Paul faithful flock to Spartanburg appearance (sixteen standing ovations!)

GoUpstate.com ^ | 7/21/07 | Jason Spencer

[George W. Bush]

Paul faithful flock to Spartanburg appearance

A little-known Texas congressman seeking the Republican nomination for president visited Spartanburg on Saturday and seemed to arrive with all the makings of rock-star candidate for his party — despite polling low, little name recognition and a relatively small campaign staff.

Supporters call it the “Ron Paul Revolution.” You might’ve seen it on signs or T-shirts. Or MySpace.

Paul received no less than 16 standing ovations during his hour-plus speech and question-and-answer session at the Summit Pointe Event Center — first, when he entered the room, a second one when a re-entered after doing a quick television interview and a third when he was formally introduced.

Thunderous applause also followed when he decried the Patriot Act (ovation No. 4), when he said America should never go to war without a declaration from Congress or because of a United Nations resolution (ovation Nos. 8 and 9), and when he attacked President Bush’s foreign policy and handling of the war in Iraq (ovation Nos. 11, 12 and 13).

“No nation building. No policing of the world. Peace is popular,” Paul said. “The sooner we get out of Iraq, the fewer Americans will die. And I say, it’s time to come home.”

About 400 people — half from out of state — were shoehorned into Summit Pointe for a barbecue luncheon that doubled as a fundraiser for the Spartanburg County Republican Party. The local GOP, after expenses, made an estimated $5,000 on the event.

Paul was invited to speak to the local party faithful (they numbered about 80 in the crowd) after county chairman Rick Beltram took offense at Paul’s explanation of the 9/11 attacks as “blowback” from America’s past intervention in the affairs of other countries during a GOP debate. That led to a widely distributed online tit-for-tat between Beltram and Paul supporters, and Beltram eventually invited Paul here to explain himself.

Blowback, in and of itself, was not mentioned Saturday, though Paul often alluded to it, going as far back as World War I, “which (President) Woodrow Wilson got us into unnecessarily, and drew the lines in the Middle East that we’re suffering for today.”

Beltram said he agreed with Paul on most issues except foreign policy, and that he believes the Texan converted some Upstaters to his revolution with Saturday’s speech.

“I left feeling like a hero,” Beltram said. “I got more positive comments after that event than all the other presidential events combined.”

[marsh_of_mists]

When we were excluded in Iowa, the rest of the candidates had 600 bored supporters and our rally drew in 1200 very excited RP supporters. The media pretended it was because we offered free hot dogs.

When people show up in sizable numbers everywhere Dr. Paul appears, many traveling hundreds of miles, the GOP just ignores that appeal.


When Ron Paul visits Google, opposes their Net Neutrality stance, gets more attention and video replays in only three days at YouTube's Google presidential site, beating out McCain's video and Hitlery's despite theirs having been up for months, and has to hold a second packed fundraiser that night in Silicon Valley, everyone just pretends it doesn't mean anything.

When young people are excited all over the internet by RP's message, even in socialist bastions in places like Belgium and Germany where there are chapters of RP supporters, somehow, it just gets ignored.

Now, Ron Paul packs them in in a South Carolina event, raises $5000 for the local country GOP and makes everyone, including the formerly opposing county GOP chairman, feel like a winner with his message.

It's the spammers, you fool! It all go's back to the spammers!

[Clintonfatigued]

“About 400 people — half from out of state”

This is newsworthy? PLEASE! The other candidates draw larger crowds than that, without bussing in supporters from other parts of the country.

[SoldierDad]

We're just asking for a fair chance to be heard.

RP deserves a fair chance to be heard. What he does not deserve is a pass at making some of the ridicules statements he's made about how this country asked to be attacked (perhaps the the exact words he used, but the jist was the same). As a presidential candidate he should be allowed to put forth his resume and his ideas on what he would do as president if elected. But, any presidential candidate, RP included, should not be given a free pass when they make comments or statements which are not supportable or realistic. That applies to any candidate, agree?

[HereInTheHeartland]

“Who is Don Paul?”

