"No Problemo dude, just tell them we will be late to the vote!"
"Can't dude, ran my cell phone battery down spammin' those phone polls..."
"That sucks dude." 
Posted on 11/29/2007 5:08:43 PM PST by traviskicks
ST. PETERSBURG -- Mitt Romney bought himself a victory in the straw poll for Republicans at a rain-shortened barbecue in Vinoy Park.
Romney got 893 votes, besting second-place Ron Paul's 534 -- despite Paul's shuttling in supporters on a rented trolley and shuttle. The campaign had a plane sporting pro-Paul slogans and a boat touting him, too.
In fact, Paul supporters dominated the crowd, which reached an estimated 1,000 people. Tickets for votes cost $20 each.
So how did Romney do it?
"I voted 20 times," Derek Gyongzois, 38, of St. Petersburg exclaimed after casting ballots.
He said he works as a volunteer for the Romney campaign (and begged a reporter not to print his 20-vote tally). Did he buy the tickets?
"I don't have that kind of money," Gyongzois said.
He wasn't the only person voting more than once. Paul supporter Mike Wagner, 57, of St. Petersburg: "This thing is rigged."
Before rain cut short the event, Paul supporters were voting multiple times, too.
"This is the best election money can buy, anywhere," said Pinellas County GOP chairman Tony DiMatteo, a Rudy Giuliani supporter. Giuliani received 39 votes, followed by Mike Huckabee's 37 and Fred Thompson's 21. John McCain had 12; Duncan Hunter, 4, Alan Keyes, 2; and Tom Tancredo, 1.
Romney takes a hit
Mitt Romney played in an organized flag football game at Flora Wylie Park in St. Petersburg with his five sons, staffers, supporters and the media.
Romney laced up his Mizuno running shoes and played for 10 to 15 minutes. Teammates included former state Republican chairman Al Cardenas and St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker. They all got pretty sweaty.
"My son Matt tackled me," Romney said. "But fortunately he didn't throw me to the ground and make me eat grass."
McCain meets teens
Sen. John McCain greeted supporters at the Parkshore Grill in St. Petersburg before the debate. A good portion of the crowd included high school students invited by the McCain campaign.
Devin Watson, a junior at Northside Christian School, said she became aware of McCain when she saw him as a guest on The Daily Show.
Kevin Burkett, a sophomore at Northside, said he likes McCain's "prowar stance" and the fact that he's a veteran.
"I think it's cowardly to cut and run," Burkett said.
McCain told the teenagers that if they don't like the way the country's run they should become politically active.
Rally stays peaceful
A mishmash of activists gathered in St. Petersburg's Pioneer Park, calling for political change and participating in a straw poll. The crowd included members of 30 organizations, including the Democratic Party from Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties, Veterans for Peace, the Florida Green Party, the Libertarian Club of Pinellas and the South St. Petersburg Democratic Club.
So who won? Ron Paul, whose supporters arrived in buses, crushed the field. He took 240 of the 322 votes cast. Dennis Kucinich was the closest competitor, at 26.
Down the street, more than 100 homeless men and women and their supporters rallied across from the Mahaffey Theater. Later, nearly 400 people marched down First Street S carrying placards with messages such as "Jesus was homeless, too" and "Ron Paul is my homie."
The homeless and their advocates, who had been rallying outside the Mahaffey since Sunday night, had predicted a showdown with police. But that confrontation never materialized.
Instant gratification department
According to a survey of Republican voters who watched last night's CNN/YouTube debate, the winner was ... Mike Huckabee.
The InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion Research/Florida Chamber of Commerce survey, in which voters participated by calling into a toll-free phone line, gathered opinions from 341 GOP voters. The margin of error is 5.25 percent. Here are the results:
Huckabee: 44%; Giuliani: 18%; Romney: 13%; McCain: 10%; Thompson: 5%; Paul: 4%; Tancredo: 1%; no winner: 5%
DNC cancels debate
The Democratic National Committee has canceled a Dec. 10 presidential debate in Los Angeles because of a potential strike by CBS news writers.
