Matt Collins
02-09-2008, 06:30 PM
What produced our results:
1 - no media coverage - I have come to realize that in this country it is IMPOSSIBLE to win
an election if the media is actively working against you. Obviously we can apply pressure to the media however it is almost always after the fact and usually any retractions etc are too little too late. I honestly don’t know what can be done about this because the media has repeatedly ignored the 5 ton elephant in the room. In some instances it was incompetence when Ron was omitted, other times it was sheer bias or ignorance, and in some instances it was an intentional act designed to affect the outcome of the election. Unfortunately this is almost completely out of our control.
2 - HQ didnt buy ads until last minute, too little too late (party due to Fred)
Tennessee was an odd state but in my opinion the national HQ should’ve worked a mass advertising campaign in TN earlier than it did. TN is “low hanging fruit” because our delegates are proportional not “winner take all”, the primary is open, and Nashville has the 6th largest Ron Paul Meetup. With the right advertising Ron had a very good chance of doing exceptional in TN because of the tremendous grassroots support, and every other Republican was ignoring the state due to Fred’s presence. I realize that HQ probably didn’t consider the fruit in TN to be hanging low enough, but I believe starting a flight of ads Jan 1 instead of Jan 25 would’ve made a greater difference in our returns.
3 - lack of structure, organization, no hiearchy even minimally
There was a fundamental lack of organization within the local Meetup/grassroots. Resources were not pooled and organized effectively. Part of this was due to the fact that there was no hierarchical structure. I can’t even begin to count how many volunteers who have come up to me since Super Tuesday and expressed their feelings that there was no leadership / organization and they didn’t know where to begin helping out. I don’t specifically blame anyone for this oversight (organizing volunteer libertarian-minded people is like herding cats) but establishing a hierarchy and organizational structure would’ve been beneficial for cohesion and efficiency.
4 - no professionals with experience consulting/leading the grassroots
The campaign should’ve hired a professional to help out at the local level to guide the grassroots. I personally tried to get the grassroots to pool money together to hire back Anita Andrews or someone with similar experience/expertise. Unfortunately this was unsuccessful. Because of Draconian federal laws the official campaign is not allowed to coordinate excessively with the grassroots. This is a severe handicap in a campaign that relies on the grassroots. We could’ve all used some advice and guidance at the HQ by someone who has previously “been to the rodeo”.
Also I think we should’ve obtained the local HQ office space Dec 1. I personally did not push for this because like Ron I was trying to remain frugal and not spend money. However once I got into the local HQ and discovered how effective it lends itself to accomplishing tasks and increasing communication I regret not pushing for office space sooner.
5- I have come to the conclusion that many people in this country are not indeed ready to wean themselves away from big government. Many voters don’t understand Ron’s policy so he was hard to sell with soundbites and vague feel-good statements like the other candidates use. It took a bit of effort to win people over because of the educational curve. There are two groups of voters that we did not receive – those that do not want to adopt Ron’s policies, and those that don’t’ understand Ron’s policies. If the media had given us a fair shot this could’ve been partly if not largely overcome.
I keep rolling around in my head what we did well and what we could’ve improved upon. I don’t have any hard numbers in front of me but we definitely did a good job of getting signs out around town, which was mostly thanks to a small group of individuals.
Nothing I have written is meant to degrade anyone individually or even collectively as a group. I get the feeling that this indeed won’t be my last election I am involved with, and I know many others reading this won’t quit their involvement in politics either. My sole purpose in this writing is for an honest and unbiased look at what we could improve upon so that next time when the right candidate comes along with the right ideas we can pull out our notes and produce greater results based upon past experiences.
This race has allowed us to see who is sincere in their desire for the Constitution, liberty, limited government, and who is not. When it came time to support Ron and his policies it became quite evident at those who were merely posing and those who were genuine. Never forget who these people are.
And to end on a positive note, we may have lost the battle but we will eventually win the war as the saying goes. Even though it looks like Ron won’t be the President and he didn’t win Tennessee, the friends, the contacts, the education, the experience that we have all gained in the last 300+ days will be invaluable to us and to our country and to our State we continue to fight for limited government, individual liberties, and a return to Constitutional law.