Don Paul is the cousin of Don Ho. They used to sing together and used the stage name Don Don.

[George W. Bush]

Summit Pointe ? Isn’t that the Spartanburg County Nervous Hospital ?

I don't think so. But we need to start a therapy group here at FR for those who appear about to collapse mentally that a traditional peace-and-prosperity conservative Republican is running and that the answer to our loss in 2006 is to find a candidate even more in favor of the United Nations and Wilsonian adventurism while leaving Osama free to enjoy having murdered 3000 Americans.

Maybe a ten-step program for recovering internationalists.

[George W. Bush]

It's the spammers, you fool! It all go's back to the spammers!

LOL. My point on some of these threads is this: even if you don't like RP's message on Iraq, take a look at the rest of what he says, that liberty and principled small-government conservative message.

If you look at his speeches and videos, he spends a little time on Iraq and foreign policy. But the large majority of his time is spent on domestic issues, sounding classic conservative themes on economics, personal liberty, small-government.

I keep saying it: what is wrong with that message? Why can't all the Republican candidates run on that message?

[George W. Bush]

This is newsworthy? PLEASE! The other candidates draw larger crowds than that, without bussing in supporters from other parts of the country.

Generally, no, they don't. Keep watching CSPAN, YouTube, etc.

[George W. Bush]

What he does not deserve is a pass at making some of the ridicules statements he's made about how this country asked to be attacked (perhaps the the exact words he used, but the jist was the same).

So, it's the Dan Blather standard for truth then? You know that isn't what he said. No one here at FR should endorse such tactics. If RP fails (and he is a longshot), then let him fail for his real positions, not some nonsense you make up and keep repeating like some Nazi propaganda slogan.

You folks must sense exactly how weak your own position is or you wouldn't resort to such desperate and hysterical attacks on RP. Nothing else really explains it.

To be honest, though, it is actually helpful to the RP cause for reasons I won't bother to explain. So I'm not complaining greatly about it either.

[SoldierDad]

Well, we agree to disagree. Good luck to your candidate.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Traditional ? Peace ? Ah, yes. A paleo. The ones that have sailed off the political horizon from far-right to Kookcinich far-left. Interesting you mention about Obama, because for our friends that think we can do isolationism in 2007, here's that friendly reminder why it just can't be done anymore.

Of course, with a Dr. Demento administration, it'll be something more like this.

Remember, kids, these people hate us. They hate anyone that doesn't subscribe to their 7th century death cult. They are commanded to kill us if we don't convert. Dr. Demento likes to pretend this is another era. It ain't. These guys aren't cute, and Dr. Demento isn't cute anymore.

[BlackElk]

I disagree with Tancredo on important matters and would not vote for him in all likelihood (not that he is likely to be nominated in any event) but, whatever Tancredo's drawbacks, he is a patriot and a conservative. Antiwar AntiAmerican Al Qaeda propagandist has been worst in show and has proven to be neither. He is an Al Qaeda propagandist because he spent the first debate whining about how we should see the Iraq War from the Islamofascist point of view and inexcusably suggest some sort of moral equivalency between Islamofascists and American patriots. Those are Al Qaeda's talking points and he is spewing them in the debates and generally.

A baseball pitcher is a baseball pitcher because he pitches baseballs. A baseball slugger is a baseball slugger because he slugs baseballs. Someone who pitches propaganda for our nation's Al Qaeda enemies is an Al Qaeda propagandist. This requires more brain cells to figure out than are possessed by "paleowhatevers" who generally seem easily confused as to what side they, as Americans, are supposed to be on in this war. Normal folks see that paleoPaulie and the Paulistinians are clearly on the wrong side and unfit to lead our nation.

This is a free country (at least until the paleowhatevers manage to get their towel-wrapped Islamofascistbuds to impose Sharia Law here) and you are entitled to adopt the heresies of your choice. You are not free to expect much less demand that patriots and conservatives respect your choices when you side with a candidate who sides with the enemies of our nation during war.