The debate, which was to be televised by CBS, faced uncertainty after the network's news writers voted to authorize the Writers Guild of America to call a strike. After that vote, the major Democratic presidential contenders announced they would not participate in the debate if the labor dispute was not resolved.
Times staff writers Jennifer Liberto, Cristina Silva and Janet Zink contributed to this report, which includes information from the Associated Press.
[Last modified November 29, 2007, 19:36:33]
The bottom line is that even on our best Republican turnout, we only manage 65% of registered voters. On a light turnout, if we fail to energize our base, the passionate fools may win. Telling lies can get you an energized turnout.
Nothing brings us together more than laughing at Paul Supporters.
A formal straw poll is common in American political caucuses. Such straw polls can be taken before selecting delegates and voting on resolutions. The results of straw polls are taken by the media to influence delegates in caucus later (as well as delegates to political conventions), and thus serve as important precursors. Straw polls are also scheduled informally by other organizations interested in the U.S. presidential election.
Well-known American straw polls include the Ames Straw Poll and the Texas Straw Poll, both conducted on behalf of the Republican Party. Being run by private organizations, they are not subject to public oversight or verifiability. However, they provide important interactive dialogue among movements within large groups, reflecting trends like organization and motivation.[1][2]
Straw polls are not indicative of a broad base of support, particularly in the early stages of a campaign. But they can be used as a tool to build such support by a campaign that has a core of committed supporters, a strong organization to rally around and a well funded candidate. They are one more method of marketing a candidate to the public and/or party activists.
Bottom line though, is this: its the way the American electoral system works and its nothing new. But then, most who are making this "Mitt bought the poll" charge aren't doing it to preserve the integrity of the voting process. They're trying to knock of the frontrunner with any and all accusations they can find or manufacture. I've never seen so many crocodile tears.
I would really ask just how much of that came out of the Paul campaign. Because as we know the message of liberty and freedom spawns supporters willing to spend their own money as necessary. Unlike the campaigns of the 7 dwarfs losers other fine candidates
No one, well at least not me, is accusing you of voter fraud. The Republican party is free to raise money however they see fit and within whatever rules they see fit. The main issue here is the media reporting on the issue, with the Romney campaign likely hoping for ‘Romney won’ headlines, without qualifiers, making it sound like all these people showed up at this straw poll to vote for Romney, that he has all this support in Fl, which is why the campaign spent the money, for the positive press.
But there appeared to be, at very least, some misconceptions on what the rules were before hand, which is also an issue, but, again, the main point of this article is to show what actually happened, versus what is portrayed in the media.
In fact, we got these same reports from the Ames Straw poll, that people were being paid for their time to go vote for Romney in IOWA. Not that this is illegal, but the false portrayal of the significance of these by the media is troubling...
lol! wow... interesting interpretation of events...
“despite Paul’s shuttling in supporters on a rented trolley and shuttle. The campaign had a plane sporting pro-Paul slogans and a boat touting him, too.”
So the ‘principled’ Ron Paul tried to buy a straw poll victory by bussing people and got out bid/outsmarted by Romney in this fundraiser. So to get a victory he’s got to hang out with the Kucinich wackos and run with the Green Party. LOL.
“They just got beat at their own game and are pissed, that’s all. I hate to say it but good work.
Nothing brings us together more than laughing at Paul Supporters.”
ROFL.
"No Problemo dude, just tell them we will be late to the vote!"
"Can't dude, ran my cell phone battery down spammin' those phone polls..."
"That sucks dude."
(usfsparky)
Respectfully, I have no way of knowing whether you are indeed the person portrayed in these videos.
Facts are very important to Ron Paul supporters. This is the very reason I posted these videos, so the general public could see what the biased media would not report. I gave the man in the aqua shirt opportunity to defend himself and published his defense publicly, as well. Furthermore, in my descriptions of my two videos that feature the man in the aqua shirt, I state observable facts only, and there are no verbal accusations made in either of those two videos.
