Carole
07-10-2008, 09:39 PM
A bit dated but I found this in The Facts.
Paul unfolds new campaign
By Hunter Sauls
The Facts
http://thefacts.com/story.lasso?ewcd=79d3d6fe371c8819
Published June 22, 2008
CLUTE — Piles of photocopied checks lay strewn near boxes of unopened pamphlets and unworn “Ron Paul 2008” T-shirts in the Clute strip mall space used by the Lake Jackson congressman’s many campaigns.
In the back office, Paul sat undaunted after ending his presidential race last week.
His failed bid was the biggest win of his three decades in politics, he said.
The exposure and support his organic, Internet-fueled libertarian-leaning crusade got along the way is an uncounted triumph, he said. A triumph not for him in November’s general election, but for his convictions in Novembers to come.
“What we achieved in this last year was a tremendous victory compared to what I’ve been trying to do for 30 years,” Paul said. “I’ve always made small, incremental improvements and advancements, but this last year has been way beyond my expectations. But you know, what I do, I expect to lose in the conventional sense more than I have.”
Paul said his candidacy introduced or reminded many of his party’s traditional desire for limited government and a hands-off foreign policy. He calls for dramatic reductions in spending along with cessation of the Federal income tax and Federal Reserve System. His opposition to the Iraq war and a large U.S. military presence overseas was most attractive to his young partisans, he said.
“I think the foreign policy caught the attention of the college kids,” Paul said.
Though the Clute office won’t be moved to the White House in 2009, it now will become a seat of Paul’s new endeavor, the Campaign for Liberty. Paul spokesman Jesse Benton said the group’s membership soon will top the initial goal of 100,000, though details of the operation still are being worked out.
With this new turn on the ‘revolution,’ Paul aims to become something greater than presidential candidate. He wants to be father to a national political movement capable of making his ambitious designs come to pass.
TEN MORE PAULS
For now, the immediate goal of the tax-exempt, non-profit campaign is focusing Paul’s national support on filling Congress with like minded representatives. More than $4.7 million leftover from the $35 million raised for the presidential campaign by April will kick-start that effort, Benton said. Their loftier goal is to fundamentally alter what most Americans think about their government and Constitution.
“If we could get 10 more Ron Pauls in Congress, we could do something really powerful,” Benton said. The lists of donors, 22,000 precinct volunteers and data on districts where Paul had the widest support also are all at their fingertips, he said.
Benton likened it to the Christian Coalition. Albeit with a different base of support, the Christian Coalition was instrumental in the Republican takeover of Congress six years after its founding by evangelist Pat Robertson after his failed, but well-funded, 1988 presidential campaign. That same year Paul missed the Oval Office by a mile as the Libertarian Party nominee.
But Paul’s fundraising prowess raised eyebrows during his recent run. He broke records for single-day donations, including a $6 million haul in 24 hours last fall. He also became the largest Internet fundraiser in history.
“Members of Congress come to me and say ‘Wow,’” Paul said. “They’re impressed with me raising money. They’re like, ‘How do you do this? Will you teach us how?’”
Paul chuckled and said, “I don’t know how to raise money on the Internet. I didn’t rent a list. I didn’t get the names of conservatives like you used to do with direct mail.
“You get somebody like (former Republican candidate Mitt) Romney, he’s wealthy and has a well-known name, so he hires people to try and duplicate what we had,” Paul said. “But it doesn’t work like that.”
TRUE BELIEF
It wasn’t all rosy. During the race, allegations of racism from newsletters printed in Paul’s name in the early 1990s resurfaced. An awkward reply during a May 2007 debate that U.S. intervention in the Middle East motivated the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorists was taken by many to mean that Paul believed America deserved the attacks. Paul’s campaign had to fight throughout the race to be included in nationally televised debates, and he said journalists and commentators would not discuss his campaign seriously.
“They would say, ‘He’s not really in this, he’s just interesting,’ but in spite of the marginalization we still gathered together 400,000 people and 1.2 million votes,” he said. “And I’m convinced there’s two or three other million out there that are very sympathetic. I see them in the airports all the time, and they don’t look very Republican.”
Paul, a Lake Jackson resident who has represented Districst 14 on Capitol Hill since 1997, said he’s still scratching his head about the raucous cheers during monetary policy speeches or at his references to 19th Century French philosopher Frédéric Bastiat, especially among his younger revolutionaries.
“These people are true believers,” he said. “The shocker to me was that there were so many. My only strategy has always been to do my best to understand the issues and present them — and stick by my guns.”
The many “no” votes Paul cast on legislation he calls unconstitutional haven’t endeared him to party leaders. He has fought off mainstream Republican challengers for his congressional seat, crushing Friendswood Councilman Chris Peden in March. Paul said his supporters saw him as a representative guided by uncompromising principle instead of savvy political acumen.
“People always ask me if I was worried about how my vote would play back home,” Paul said, laughing. “They’d say ‘this bill says we’re going to save the world from AIDS, this bill is going to give a gold medal to the Pope. Are you anti-Catholic?’ So, the conventional wisdom proved to be wrong.”
CONVENTIONAL WISDOM
As for whom Paul’s voters will support in November, he predicted many would get behind third party candidates Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party nominee and Paul’s “good friend” from Congress, and Constitution Party nominee Chuck Baldwin, an anti-war Christian pastor from Florida.
“I don’t think too many of them will vote for John McCain,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of support for Chuck Baldwin. He worked real hard for our campaign, so it’s going to be real hard for me to say I’m for Bob Barr.”
The “Ron Paul Revolution” dies hard. Thousands of his supporters are expected to attend a rebel convention Paul is putting on across town from the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn this September.
“My goal is to try to influence everybody, not just Republicans.” Paul said. “We’re expected to fade into the background, but the revolution is not going away just because the campaign is over.”
