What did Duncan do right?

[Thunderbolt]

...

[BrianH]

My tally:
Paul First, Hunter 4th overall in 11 straw polls since Iowa
Rank Candidate.........%........ Votes
1…Ron Paul……………24.9%……….999
2…Fred Thompson….18.9%……….759
3…Mitt Romney……….16.0%……….644
4…Duncan Hunter……….14.1%……….568
5…Rudy Giuliani……….8.1%……….325
6…Mike Huckabey……….5.3%……….214
7…Sam Brownback……….4.4%……….175
8…John McCain……….3.0%……….119
9…Tommy Tancredo……….0.5%……….22
…..Other…………………………4.2%……..167
….Total…….100%……3992
Last 11 Straw Polls included:
Texas GOP 1-Sep-07
Allegheny County (Pittsburgh, PA)
Dekalb County, GA
Ronald Reagan Club (Washington)
Strafford County, NH_West Alabama
West Lafayette, Indiana_Illinois State Fair
Students for Life of America_Western Montana Fair
Gaston County, NC
Source:
http://ok4ronpaul.ashlux.com/wiki/index.php?title=2008_Presidential_GOP_straw_poll_r esults

[JPFromTally]

Easy.. if you read the articles about the straw polls a lot of people eligible to vote where upset with the "front-runners" not showing up.

Remember, all these guys speak the same language so they voted for the guy (Hunter)that talks the same talk but showed up.

Most of these people are die-hard Bushites. Not our type of voter.

So ask yourself, if you were a die-hard Bushite, and you weren't voting for the guys that didn't show up - who would you cast your vote for?

[hard@work]

A lot of delegates have left the Republican party or don't even show up to events anymore. If you want to know what Paul's greatest challenge is right now it's name recognition and getting the message explained properly.

It has nothing to do with Duncan Hunter succeeding and everything to do with the Republican party falling apart.

[csen]

What are any of these guys doing? I see Giuliani and Romney on TV, and they're ducking in here and there to grab $2,300 from handfuls of folks, but has anyone actually seen a rally for any of these other guys? We know they don't have anything going on online. They've all got more or less the same message and are just posturing for votes based on their personalities and nuances here and there. I don't think we should concern ourselves with what they're doing at all -- we should just keep doing what we're doing.

[wgadget]

LOL...I wonder what they're doing right now....Pondering why they polled so low, perhaps?

Must be miserable today to be a "top tier" candidate. Sigh.

[BlutStein]

I'm so sad over this straw poll. I was there on the 31st handing out slim jims, waving signs. Lots of supporters were there.

I was there all day today. The area around the convention center was completely covered in Ron Paul banners and every other person you saw had a Ron Paul shirt on. Inside where the speeches were held, Ron Paul as far as the eye could see. The crowd seemed to be a sea of Ron Paul signs....

And he got only 16% of the vote today. I swear the republican party is actively trying to shoot itself in the foot here. Duncan Hunter had all of 20 or so sign wavers in the whole place of maybe a few thousand...or so it seemed to me.

And don't even get me started on all the speeches about have we need to bomb more things and how Iran looks like a tempting prospect.

We really need a doctor right now. Our country is sick.

[J4ck]

Come on 16,7 % from former Bush delegates. It's a success.
The establishment chose Hunter that's all. He's broke and will drop. Everything about this poll was planned. The 'front runners' left so the establishment could vote for Hunter + the poll was far away from Ron's base.

[ScotTX]

JP is absolutely right. I was there. Delegates were primarily elderly hardcore Bushites and they only voted for Hunter because he's pro-war and he showed up. I can tell you, though, that at least 60% of attendees were Ron Paul supporters because at least that many were wearing RP shirts, stickers, signs etc. There must have been 1500 people in the parade to the hall this morning and lots of those folks hung out outside all day, while no other candidate had real support on the ground at all. Hunter had 20 people show up for a stump speech yesterday outside the hall and 50 RP supporters showed up with mass signage and listened respectfully. Hunter walked around the hall both days trying to find people to talk to, while Ron Paul was swarmed by fans and press everywhere he went. This weekend was another win for Ron Paul, make no mistake. As he's said before, slow and steady... No matter what the results were, Ron Paul totally dominated this straw poll and when the pix and video start hitting the net, you'll see what I mean.

[hard@work]

My girlfriend came home today and told me that she saw people hanging up a Ron Paul banner. She told me yesterday that she found a pamphlet nestled by a disposal bin so people would see it who walked by.

:)

it's spreading like you guys wouldn't believe - EVERYWHERE - take heart, we're just starting!

[lynnf]

Easy.. if you read the articles about the straw polls a lot of people eligible to vote where upset with the "front-runners" not showing up.

