Ron Paul Support is a Conspiracy, claims National Media
July 20th, 2007 . by Micah
Major media outlets have denied fund raising reports, rally attendance, and record breaking internet support as the work of a small secretive group of Ron Paul supporters conspiring to defraud the public. Is it time for them to give up this conspiracy theory before they lose credibility?
It has been revealed that fourteen percent of republican presidential campaign donors in the second quarter, donated to Ron Paul. He has placed first and second in many national online polls with respondents numbering into the tens of thousands. He has more money on hand than John McCain. His grassroots campaign boasts twenty thousand members and he has over 20,000 videos dedicated to him on YouTube.Com, dwarfing all other republican candidates. He sells out rallies wherever he attends and has won a straw poll in crucial New Hampshire. In fact, there is only one metric which measures his support to be on the same level as second tier candidates, national polls. National polls ask small groups of people, often less than one thousand, who they plan to support for the White House. In July of 2007 how can this be taken as a metric of anything besides name recognition when the election is over 12 months away.
Many pundits have taken his online popularity to be the work of “spammers”. One can only assume that these pundits have gone to the Ted Stevens’ school of Internet Learning. Spamming is when a small group of people with multiple IP Addresses, forged identities as it were, send unsolicited emails. Online Polls are soliciting a response from individuals, and most reputable ones filter attempts from forged IP Addresses. Winning an online poll means your campaign was the best capable of identifying the poll, disseminating information to your supporters, and motivating your supporters to participate. Ron Paul’s grassroots campaign has proven to be more agile and effective than any of the manufactured enthusiasm from other campaigns. The sheer volume of videos produced about the congressman, the amount of personally written comments on Ron Paul related news articles, and the number of unique hits received by his campaign’s website all rule out the idea that his support is the work of a small number of dedicated internet users. Ron Paul’s legitimate supporters have put Ron Paul’s war chest in third place among republicans, second place if you exclude Mitt Romney’s personal investment in his campaign. More Military and Veterans donated to Ron Paul than any other candidate. Most of his money came from small personal donations- the work of the many, not the few. These figures do not take into account the average five unpaid hours a week the Ron Paul supporter spends making signs, distributing literature, and operating phone banks.
For those who would still question Ron Paul’s chances due simply to national polls, consider this. National polling agencies only poll landlines. Many Ron Paul supporters do not use landlines, they are cell phone and VoIP users. No national polling would ever reach them. When Fox News had its post debate cell phone text message poll, Ron Paul came in second with twenty-five percent, trailing only Romney with twenty-nine percent. Many personalities on air stated disbelief in the accuracy of this poll, but surely they would not suggest that Ron Paul supporters had the thousands of extra cell phone plans and phones needed to skew a poll of this size.
Perhaps the lack of legitimate support reported by the media is an internal belief rather than an objective reality. Many in the media, such as Michelle Malkin, have claimed Ron Paul supporters are overzealous conspiracy theorists. It is Ironic that they then attribute all of Ron Paul’s support to a small group of people meeting in secret, rigging polls and colluding against the mainstream candidates. George Stephanopoulos and the New York Times have stated that Ron Paul “Will not be the next President”. Is this their opinion or their stated goal? Have they set themselves up for another “Dewey Defeats Truman” moment?
Sources:
Fox News Text Poll:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,272493,00.html
Q2 Fund raising “Straw Poll”:
http://www.usaelectionpolls.com/2008/candidates/Ron-Paul.html
Ron Paul Spam Allegations:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3165894
Ron Paul 20/20:
http://blog.ronpaul2008.com/ron_paul_2008/2007/07/press-release-1.html
ABC Host Tells Ron Paul he has No Chance to Win:
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