If that makes me "narrow-minded" so be it. Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Ignorance would be the characteristic of the paleowhatevers who reflexively side with the radical left in opposing our nation and its interests. The paleos whine, witch (sp.?), moan and complain every time our nation does something truly American like retaliate against those who think 9/11 was a good idea. That is what is really sad. Betraying your country in time of war is NOT acceptable. Pat Buchanan understands that and paleoPaulie does not. While Pat opposed the war before it began, he has judiciously zipped his lip after it began. Unlike paleoPaulie and the Paulistinian political harem, Pat knows the wages of nakedly undermining one's nation at war and paleoPaulie and company are just beginning to learn that hard lesson.

Your blase attitude as to enemies who struck the World Trade Center and much more importantly our Pentagon is what is really sad. And puhleeeeze spare us the Al Qaeda and Demonrat and paleo propaganda about the hijackers being mostly Saudis which is about as relevant as their eye color. This enemy transcends national boundaries and allegiances and must be crushed wherever found. The now executed Sodamn Insane (and his thankfully ventilated spawn Uday and Kucay) harbored Abbu "Achille Lauro" Abbas (suddenly dead of a heart attack at the beginning of the war) and Abu Nidal (died "a suicide" of five or six gunshots to the back of his head on his Baghdad apartment/hiding place at the very beginning of the war).

Who knows? Maybe it was Dubya's fault. Everything else seems to be, at least to those who agree with International A.N.S.W.E.R., Ramsay Clark and paleoPaulie.

[BlackElk]

The Ames straw poll has nothing whatever to do with actual Republican public opinion. Like any other source of hope for Paulistinians, the Ames poll will allow antiwar leftists who have nothing whatever to do with the GOP to pack the hall to cause trouble. College student and faculty leftists, communists, moveon.org types, and other enemies of our country will be out in force. They won’t even have to give up choosing delegates for their favorite red Demonrat. When the delegates are chosen, we shall see the definitive humiliation of paleoPaulie and his love slaves.

[rmlew]

The choice is occupying Mesopatamia or having them march on Vienna. You cannot ignore history before 1700.

[George W. Bush]

Just in from our mailing list from Dr. Paul:

July 23, 2007 What a great trip to South Carolina! On Saturday, I talked to the Spartanburg County GOP. About 350 people attended from all over the South, and the local party made $5000 out of it. Originally, this had seemed to be unfriendly territory, but everyone couldn’t have been nicer or more welcoming. And we all learned something.

Then I spoke to a rally in Greenville. The local papers were less biased than most, but they still estimated the crowd at 500. We had set the room with 1100 chairs, and almost all of them were taken. In addition, people stood in ranks at the back and sides. In other words, there were more than 1000 people there.

This crowd -- also from all over the South, and thanks to all those who drove hours to be there -- was typically diverse. Lots of young people, but also lots of families with children. And seniors too. I talked about foreign and domestic policy, and noted that those concerned about pollution must support private property. Government property is never well cared for. Just look at the environmental problems left over from the USSR!

I also talked about sound money and the Federal Reserve, about the inflation it is inflicting on us, and about the recessions it causes, and the unjust redistribution of wealth it brings about. A young man who drove up from Auburn, Alabama, said he never thought he'd see the day when a call to abolish the central bank would receive a long standing ovation in American politics.

But if there is one thing we know, people are hungry for the truth. And that is especially true of this moment. I found the same concerns at a picnic of local political activists I attended. I even got questions about Austrian economics!

Last Tuesday in Georgia, Dr. Paul Broun defeated state senator John Whitehead in a special election to Congress. John had all the establishment and money on his side. But Paul discussed obedience to the Constitution, limited government, the failure of the national Republican leadership, and a less aggressive foreign policy. And he won. Columnist Robert Novak said this “terrified” all the establishment types in the Republican Party. I had talked to Paul during his campaign, and was thrilled to congratulate him on his victory. There is a new wind blowing.

Our bottom-up campaign -- not top-down in the usual official fashion -- has gotten far bigger and more successful, at a faster rate, than even I dreamed. And the sky is the limit. Don't we owe it to our great forbears, and to our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren down through the generations, not to lose our country? We can win the fight for the ideals of the founders. We can have freedom, peace, and prosperity. We can be blessed by our fellow citizens, and by all those who come after us.