In good faith, I will amend the description of the interview video to remove the words “For the real story,” since they could be misinterpreted, and I will add the man’s statement to the description of the voting video.
I will respect your request to have these two videos removed if you will send an email to ronpaul@whitsoftdev.com with an attached photograph of yourself holding a note card with the word “ufsparky” legibly printed on it. This is so I can confirm your identity.
mission9 Original Message:
> I did not give you permission to use my video image in any public forum. You would need a signed co...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1932550/posts?page=26#26
I accept your apology.
My identity nor my integrity is not what is in question here. You attempted to pull a little Ron Paul scam on me. You do not know me or my level of participation in the Republican Party, but when you come into your neighbor’s house you should come with the expectation that your neighbor is a right and honorable man. You and your campaign entered this event with a chip on your shoulder, and the result was misinformation, and dishonor for Ron Paul.
I am being kind to you in this instance, though you may think me harsh. Imagine if one of the old ladies who were upset with the boisterous behavior at this event had suffered a coronary. What if it had been your Grandmother? I love each of those ladies as my own family and I would lay down my life for them. You think that I am kidding young man, but once before, I have had to sling one such passed out granny over MY shoulder and haul her to the para medics. I tell you this truly.
Now if you truly are a seeker of truth, you will contact the St. Petersburg Times and correct the bogus story of Romney “buying” an election. Maybe one day, in the future, you will have the privilege of raising the funds to continue the work of freedom at the local Republican Club, until that day do not impugn the hard work of those who kept the lights of freedom burning while others played childish games.
Respect your elders, even though they may appear to be frail grannies in tennis shoes, they are angels.
Plus with Bin Laden giving up on Iraq, well they are apt to be in a foul mood right now.
Friend’s of Rudy disimformation believe what you want I am sure you will if is is negative of Mitt.
But most of Florida is made of fomer NY’ers including honest and dishonest people!
Dick Morris, who had previously worked for Bill Clinton, advised Huckabee on his races in 1993 and 1994.[10] Huckabee commented that Morris was a “personal friend”.[10] A newspaper article reported on Huckabee’s 1993 win: “Morris said the mistake Republicans always make is that they are too much of a country club set. What we wanted to do was run a progressive campaign that would appeal to all Arkansans.’”[10] Morris elaborated, “So we opened the campaign with ads that characterized Mike as more of a moderate whose values were the same as those of other Arkansans.”[10] In 1996, Huckabee ran for US Senate again and won the Republican nomination. He quit the US Senate race in order to become Governor.[11]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Huckabee
It’s the American Idolization of voting... Disturbing trend.
Actually I wouldn’t mind a Survivor type voting where you vote out the weakest at the primaries and end up with the best person standing. I almost think that would be a better system. Yes I know it is sad, but right now the system does not seem to great.
Ron Paul was not bussing in people to the event, however it appears that many misrepresent his volunteers as his staff. Unfortunate really.
I was there, and I know that many Paul supporters believed that their single vote counted in something very important. $20 is a lot for the average American, especially a fundraiser ticket.
And if they really didn’t matter, why was the Board of Elections supervising with secure polling boxes?
mission9,
If I may ask, what percentage of people around America know that Straw Polls are devoid of accuracy and they still pay for their accuracy with tax dollars? I would say less than 1%. You?
was there, and I know that many Paul supporters believed “that their single vote counted in something very important. $20 is a lot for the average American, especially a fundraiser ticket.
And if they really didn’t matter, why was the Board of Elections supervising with secure polling boxes?”
Grasshopper, the supervisor of elections participates as a courtesy to help people who have never voted before with the experience of the machines. This is especially helpful to Ron Paulites.
bump!
Uh huh.
Wouldn't you prefer that leftists be tricked into voting for someone who respects the Constitution, rather than we Republicans being tricked into voting for a gun-grabbing RINO like Guiliani?
heh heh....
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