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Paul unfolds new campaign
By Hunter Sauls
The Facts
http://thefacts.com/story.lasso?ewcd=79d3d6fe371c8819
Published June 22, 2008
CLUTE — Piles of photocopied checks lay strewn near boxes of unopened pamphlets and unworn “Ron Paul 2008” T-shirts in the Clute strip mall space used by the Lake Jackson congressman’s many campaigns.
In the back office, Paul sat undaunted after ending his presidential race last week.
His failed bid was the biggest win of his three decades in politics, he said.
The exposure and support his organic, Internet-fueled libertarian-leaning crusade got along the way is an uncounted triumph, he said. A triumph not for him in November’s general election, but for his convictions in Novembers to come.
“What we achieved in this last year was a tremendous victory compared to what I’ve been trying to do for 30 years,” Paul said. “I’ve always made small, incremental improvements and advancements, but this last year has been way beyond my expectations. But you know, what I do, I expect to lose in the conventional sense more than I have.”
Paul said his candidacy introduced or reminded many of his party’s traditional desire for limited government and a hands-off foreign policy. He calls for dramatic reductions in spending along with cessation of the Federal income tax and Federal Reserve System. His opposition to the Iraq war and a large U.S. military presence overseas was most attractive to his young partisans, he said.
“I think the foreign policy caught the attention of the college kids,” Paul said.
Though the Clute office won’t be moved to the White House in 2009, it now will become a seat of Paul’s new endeavor, the Campaign for Liberty. Paul spokesman Jesse Benton said the group’s membership soon will top the initial goal of 100,000, though details of the operation still are being worked out.
With this new turn on the ‘revolution,’ Paul aims to become something greater than presidential candidate. He wants to be father to a national political movement capable of making his ambitious designs come to pass.
TEN MORE PAULS
For now, the immediate goal of the tax-exempt, non-profit campaign is focusing Paul’s national support on filling Congress with like minded representatives. More than $4.7 million leftover from the $35 million raised for the presidential campaign by April will kick-start that effort, Benton said. Their loftier goal is to fundamentally alter what most Americans think about their government and Constitution.
“If we could get 10 more Ron Pauls in Congress, we could do something really powerful,” Benton said. The lists of donors, 22,000 precinct volunteers and data on districts where Paul had the widest support also are all at their fingertips, he said.
Benton likened it to the Christian Coalition. Albeit with a different base of support, the Christian Coalition was instrumental in the Republican takeover of Congress six years after its founding by evangelist Pat Robertson after his failed, but well-funded, 1988 presidential campaign. That same year Paul missed the Oval Office by a mile as the Libertarian Party nominee.
But Paul’s fundraising prowess raised eyebrows during his recent run. He broke records for single-day donations, including a $6 million haul in 24 hours last fall. He also became the largest Internet fundraiser in history.
“Members of Congress come to me and say ‘Wow,’” Paul said. “They’re impressed with me raising money. They’re like, ‘How do you do this? Will you teach us how?’”
Paul chuckled and said, “I don’t know how to raise money on the Internet. I didn’t rent a list. I didn’t get the names of conservatives like you used to do with direct mail.
“You get somebody like (former Republican candidate Mitt) Romney, he’s wealthy and has a well-known name, so he hires people to try and duplicate what we had,” Paul said. “But it doesn’t work like that.”
TRUE BELIEF
It wasn’t all rosy. During the race, allegations of racism from newsletters printed in Paul’s name in the early 1990s resurfaced. An awkward reply during a May 2007 debate that U.S. intervention in the Middle East motivated the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorists was taken by many to mean that Paul believed America deserved the attacks. Paul’s campaign had to fight throughout the race to be included in nationally televised debates, and he said journalists and commentators would not discuss his campaign seriously.
“They would say, ‘He’s not really in this, he’s just interesting,’ but in spite of the marginalization we still gathered together 400,000 people and 1.2 million votes,” he said. “And I’m convinced there’s two or three other million out there that are very sympathetic. I see them in the airports all the time, and they don’t look very Republican.”
Paul, a Lake Jackson resident who has represented Districst 14 on Capitol Hill since 1997, said he’s still scratching his head about the raucous cheers during monetary policy speeches or at his references to 19th Century French philosopher Frédéric Bastiat, especially among his younger revolutionaries.
“These people are true believers,” he said. “The shocker to me was that there were so many. My only strategy has always been to do my best to understand the issues and present them — and stick by my guns.”
The many “no” votes Paul cast on legislation he calls unconstitutional haven’t endeared him to party leaders. He has fought off mainstream Republican challengers for his congressional seat, crushing Friendswood Councilman Chris Peden in March. Paul said his supporters saw him as a representative guided by uncompromising principle instead of savvy political acumen.
“People always ask me if I was worried about how my vote would play back home,” Paul said, laughing. “They’d say ‘this bill says we’re going to save the world from AIDS, this bill is going to give a gold medal to the Pope. Are you anti-Catholic?’ So, the conventional wisdom proved to be wrong.”
CONVENTIONAL WISDOM
As for whom Paul’s voters will support in November, he predicted many would get behind third party candidates Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party nominee and Paul’s “good friend” from Congress, and Constitution Party nominee Chuck Baldwin, an anti-war Christian pastor from Florida.
“I don’t think too many of them will vote for John McCain,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of support for Chuck Baldwin. He worked real hard for our campaign, so it’s going to be real hard for me to say I’m for Bob Barr.”
The “Ron Paul Revolution” dies hard. Thousands of his supporters are expected to attend a rebel convention Paul is putting on across town from the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn this September.
“My goal is to try to influence everybody, not just Republicans.” Paul said. “We’re expected to fade into the background, but the revolution is not going away just because the campaign is over.”
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