
“Rasmussen has Ron Paul at 5 percent nationally.”
5% nationally doesn’t show the figures where they count : among registered Republican likely primary voters. The problem for Ron Paul is summed up in the second paragraph : “By the way,” Smith told the Internet-driven “meet-up” of about 40 people at a library west of Boynton Beach, “by the end of this year everybody in this room should plan to be a Republican.”
Most of his supporters aren’t registered Republicans - meaning they can’t vote in the primary. Should Paul decide to run a 3rd party campaign later, then yes he should expect that these people will be able to vote for him.
This outfit is running radio ads that state Ron Paul is the only candidate who has ever done anything about illegal immigration. We all know Ron has never done one thing to stop it or secure the borders except recently give it lip service. Duncan Hunter and Tancredo have actually gotten legislation through to fix the mess. Ron Paul has never gotten one piece of his legislation through the process. NOT ONE. And they weren’t about stopping illegal immigration. I hope you will let them know not all of us will buy their lies.
http://www.nevadansforamerica.org/
I haven’t missed a vote since I was 18, and I do vote for real Republicans, and Ron Paul is one of only two REAL REPUBLICANS runiing for President. I don’t think Ron Paul will run as an alternative party candidate, but whether he gets the nomination or not, his campaign is laying down the groundwork for a new conservative movement and its influence will be felt for decades. I’ve been to the rallies and the meet-ups, I know what I am talking about. Think of Ron Paul as Robert Taft and think of those kids watching him on youtube as either the next Barry Goldwater or Ronald Reagan.
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