Remember, all these guys speak the same language so they voted for the guy (Hunter)that talks the same talk but showed up.

Most of these people are die-hard Bushites. Not our type of voter.
So ask yourself, if you were a die-hard Bushite, and you weren't voting for the guys that didn't show up - who would you cast your vote for?


There's an organization in Texas called The Texas Eagle Forum, which is affiliated with a national organization Eagle Forum, run by Phyllis Shlafly. They arranged for their delegates to show up and support Duncan Hunter. They are dedicated, right-wing Christians. We tried to get delegates to show up, they got more to come than we did. And now we know why this thing is set up to only allow delegates to previous conventions to vote - it's designed for control. But that's politics, isn't it?

As for there being many RP signs and almost no Hunter signs, the Hunter people probably didn't want to show their strength, or they just aren't that enthusiastic about him. And many of the RP signs were carried by guests that weren't eligible to vote. Number of signs did not equate to number of votes.

The party leadership must have been in on the deal to some extent because the material presented was unabashedly pro-war and went right along with a pro-war candidate. They play hardball and I'm not sure they are worried about rules.

lynn

[ScotTX]

Yeah, I really liked how they played the video before the candidates came out with the sappy country song about 9/11 and the war (actually called, "Have You Forgotten") and showing pictures of the twin towers and American soldiers fighting in Iraq as if they were somehow related. They were totally setting up the pro-war candidate.

[Mr. White]

Who'd have thought the party would promote what it's been promoting all these years?

[BlutStein]

ok, Maybe I was a bit of a bummer a few post back. It's just been a long two days of getting the word out and 16%, when everyone you saw for the last 48 hours was wearing a ron paul shirt....seems massively low.

[LibertyEagle]

Yeah, I really liked how they played the video before the candidates came out with the sappy country song about 9/11 and the war (actually called, "Have You Forgotten") and showing pictures of the twin towers and American soldiers fighting in Iraq as if they were somehow related. They were totally setting up the pro-war candidate.

Oh, puke me. That's disgusting.

[LibertyEagle]

There's an organization in Texas called The Texas Eagle Forum, which is affiliated with a national organization Eagle Forum, run by Phyllis Shlafly. They arranged for their delegates to show up and support Duncan Hunter. They are dedicated, right-wing Christians. We tried to get delegates to show up, they got more to come than we did. And now we know why this thing is set up to only allow delegates to previous conventions to vote - it's designed for control. But that's politics, isn't it?



Last I knew, Schlafly was for Tancredo. Weird.

[Nash]

This straw poll was less about the party supporting Hunter than it was about the party rejecting Paul.

That is unfortunate but also irrelevant since come February we will have successfully taken over the party and elected Ron Paul as the GOP nominee.

[The Only Woj]

If we can figure out what Duncan Hunter did right, perhaps we can use that to our advantage. Anyone know why he won?

support the war in Iraq. however, I wouldn't consider that "right". but it's probably what you have to be to win the nomination.

[born2drv]

This straw poll was less about the party supporting Hunter than it was about the party rejecting Paul.

That is unfortunate but also irrelevant since come February we will have successfully taken over the party and elected Ron Paul as the GOP nominee.

I don't know about that..... I mean take a look at 2 people who did very well and very poorly...

Ducan Hunter --- clearly the winner.
John McCain ---- DIDN"T EVEN GET 1%!!!! Got less then COX!!!!

I think the reason is pretty obvious: McCain was pro-amnesty, Duncan is strongly against illegals and wants to build his fence. Paul of course must have talked about reducing social services and anchor babies, etc... thus removing the incentive to becoming an illegal. Duncan went straight for the fence and hammered this and I think that's why he won. Let's not forget Texas is a border state like California.

The fact McCain was a big supporter of the war, and Bush's biggest supporter obviously got him NO sympathy.... so I think the border/immigration issue is the #1 thing in Texas based on these results.

[Tuck]

3rd place, which is just under fred thompson, is a very strong position for ron paul. Especially considering that Texas = bush country.

[disinter]

If we can figure out what Duncan Hunter did right, perhaps we can use that to our advantage. Anyone know why he won?

Umm, he was there campaigning for weeks prior to the straw poll.

And the poll was designed so that only the past delegates could vote.

[Nash]

I don't know about that..... I mean take a look at 2 people who did very well and very poorly...

Ducan Hunter --- clearly the winner.
John McCain ---- DIDN"T EVEN GET 1%!!!! Got less then COX!!!!

I think the reason is pretty obvious: McCain was pro-amnesty, Duncan is strongly against illegals and wants to build his fence. Paul of course must have talked about reducing social services and anchor babies, etc... thus removing the incentive to becoming an illegal. Duncan went straight for the fence and hammered this and I think that's why he won. Let's not forget Texas is a border state like California.

