BLS
08-13-2007, 01:47 PM
NOTE: this was posted Saturday night on www.ronpaulforum.com because this site was down.
First off, please forgive me...I've been running all day on 2 hours of sleep, over 7 hrs in the car, and I've nearly lost my voice.
But somehow it's almost 11pm CST, I'm nearly 225 miles from Ames and I'm STILL JACKED.
I met up with 2 guys from my local meetup (St. Paul group 55) at 5:15am this morning, after 2 hours of sleep and driving in pouring rain to get there. They picked me up and off we went (nice to meet you Nate and Mike!)
We arrived in Ames at 8am and wasted no time signing up to volunteer. They asked us to greet the buses coming in and hand out literature. When the first bus arrived around 8:30am, I knew we were in for a LONG day. Romney must have bought half of Iowa.
It was sick. Bus after bus after bus after bus.....you get the drift.
For about an hour they were lined up and coming in, one right after the other.
Everyone in Romneys buses got a ticket to vote, a t-shirt, a nice lanyard, a Mitt 'mitt' (stupid foam mitt...like a glove). Very weak.
He had a FLEET of golf carts that were modified to carry people instead of clubs. There must have been 50 of em. It was like a freaking conveyor belt of voters. As soon as they got off, they were whisked away to the Mitt Tent which looked more like a rock concert than a poll. It was ridiculous. He had to have spent MILLIONS on this whole thing. I mean..it was a sight to behold...in contrast to all other campaigns, it wasn't even close. It was like Metallica was playing on the main stage, and the rest of the park was local bands. Impressive? Yes. Sad though because he virtually BOUGHT all of those votes. He even had paid 'cronies' that would block my RON PAUL sign by standing in front of it to shield it from the voters departing the buses. He and I exchanged words, and I let him know what I thought (not getting into it...it was ugly at 9am.....)
Brownback was the only other candidate I noticed who bused people in, and they were pretty staunch supporters. Almost zero would even accept a RP flier, which was the only one (that I saw) with a map of the grounds. I couldn't give them away even when I said "do you need a map?" Those voters had already made up their minds.
After meeting a great guy (Jim) from Milwaukee and handing out what literature I could, I went back to the RP tent around 11am to watch RP speak. On the way back, I found out that Carol Paul had some health issues and actually had to goto the hospital earlier in the morning. I guess RP went with (understandably), and missed his 9am speech. I was very concerned that this was going to hurt the campaign, but I really was more worried about Carol and Dr. Paul.
He did show up for his 11am speech, and it was very good. What I noticed was that Ron Paul signs were EVERYWHERE...all over the entire grounds for the straw poll. You couldn't look anywhere without seeing RP supporters holding a sign. It was very encouraging (and I'll be honest...after seeing Mitt's buses...I thought we were DEAD)
After the speech, I signed up to go into the "Mosh pit" which is front row during RP's main speech to a good portion of the voting Iowans.
About 1/2 hr before we needed to leave for the mosh pit, someone started yelling "hey, we're doing a march in 5 minutes". March? On what?
Well, what happened after that was something I regret not FULLY recording on my camera. We assembled about 100 RP faithful, each with sign in hand, and we 'marched' through the whole compound. Even RIGHT through Mitt's little Neverland Ranch. No matter where we marched, EVERYONE was awestruck at how loud, how vocal, how relentless we were. Nobody could distract us. Nobody could ignore us. We WERE GOING TO BE HEARD.
This march lasted about 30 minutes, and we walked the entire grounds twice (I got cramps twice and my voice almost SHOT) and finally ended up assembling at the entrance to the theater where each candidate was speaking (in turns...about 15 minute intervals).
We decided to 'park' right at the door and let Mitt Romney's now exiting 'sheep' know exactly what a REAL campaign is.
Here's the link to the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emEF0ZPs1wc
It was awe inspiring to watch...these guys/gals had been going hard for 30 minutes, and sat down and got REALLY vocal.
After this, we went into the theater to hear Dr. Paul speak, and we apparently were so loud they couldn't even introduce him.
We finally calmed down and had a great rally for him. Check youtube for his speech vids (2 parts). Or you can see them both on www.ronpaulradio.com
After that...I was wiped. I finally ate, and started to really feel like even though we knew Romney was going to win (it was very obvious), we really felt like our presence was second to none and just hoped that it would equate to votes.
it did.
Not as many as we had hoped...but we PROVED we are NOT just 'the internet'.
My parting thoughts.....
We need to step it the "F" up. Now.
I came to the realization that we CAN WIN THIS!!!
But we need to realize that it's NOT going to be easy, and everyone who is in a meetup who has members that don't show....get off your can and start motivating them. Do whatever it takes.
GET INVOLVED PEOPLE!!!
