Posted on 12/29/2007 12:26:12 PM PST by StopTheNAU
PLAISTOW, N.H. -- Ron Paul said the decision to exclude him from a debate on Fox News Sunday the weekend before the New Hampshire Primary is proof that the network "is scared" of him.
"They are scared of me and don't want my message to get out, but it will," Paul said in an interview at a diner here. "They are propagandists for this war and I challenge them on the notion that they are conservative."
Paul's staff said they are beginning to plan a rally that will take place at the same time the 90-minute debate will air on television. It will be taped at Saint Anselm College in Goffstown.
"They will not win this skirmish," he promised.
The Fox debate occurs less than 24 hours after two back to back Republican and Democratic debates on the same campus sponsored by ABC News, WMUR-TV and the social networking website Facebook.
Paul, the Republican Texas Congressman, was wrapping up his final day of campaigning in New Hampshire until the Iowa Caucuses on Thursday.
He spent much of the day campaigning at diners in Manchester and Plaistow and downtown walks in Derry and Exeter.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Well, that could be interpreted as a - 2%
At least they talk about Paul. If they’re “scared” of him, how frightened must they be of Alan Keyes? When they put up a “comprehensive” picture of “all” the candidates in both parties, Ambassador Keyes somehow didn’t show up. Paul did.
Fox News finally came to their senses about the crazy racist uncle. The Republican party needs to officially expel Ron Paul from the party. His support from KKK and neo-nazi types should not be tolerated.
I turned on Fox News last week only to discover that the regular program was preempted by a show on the treasonous POS Rick Warren. Have not watched Fox News since.
I think FOX news wants a Hillary/Rudy face off, kind of like a subway series with the Mets and Yanks. New York is the center of the universe/sarcasm.
“Why is this man still around?”
Perhaps because he has an enthusiastic base of supporters, e.g., as noted in:
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB119888809249456697.html
Ron Beats Rudy?
December 29, 2007
Manchester, N.H.
For several hours on Sunday, more than a dozen Ron Paul volunteers stood in snow drifts in the rain outside the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester waving at last-minute Christmas shoppers and handing out hundreds of yards signs.
The campaign doesn’t know how many people participated because, as with so many Paul rallies, this one was organized entirely by fans not officially associated with the campaign.
“We told them to take Christmas Eve and Christmas off, and next thing we know they’re doing a sign wave at the mall,” said Jim Forsythe, a self-employed engineer and former Air Force pilot from Strafford, N.H., who independently organizes volunteer efforts for Ron Paul.
That spontaneous grassroots support is why Mr. Paul, an obstetrician from Lake Jackson, Texas, could pull off a stunner on Jan. 8 and place third in New Hampshire’s Republican primary. If he does, he would embarrass Rudy Giuliani and steal media limelight from John McCain and Mitt Romney, who are battling for first place.
Many Republican operatives in New Hampshire, even those affiliated with other campaigns, think Mr. Paul is headed for an impressive, double-digit performance. That he has been polling in the high single digits for months is discounted, because the polls may be missing the depth of his support.
Why? For starters, he appears to be drawing new voters. Polls that screen for “likely” voters might screen out many Paul supporters who haven’t voted often, or at all, before. Many of Mr. Paul’s supporters appear to be first-time voters. They will be able to cast their ballots because New Hampshire allows them to register and vote on the day of an election.
Even Mr. Paul’s New Hampshire spokesman, Kate Rick, is an unlikely political activist. She grew up in a political family in Washington, D.C. and says “I swore I would never work in politics.” She only changed her mind after finding Mr. Paul, a candidate she says she can finally believe in. “Most people I know in the grass roots are like that,” she said. “My closest friends have never voted before, and they’re die-hard Paul people now.”
There is another reason to discount the polls on Mr. Paul. The one thing that unites his supporters is a desire to be left alone, not only by government, but by irritating marketers and meddling pollsters, too. Mr. Paul’s supporters might well be screening their calls and not-so-inadvertently screening out pollsters. Still, some observers of the primary race here downplay this support, noting that a lot of the activists who show up in news stories are not state residents and won’t be voting.
It is true that Paul supporters from New York, New Jersey and even California are prominent at campaign rallies. But volunteers and campaign staffers say that, although out-of-state volunteers often are the most flamboyant and can attend day-time rallies while local supporters are at work, they do not outnumber the locals.