Notice how Iraq isn't even mentioned? But he's thrilled with questions on Austrian (von Mises) economics. And the victory of a self-described "Ron Paul-style" congressional candidate from Georgia over the local big-government same-old-same-old Republican establishment candidate.

It's a long road ahead. But recruiting new conservative supporters and electing more constitutionalist conservatives is a great side-effect. We need a revival of the principles that made our party great and brought us to majorities in the House and Senate back in '94 and the two Reagan landslides.

[BlackElk]

1. Reagan was credible. Paleos never are because they are limp-wristed weaklings in matters military.

2. Ronald Reagan on Lebanon is one thing. Ronald Reagan would have hammered Al Qaeda a multiple as hard as he hammered Qaddafi after we were attacked in New York City and the Pentagon. Reagan was a man. PaleoPaulie and his backers are wimps. This is the obvious truth and is based on the evidence of El Ron Paulie's own apologetics for Al Qaeda: Ohhhh, the pooor babies. Of course they are upset that we disobey them and that we are allied with Israel!!! You can't blame them for attacking us. Or words to that affect. If citing paleoPaulie's own infamous mouth as evidence of his despicability is a "smear", then you occupy a strange universe. How many moons in your sky????

Also, Lebanon has no oil and is about as important as Somalia or the Balkans (not at all). Iraq is an entirely different matter. Also note that the soviets no longer exist and that Russia is a considerably weaker power than was the ussr.

[George W. Bush]

Traditional ? Peace ? Ah, yes. A paleo. The ones that have sailed off the political horizon from far-right to Kookcinich far-left.

Well, it certainly is a shame when thousands of our citizens are murdered as a result of having voted for the Xlintons and for a leftwing mayor who refuses to take FDNY communications seriously or place his command bunker outside the primary terror target. Voting for liberals is likely to get you killed, it seems.

One assumes that the Islamoterrorists will keep attacking these liberal strongholds until they thin the herd there and the survivors come to their senses and leave the Dim plantation.

Suicidal voting habits aren't caused by most Republicans. If you vote for Dims, you're probably going to get attacked, may even die, because they are grossly incompetent at dealing with terrorism as well as crime. It's unfortunate that our current administration has been so lackadaisical in pursuing Osama Bin Laden and bringing him and his henchmen to justice.

In 2008, we need to remind voters of just how deadly voting for Democrats really is.

[George W. Bush]

paleoPaulie and his love slaves.

LOL. You really are enjoying yourself.

[BlackElk]

What is wrong with that message is that paleoPaulie refuses to defend our country by attacking our enemies in THEIR lairs but wants to wait until they attack us here first. He must have missed the news coverage on 9/11 or guzzled the Alex Jones Kool Aid because we have already been attacked and many of the attack leaders among paleoPaulie’s Al Qaeda pals still survive. It really does not matter what ANY candidate says once the candidate commits to national suicide as a “peace and prosperity” candidate. He may obsess about money but that is hardly a complete definition of conservative. No one American will make much money after paleoPaulie eagerly opens “trade!!!” with our enemies and admits the Islamofascist wooden horse of his pals.

[George W. Bush]

More reporting from RP himself on the SC event and others he had this weekend. Very upbeat, big crowds. And our RP-style candidate in Georgia won a congressional seat! See my previous post for RP’s email.

[George W. Bush]

What is wrong with that message is that paleoPaulie refuses to defend our country by attacking our enemies in THEIR lairs but wants to wait until they attack us here first.

Oh, please. RP has supported action in Afghanistan all along. He supports pursuing Osama's bunch into Waziristan.

Finally this last week, BushCo popped out of its coma and decided to...pursue Osama into Waziristan. Then Guiliani hitched up his pantyhose and shrieked me-too-me-too. Maybe he finally finished the reading list assigned to him at the joint press conference held by Ron Paul and Michael Schuerre, the former head of the CIA Bin Laden unit.

Looks like RP's position has a lot more merit and standing than you're willing to admit. But then, I'm just a Love Slave.