WE CAN WIN!!! But we HAVE TO WORK!!
First off, please forgive me...I've been running all day on 2 hours of sleep, over 7 hrs in the car, and I've nearly lost my voice.
But somehow it's almost 11pm CST, I'm nearly 225 miles from Ames and I'm STILL JACKED.
I met up with 2 guys from my local meetup (St. Paul group 55) at 5:15am this morning, after 2 hours of sleep and driving in pouring rain to get there. They picked me up and off we went (nice to meet you Nate and Mike!)
We arrived in Ames at 8am and wasted no time signing up to volunteer. They asked us to greet the buses coming in and hand out literature. When the first bus arrived around 8:30am, I knew we were in for a LONG day. Romney must have bought half of Iowa.
It was sick. Bus after bus after bus after bus.....you get the drift.
For about an hour they were lined up and coming in, one right after the other.
Everyone in Romneys buses got a ticket to vote, a t-shirt, a nice lanyard, a Mitt 'mitt' (stupid foam mitt...like a glove). Very weak.
He had a FLEET of golf carts that were modified to carry people instead of clubs. There must have been 50 of em. It was like a freaking conveyor belt of voters. As soon as they got off, they were whisked away to the Mitt Tent which looked more like a rock concert than a poll. It was ridiculous. He had to have spent MILLIONS on this whole thing. I mean..it was a sight to behold...in contrast to all other campaigns, it wasn't even close. It was like Metallica was playing on the main stage, and the rest of the park was local bands. Impressive? Yes. Sad though because he virtually BOUGHT all of those votes. He even had paid 'cronies' that would block my RON PAUL sign by standing in front of it to shield it from the voters departing the buses. He and I exchanged words, and I let him know what I thought (not getting into it...it was ugly at 9am.....)
Brownback was the only other candidate I noticed who bused people in, and they were pretty staunch supporters. Almost zero would even accept a RP flier, which was the only one (that I saw) with a map of the grounds. I couldn't give them away even when I said "do you need a map?" Those voters had already made up their minds.
After meeting a great guy (Jim) from Milwaukee and handing out what literature I could, I went back to the RP tent around 11am to watch RP speak. On the way back, I found out that Carol Paul had some health issues and actually had to goto the hospital earlier in the morning. I guess RP went with (understandably), and missed his 9am speech. I was very concerned that this was going to hurt the campaign, but I really was more worried about Carol and Dr. Paul.
He did show up for his 11am speech, and it was very good. What I noticed was that Ron Paul signs were EVERYWHERE...all over the entire grounds for the straw poll. You couldn't look anywhere without seeing RP supporters holding a sign. It was very encouraging (and I'll be honest...after seeing Mitt's buses...I thought we were DEAD)
After the speech, I signed up to go into the "Mosh pit" which is front row during RP's main speech to a good portion of the voting Iowans.
About 1/2 hr before we needed to leave for the mosh pit, someone started yelling "hey, we're doing a march in 5 minutes". March? On what?
Well, what happened after that was something I regret not FULLY recording on my camera. We assembled about 100 RP faithful, each with sign in hand, and we 'marched' through the whole compound. Even RIGHT through Mitt's little Neverland Ranch. No matter where we marched, EVERYONE was awestruck at how loud, how vocal, how relentless we were. Nobody could distract us. Nobody could ignore us. We WERE GOING TO BE HEARD.
This march lasted about 30 minutes, and we walked the entire grounds twice (I got cramps twice and my voice almost SHOT) and finally ended up assembling at the entrance to the theater where each candidate was speaking (in turns...about 15 minute intervals).
We decided to 'park' right at the door and let Mitt Romney's now exiting 'sheep' know exactly what a REAL campaign is.
Here's the link to the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emEF0ZPs1wc
It was awe inspiring to watch...these guys/gals had been going hard for 30 minutes, and sat down and got REALLY vocal.
After this, we went into the theater to hear Dr. Paul speak, and we apparently were so loud they couldn't even introduce him.
We finally calmed down and had a great rally for him. Check youtube for his speech vids (2 parts). Or you can see them both on www.ronpaulradio.com
After that...I was wiped. I finally ate, and started to really feel like even though we knew Romney was going to win (it was very obvious), we really felt like our presence was second to none and just hoped that it would equate to votes.
it did.
Not as many as we had hoped...but we PROVED we are NOT just 'the internet'.
My parting thoughts.....
We need to step it the "F" up. Now.
I came to the realization that we CAN WIN THIS!!!
But we need to realize that it's NOT going to be easy, and everyone who is in a meetup who has members that don't show....get off your can and start motivating them. Do whatever it takes.
GET INVOLVED PEOPLE!!!
WE CAN WIN!!! But we HAVE TO WORK!!