“Ninety percent [of his supporters] are from New Hampshire,” says Jared Chicoine, Mr. Paul’s New Hampshire coordinator. Keith Murphy, a former Democratic campaign worker from Maryland who owns Murphy’s Taproom in Manchester, has held several Paul rallies at his restaurant, which has become a regular hangout for the Paul crowd. When the candidate shows up, about 75% of the activists at an event are from out of state, he said, but on other nights it’s about 50-50.
Regardless of where they are from, organizing Mr. Paul’s supporters is a challenge. “This is entirely grassroots oriented to the point that the official campaign structure seems almost lost, to the point that they don’t know what to do with all these people,” Mr. Murphy said.
On their own initiative, and at their own expense, Paul volunteers hold rallies, print and distribute brochures and even purchase ads. “I pick up the paper and say, wow, there’s an ad and it’s not my ad,” Mr. Chicoine told me.
The buzz surrounding the Paul campaign is reminiscent of the grassroots campaign Democrat Carol Shea-Porter waged against Republican Rep. Jeb Bradley last year. Polls showed Mrs. Shea-Porter trailing by 19 points in October. With almost no money and no support from the Democratic establishment, she came from behind and beat the congressman 51% to 49%.
Many are wondering if the polls are similarly missing Mr. Paul’s momentum. Mrs. Shea-Porter and Mr. Paul have very different ideas about how to use the power of government, but both strongly oppose the war in Iraq. And Mrs. Shea-Porter ran last year as a fiscal conservative, so it’s possible Mr. Paul could win over many Republicans who voted for her last year.
Mr. Chicoine and other Paul supporters say that, contrary to conventional wisdom, most of Mr. Paul’s backers are Republicans, not independents. But everyone agrees that Mr. Paul draws an unusual mix of libertarians, fiscally conservative Democrats, conservative Republicans, home-schoolers, vegans, gambling aficionados, anti-abortion activists and others who want the government to butt out of some aspect of their lives.
But will they get out to vote on primary day?
“I’ve never seen a group of people that are this energetic about a candidate,” Mr. Murphy said. “It’s something else.”
That sentiment is shared by Republicans who have observed numerous New Hampshire primaries. The level of enthusiasm for Mr. Paul is remarkable, they say. It transcends the state’s Libertarian base (about 4% of the electorate). And by many accounts, Mr. Paul’s backers here are more energized and committed than are supporters of Mr. Giuliani, who may enjoy inflated poll numbers because of his celebrity status.
National attention is focused on the horse races between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and between Messrs. McCain and Romney. But the shy obstetrician from Texas could be the surprise story of the New Hampshire primary.
Mr. Cline is editorial page editor of the New Hampshire Union Leader.
The THREE most conservative.
“Paul: Fox News is ‘scared of me’”
RuPaul scares the Pelosi out of me.
Why do you consider Warren "treasonous"?
Are you maybe confusing him with EARL Warren? :)
Guess you forgot about Rick Warren’s meeting with Bashir Assad in Syria.
Actually I have no doubt they are tremendously afraid of the Ambassador. There isn’t a moderator on this planet that can control what he says. My deep secret wish is for him to win the Presidency just to see the collective jaw of liberalism drop. A bunch might even leave the country. Good riddance.
I would wager I’m not the only one here with that desire.
Especially since he's conservative and...BLACK!!!
He'd be a real jolt to their systems, and if a bunch of weirdos like Sean Penn left, nobody would notice, except maybe the shallow celebrity "reporters."
Maybe our first appropriatioin is to buy these weirdos their own island they can run (into the ground) their way. :)
Do you believe there is even a .01% chance of him winning the nomination? I’m tired of folks with no chance taking air time from those who do.
If the debates were interactive between candidates (which I would LOVE), it would be different.
“Do you believe there is even a .01% chance of him winning the nomination?”
It would be a disaster if he won.
I don’t think scared, really. Judiciously circumspect, perhaps. If RP had his way, which he won’t, so many people would have upset applecarts. Me - I’d kinda like to see it. Some of it anyway.
Well, someone placing in the pack, and who's been a GOP rep in Congress for many years, certainly qualifies as someone meeting the criteria to be taken seriously and granted the same podium as other candidates, whether one agrees with him or not.
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