salinaspaul
02-09-2008, 05:08 PM
Hello, all!
First of all, I want to say that although I started getting informed politically before the 2004 election (after voting for Bush in 2000, I voted Constitution Party in 2004), this was my first time going all in... my first time attending a primary/caucus of any kind. I would have to say, that if I had to choose between attending a caucus versus a primary, I would definitely choose a caucus... it felt good, being able to wear your candidates colors (not me, but my wife wore her newly-delivered custom hoodie - complete with RPR logo and "Flowerdrop" tosser in front, and her own custom checklist of RP features in back - thanx Cafepress!). Also it was nice to be able to pass out info.
That being said, that is exactly what I did... I managed to secure some 400 copies of the RP Newspaper from Crystal on Thursday (they said Feb 5 on them, but who cares? They were still relevant), and since I didn't know 400 people, I figured the best thing for me to do was to pass them out at the caucus. I also printed a few copies of the Man of Common Sense flyers. We got there about 9:25am and got in line to check in. I decided to employ the good looks and charm of my oldest son, now ten years old. I gave him some RP Newspapers and told him to start handing them out. After checking in, we discovered that it had become standing room only. So we secured a corner to stand by and I grabbed my son again, and we went out to the front door to greet people with newspapers as they walked in. Once the traffic started dying down from outside, we mad our way back into the room, where I sent him to navigate down the aisles to pass more of them out. I had some people asking for more copies, and for other info I might have, to which I responded with various slimjims. After things were starting, we retired back to our corner, where eventually I caught someone jotting down the checklist that prominently displayed on the back of my wifey's hoodie. Here is that list:
Ron Paul 2008
Hope for America
Be a Part of it
100% Constitutional
Abolish the I.R.S.
Abolish the Federal Reserve
Reinstate Limited Government
Against Policing the World
Secure Our Borders
Pro-Habeus Corpus
Pro-Sovereignty
Pro-Life
Pro-Free Market
Lower Taxes
Cut Wasteful Spending
Against the Patriot Act
Against Pre-emptive Strikes
Against Regulating the Internet
All this and a voting record to back it up!
Be an independent thinker
Vote Ron Paul for President 2008
http://www.ronpaul2008.com
Once I caught a whiff of what she was doing, I whipped out an RP Newspaper, which she took. They started to go through speeches. There was a designated speaker on behalf on Ron Paul, and the rules are that each candidate gets a max of 10 minutes of stumping... individuals can come up and give a max 1 min. stump on behalf of their candidate. The designated speaker for RP ate up a lot of time talking about himself first, instead of using that time to further reinforce RP's creds. Two other individuals spoke, after which RP's 10 minutes were up. A little later, a speaker for Huck mentioned that Huck was the only pro-life candidate running. This lady who was jotting down the checklist, asked to make sure that RP was pro-life as well, since that was on the checklist. We said yes, he was. She mentioned that the pro-life issue was her #1 issue, to which I promptly responded with RP's pro-life slimjim. we hoped to have persuaded her vote - I think she was leaning toward Huck... BTW, props to my wife - utter genius!
Well, we voted, we got home, i had my son count the RP Newspapers we had left. Not bad... we gave out 231 copies! I saw a few other people with RP wear... none for any other candidate.
As you may know by now, Huck rather pwned KS today. I guess it's good on one hand, that McWar didn't carry the day here (we have yet to see in LA, NE and DC)...
Here is the breakdown in Leavenworth County:
Ghoul: 1
McWar: 126
Paul: 55
Romney: 48
Huck: 284
Thompson: 6
Keyes: 5 (! - my RP VP pick!)
Uncommitted: 1
All in all, results aside, it was rather fun. I'm glad to have participated in this exercise in liberty.
As an aside, they ran out of ballots, so my wife and I had to write in our vote on 3x5 cards... I don't think corruption took place, though... at least there were no Diebolds!
First of all, I want to say that although I started getting informed politically before the 2004 election (after voting for Bush in 2000, I voted Constitution Party in 2004), this was my first time going all in... my first time attending a primary/caucus of any kind. I would have to say, that if I had to choose between attending a caucus versus a primary, I would definitely choose a caucus... it felt good, being able to wear your candidates colors (not me, but my wife wore her newly-delivered custom hoodie - complete with RPR logo and "Flowerdrop" tosser in front, and her own custom checklist of RP features in back - thanx Cafepress!). Also it was nice to be able to pass out info.
That being said, that is exactly what I did... I managed to secure some 400 copies of the RP Newspaper from Crystal on Thursday (they said Feb 5 on them, but who cares? They were still relevant), and since I didn't know 400 people, I figured the best thing for me to do was to pass them out at the caucus. I also printed a few copies of the Man of Common Sense flyers. We got there about 9:25am and got in line to check in. I decided to employ the good looks and charm of my oldest son, now ten years old. I gave him some RP Newspapers and told him to start handing them out. After checking in, we discovered that it had become standing room only. So we secured a corner to stand by and I grabbed my son again, and we went out to the front door to greet people with newspapers as they walked in. Once the traffic started dying down from outside, we mad our way back into the room, where I sent him to navigate down the aisles to pass more of them out. I had some people asking for more copies, and for other info I might have, to which I responded with various slimjims. After things were starting, we retired back to our corner, where eventually I caught someone jotting down the checklist that prominently displayed on the back of my wifey's hoodie. Here is that list:
Ron Paul 2008
Hope for America
Be a Part of it
100% Constitutional
Abolish the I.R.S.
Abolish the Federal Reserve
Reinstate Limited Government
Against Policing the World
Secure Our Borders
Pro-Habeus Corpus
Pro-Sovereignty
Pro-Life
Pro-Free Market
Lower Taxes
Cut Wasteful Spending
Against the Patriot Act
Against Pre-emptive Strikes
Against Regulating the Internet
All this and a voting record to back it up!
Be an independent thinker
Vote Ron Paul for President 2008
http://www.ronpaul2008.com
Once I caught a whiff of what she was doing, I whipped out an RP Newspaper, which she took. They started to go through speeches. There was a designated speaker on behalf on Ron Paul, and the rules are that each candidate gets a max of 10 minutes of stumping... individuals can come up and give a max 1 min. stump on behalf of their candidate. The designated speaker for RP ate up a lot of time talking about himself first, instead of using that time to further reinforce RP's creds. Two other individuals spoke, after which RP's 10 minutes were up. A little later, a speaker for Huck mentioned that Huck was the only pro-life candidate running. This lady who was jotting down the checklist, asked to make sure that RP was pro-life as well, since that was on the checklist. We said yes, he was. She mentioned that the pro-life issue was her #1 issue, to which I promptly responded with RP's pro-life slimjim. we hoped to have persuaded her vote - I think she was leaning toward Huck... BTW, props to my wife - utter genius!
Well, we voted, we got home, i had my son count the RP Newspapers we had left. Not bad... we gave out 231 copies! I saw a few other people with RP wear... none for any other candidate.
As you may know by now, Huck rather pwned KS today. I guess it's good on one hand, that McWar didn't carry the day here (we have yet to see in LA, NE and DC)...
Here is the breakdown in Leavenworth County:
Ghoul: 1
McWar: 126
Paul: 55
Romney: 48
Huck: 284
Thompson: 6
Keyes: 5 (! - my RP VP pick!)
Uncommitted: 1
All in all, results aside, it was rather fun. I'm glad to have participated in this exercise in liberty.
As an aside, they ran out of ballots, so my wife and I had to write in our vote on 3x5 cards... I don't think corruption took place, though... at least there were no Diebolds!