I welcome your comments, and thanks again to all of those who voted for me as a delegate in District 5
-Matt Collins
Matt@UltraSonicDesigns.com
1 - no media coverage - I have come to realize that in this country it is IMPOSSIBLE to win
an election if the media is actively working against you. Obviously we can apply pressure to the media however it is almost always after the fact and usually any retractions etc are too little too late. I honestly don’t know what can be done about this because the media has repeatedly ignored the 5 ton elephant in the room. In some instances it was incompetence when Ron was omitted, other times it was sheer bias or ignorance, and in some instances it was an intentional act designed to affect the outcome of the election. Unfortunately this is almost completely out of our control.
2 - HQ didnt buy ads until last minute, too little too late (party due to Fred)
Tennessee was an odd state but in my opinion the national HQ should’ve worked a mass advertising campaign in TN earlier than it did. TN is “low hanging fruit” because our delegates are proportional not “winner take all”, the primary is open, and Nashville has the 6th largest Ron Paul Meetup. With the right advertising Ron had a very good chance of doing exceptional in TN because of the tremendous grassroots support, and every other Republican was ignoring the state due to Fred’s presence. I realize that HQ probably didn’t consider the fruit in TN to be hanging low enough, but I believe starting a flight of ads Jan 1 instead of Jan 25 would’ve made a greater difference in our returns.
3 - lack of structure, organization, no hiearchy even minimally
There was a fundamental lack of organization within the local Meetup/grassroots. Resources were not pooled and organized effectively. Part of this was due to the fact that there was no hierarchical structure. I can’t even begin to count how many volunteers who have come up to me since Super Tuesday and expressed their feelings that there was no leadership / organization and they didn’t know where to begin helping out. I don’t specifically blame anyone for this oversight (organizing volunteer libertarian-minded people is like herding cats) but establishing a hierarchy and organizational structure would’ve been beneficial for cohesion and efficiency.
4 - no professionals with experience consulting/leading the grassroots
The campaign should’ve hired a professional to help out at the local level to guide the grassroots. I personally tried to get the grassroots to pool money together to hire back Anita Andrews or someone with similar experience/expertise. Unfortunately this was unsuccessful. Because of Draconian federal laws the official campaign is not allowed to coordinate excessively with the grassroots. This is a severe handicap in a campaign that relies on the grassroots. We could’ve all used some advice and guidance at the HQ by someone who has previously “been to the rodeo”.
Also I think we should’ve obtained the local HQ office space Dec 1. I personally did not push for this because like Ron I was trying to remain frugal and not spend money. However once I got into the local HQ and discovered how effective it lends itself to accomplishing tasks and increasing communication I regret not pushing for office space sooner.
5- I have come to the conclusion that many people in this country are not indeed ready to wean themselves away from big government. Many voters don’t understand Ron’s policy so he was hard to sell with soundbites and vague feel-good statements like the other candidates use. It took a bit of effort to win people over because of the educational curve. There are two groups of voters that we did not receive – those that do not want to adopt Ron’s policies, and those that don’t’ understand Ron’s policies. If the media had given us a fair shot this could’ve been partly if not largely overcome.
I keep rolling around in my head what we did well and what we could’ve improved upon. I don’t have any hard numbers in front of me but we definitely did a good job of getting signs out around town, which was mostly thanks to a small group of individuals.
Nothing I have written is meant to degrade anyone individually or even collectively as a group. I get the feeling that this indeed won’t be my last election I am involved with, and I know many others reading this won’t quit their involvement in politics either. My sole purpose in this writing is for an honest and unbiased look at what we could improve upon so that next time when the right candidate comes along with the right ideas we can pull out our notes and produce greater results based upon past experiences.
This race has allowed us to see who is sincere in their desire for the Constitution, liberty, limited government, and who is not. When it came time to support Ron and his policies it became quite evident at those who were merely posing and those who were genuine. Never forget who these people are.
And to end on a positive note, we may have lost the battle but we will eventually win the war as the saying goes. Even though it looks like Ron won’t be the President and he didn’t win Tennessee, the friends, the contacts, the education, the experience that we have all gained in the last 300+ days will be invaluable to us and to our country and to our State we continue to fight for limited government, individual liberties, and a return to Constitutional law.
I welcome your comments, and thanks again to all of those who voted for me as a delegate in District 5
-Matt Collins
Matt@UltraSonicDesigns.com