Well, if Paul is offended then he can come here and defend himself. Short of that everything I have said has been correct. He performed dismally in the straw poll. This may not be a very stastically valid assessment, but its still telling nonetheless. I don't know anything about Paul, and if I wasn't a member here I wouldn't know about him at all. He has ZERO national exposure. He has ZERO time on TV. You can't win a national election and not make use of the biggest mediums available to you. Its really that simple.
I honestly would not be surprised one bit to see him on here. I'm being serious. The only limitations would be time (he IS running for President, ya know) and internet savvy (he IS in his 70's). As for not having any exposure, a long time to the primary. Did you know who Bill Clinton was in March of 1991? Probably not unless you were from Arkansas. He's working on it, but it takes MONEY. Now, let's look at who has MONEY and EXPOSURE right now. Giuliani, and McCain, and to a certain extent, Romney. Do you want THEM as the Republican nominee? I don't. And your criticisms are largely invalid considering Tancredo has less exposure unless you're counting small blurbs on Lou Dobbs every now and then giving him props on his immigration stance (which he deserves, and if Tancredo got the nom, I'd likely vote for him in the general elections).
BTW, Ron Paul was on the Lou Dobbs show a little while ago, I'm sure Ron's put it on his myspace at
www.myspace.com/congressmanronpaul or on his exploratory committee website at
www.ronpaulexplore.com. And it was more than a blurb, he was interviewed. He can get the exposure if he can drum up some money.
[QUOTETheres nothing conflicting about my statement. I follow politics closely. I have TV, the internet and newspapers to garner my information. Save this site, there hasn't been a single blip on the radar about Paul, except for the results from the straw poll. This isn't going to cut it.
][/QUOTE]
Again, total ignorance. He was ON LOU DOBBS the other night. He's DOMINATING all the other Republicans in just about every internet poll I've seen (which have larger sample sizes that just 700 people in South Carolina, though neither are scientific or exact in any stretch of the imagination). He's getting lots of attention for this. He's immensely popular in the libertarian and true Constitutionalist/conservative sections of the blogosphere (again, not really very large in scope, I'll admit) and on forums of that same ilk.
He's going to be in the nationally televised April 4th Republican debates in Manchester NH. They're being sponsored by WMUR (our local station) and CNN, and hosted/moderated by Wolf Blitzer. I've heard Rudy and McCain are blowing us off and won't be showing up, which pisses off just about everyone I've talked to about it in NH. It shows that Rudy and McCain don't take NH seriously, so why should we vote for them when the time comes?
Badnarik has also given him his endorsement, and so will likely influence a lot of Libertarian Party types to register Republican so they can support him in the primary.
So as far as you saying "there hasn't been a single blip" about him, you're wrong. Don't mistake your own ignorance or lack of exposure for him not getting any attention from anyone else.
As far as Hunter goes, I didn't think he would be very viable either, which was why I was going to cast my lot with Tancredo. However Hunter must be doing something right since he is able to mix it up with the mainstream candidates.
Is Hunter coming to Manchester on April 4th? I honestly don't know, nore do I really care, but Ron Paul is, which shows that he "must be doing something right since he is able to mix it up with the mainstream candidates."
Its one thing to disagree with me, but if you guys were intellectually honest you would admit that Paul's chances for winning the nomination are virtually nonexistent. Thats not a knock on his beliefs or yours, but a rational assement of what is very likely to happen.
I would say that he's a long shot, but it's entirely within the realm of the possible, especially seeing the level of support he's getting in NH. He needs to light a fire under his staffers' asses though, and get the damn machine rolling and soon. He's got people coming out of the woodwork, with ZERO central direction from his campaign, demonstrating on the streets to support him and get his name out there. He's got people with ZERO direction from his campaign organizing a demonstration in support of him in Manchester next month during the debates, which will be nationally televised and will hopefully include mention of the demonstration.
