bobbyw24
03-28-2008, 06:12 AM
http://www.nolanchart.com/article3283.html
Ron Paul's Convention
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Ron Paul's future clout will vary directly with the quality of the campaign's logistical performance at the Republican Convention
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by Random Outlier
(Libertarian)
Let's do this right.
When next Tuesday rolls around, the Ron Paul movement wil have exactly five months, 153 days, to get its act together for the Republican extravaganza in St. Paul.
Dr. Paul goes to St. Paul (we hope) not without popular support despite being widely ignored by media kingmakers and the Republican national establishment.
Gauging that support is difficult to impossible. On Real Clear Politics he is credited with 6.5 per cent of "Republican voters" and fourteen pledged delegates. I simply accept that as a minimum. There are more.
How many is anyone's guess, but they make up a core heavy enough to build a visible presence for Dr. Paul and, more important, the ideas he represents.
My personal estimate is that with any reasonable equity in his treatment by the national media Paul would be the choice of somewhere around 20 per cent of America's voters and something well above that among Republicans who, for lack of a better term, call themselves conservatives.
With the economic peril becoming more evident, with all but universal suspicion that our blood investment in Iraq is going for very little if anything, the Paul message of constitutionality and government restraint should be gaining traction.
In fact, it probably is, and no one should suggest that we reduce by one whit our attacks on statist foolishness.
But let me also suggest creating a Paul presence at the GOP convention requires that an ambitious libertarian cadre begin thinking less about the sublime beauty of the freedom syllogisms and more about booze, food, and comfortable settees.
Too often lost is the reality that a political convention is a gathering of human beings. They differ from the next few thousand people you'll meet at random only in superficial ways -- a little wealthier, a little (though not much) better informed, a little more egotistical. And the majority of them will hold at least a trivial public or party office which they'll tell you about within seconds of being introduced.
They'll be in St. Paul to feed the ego, to store up tales of their personal triumphs for telling back home. "Martha, you just can't believe how bad they begged me to wear a styrofoam hat with ' Romney for Veep' on it."
And the delegates want this stroking in well-fed contentment with the option of a hooker of top-shelf liquor, all taken in surroundings bearing a passing resemblence to the reception parlor of an upscale Parisian brothel.
Never underestimate the power of superficiality.
Cynical? Of course it is, but those of you who have attended national conventions will recognize a ring of truth. People attend in order to be somebody, and for many it is their lifetime's crown jewel.
Accepting that, one of the primary tasks of the Paul forces becomes clear, and by Paul forces I guess I'm speaking of the campaign staff and whatever competent and disciplined volunteer doers can be rounded up. Check- list time:
--A private headquarters
--An adjacent press center
--A public hospitality suite
--A small fleet of minivans for shuttling delegates here and there
--A cadre of our best and brightest people on hand everywhere to do what good salespeople always do -- from answering the most serious question about the product to freshening the prospect's drink.
In other words, we hope that someone is paying professional attention to the nuts and bolts -- booking the space, arranging the catering, considering transportation, anticipating the needs of the reporter who may write something about us if it's convenient. (A little known facet of press agentry is that reporters are either too busy or lazy, and the successful press operation is the one that best capitalizes on this.)
It does without saying that that most of the logistics we need have to be approved by -- or at east coordinated with -- the Republican National Committee which has already booked most of the facilities in St. paul. The RNC runs the convention, period, and by late summer John McCain will be running the RNC. If we have friends there, or if McCain's people feel secure enough to grant us fairness, no problem. If not, we face still another distracting skirmish.
It isn't glamorous, and it isn't as elevating as a long discussion of truth as Adam Smith saw it, but the dreary logistics are among the imperatives for gaining attention, affection, and potential respect.
Please pass the canapes.
Ron Paul's Convention
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ron Paul's future clout will vary directly with the quality of the campaign's logistical performance at the Republican Convention
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
by Random Outlier
(Libertarian)
Let's do this right.
When next Tuesday rolls around, the Ron Paul movement wil have exactly five months, 153 days, to get its act together for the Republican extravaganza in St. Paul.
Dr. Paul goes to St. Paul (we hope) not without popular support despite being widely ignored by media kingmakers and the Republican national establishment.
Gauging that support is difficult to impossible. On Real Clear Politics he is credited with 6.5 per cent of "Republican voters" and fourteen pledged delegates. I simply accept that as a minimum. There are more.
How many is anyone's guess, but they make up a core heavy enough to build a visible presence for Dr. Paul and, more important, the ideas he represents.
My personal estimate is that with any reasonable equity in his treatment by the national media Paul would be the choice of somewhere around 20 per cent of America's voters and something well above that among Republicans who, for lack of a better term, call themselves conservatives.
With the economic peril becoming more evident, with all but universal suspicion that our blood investment in Iraq is going for very little if anything, the Paul message of constitutionality and government restraint should be gaining traction.
In fact, it probably is, and no one should suggest that we reduce by one whit our attacks on statist foolishness.
But let me also suggest creating a Paul presence at the GOP convention requires that an ambitious libertarian cadre begin thinking less about the sublime beauty of the freedom syllogisms and more about booze, food, and comfortable settees.
Too often lost is the reality that a political convention is a gathering of human beings. They differ from the next few thousand people you'll meet at random only in superficial ways -- a little wealthier, a little (though not much) better informed, a little more egotistical. And the majority of them will hold at least a trivial public or party office which they'll tell you about within seconds of being introduced.
They'll be in St. Paul to feed the ego, to store up tales of their personal triumphs for telling back home. "Martha, you just can't believe how bad they begged me to wear a styrofoam hat with ' Romney for Veep' on it."
And the delegates want this stroking in well-fed contentment with the option of a hooker of top-shelf liquor, all taken in surroundings bearing a passing resemblence to the reception parlor of an upscale Parisian brothel.
Never underestimate the power of superficiality.
Cynical? Of course it is, but those of you who have attended national conventions will recognize a ring of truth. People attend in order to be somebody, and for many it is their lifetime's crown jewel.
Accepting that, one of the primary tasks of the Paul forces becomes clear, and by Paul forces I guess I'm speaking of the campaign staff and whatever competent and disciplined volunteer doers can be rounded up. Check- list time:
--A private headquarters
--An adjacent press center
--A public hospitality suite
--A small fleet of minivans for shuttling delegates here and there
--A cadre of our best and brightest people on hand everywhere to do what good salespeople always do -- from answering the most serious question about the product to freshening the prospect's drink.
In other words, we hope that someone is paying professional attention to the nuts and bolts -- booking the space, arranging the catering, considering transportation, anticipating the needs of the reporter who may write something about us if it's convenient. (A little known facet of press agentry is that reporters are either too busy or lazy, and the successful press operation is the one that best capitalizes on this.)
It does without saying that that most of the logistics we need have to be approved by -- or at east coordinated with -- the Republican National Committee which has already booked most of the facilities in St. paul. The RNC runs the convention, period, and by late summer John McCain will be running the RNC. If we have friends there, or if McCain's people feel secure enough to grant us fairness, no problem. If not, we face still another distracting skirmish.
It isn't glamorous, and it isn't as elevating as a long discussion of truth as Adam Smith saw it, but the dreary logistics are among the imperatives for gaining attention, affection, and potential respect.
Please pass the canapes.