The fact McCain was a big supporter of the war, and Bush's biggest supporter obviously got him NO sympathy.... so I think the border/immigration issue is the #1 thing in Texas based on these results.

Nah they didn't vote for McCain because he's unpopular but mainly because he didn't even show up. They all voted Hunter because he's a warmonger who tows a lot of the party line, especially in Texas, and he actually went to the poll.

This was an organized effort to marginalize Ron Paul, and they used Duncan Hunter to do it. They don't care who won the poll, as long as it wasn't Ron Paul.

A majority of the party establishment hates us. They hate what we stand for. They hate freedom. They hate non-interventionism and they hate the fact that we want to dismantle the socialism that FDR and LBJ implemented and Nixon and George Bush I and II expanded upon.

We may be able to convince the GOP remnant to join us, but the establishment that controls the GOP is not going to and will do anything in their power to ensure Ron Paul will not get elected.

Remember this fact when you are campaigning. Those members of the GOP who want to join us are more than welcome but we cannot win if we court them alone. They will resist. We have to reach out to those outside of the party. They can be dems or 3rd party or even people who don't vote. This is the only way to win. We must simply overwhelm them with numbers.

The neocons are firmly entrenched in the GOP and they are spread out all over the country. The good news is their base has shrunk considerably. It is our job to rebuild the "base" with our own people and getting Ron Paul elected is the first step towards doing that.

[Swmorgan77]

What are any of these guys doing? I see Giuliani and Romney on TV, and they're ducking in here and there to grab $2,300 from handfuls of folks, but has anyone actually seen a rally for any of these other guys? We know they don't have anything going on online. They've all got more or less the same message and are just posturing for votes based on their personalities and nuances here and there. I don't think we should concern ourselves with what they're doing at all -- we should just keep doing what we're doing.

Well Romney just announced the "launch" of his grass roots campaign, which is of course hilarious because if it was a grass roots campaign you would be "launching it" from the top down.

He's having a rally here in Utah on the 28th. Our local meetups will be there spamming Ron Paul.

[Slugg]

Nah they didn't vote for McCain because he's unpopular but mainly because he didn't even show up. They all voted Hunter because he's a warmonger who tows a lot of the party line, especially in Texas, and he actually went to the poll.

This was an organized effort to marginalize Ron Paul, and they used Duncan Hunter to do it. They don't care who won the poll, as long as it wasn't Ron Paul.

A majority of the party establishment hates us. They hate what we stand for. They hate freedom. They hate non-interventionism and they hate the fact that we want to dismantle the socialism that FDR and LBJ implemented and Nixon and George Bush I and II expanded upon.

We may be able to convince the GOP remnant to join us, but the establishment that controls the GOP is not going to and will do anything in their power to ensure Ron Paul will not get elected.

Remember this fact when you are campaigning. Those members of the GOP who want to join us are more than welcome but we cannot win if we court them alone. They will resist. We have to reach out to those outside of the party. They can be dems or 3rd party or even people who don't vote. This is the only way to win. We must simply overwhelm them with numbers.

The neocons are firmly entrenched in the GOP and they are spread out all over the country. The good news is their base has shrunk considerably. It is our job to rebuild the "base" with our own people and getting Ron Paul elected is the first step towards doing that.

I concur

[james1906]

Well Romney just announced the "launch" of his grass roots campaign, which is of course hilarious because if it was a grass roots campaign you would be "launching it" from the top down.

He's having a rally here in Utah on the 28th. Our local meetups will be there spamming Ron Paul.

Ha, Utah. I'm guessing he thinks it's a safe bet for a big turnout with little opposition. Good luck to you guys. I look forward to your "Mormons for Paul" pictures. Should Rocky Anderson be tipped off to this. I'm sure him and his gang of liberals can only help humble Guy Smiley.

[Liberty]

Nah they didn't vote for McCain because he's unpopular but mainly because he didn't even show up. They all voted Hunter because he's a warmonger who tows a lot of the party line, especially in Texas, and he actually went to the poll.

This was an organized effort to marginalize Ron Paul, and they used Duncan Hunter to do it. They don't care who won the poll, as long as it wasn't Ron Paul.

A majority of the party establishment hates us. They hate what we stand for. They hate freedom. They hate non-interventionism and they hate the fact that we want to dismantle the socialism that FDR and LBJ implemented and Nixon and George Bush I and II expanded upon.

We may be able to convince the GOP remnant to join us, but the establishment that controls the GOP is not going to and will do anything in their power to ensure Ron Paul will not get elected.

Remember this fact when you are campaigning. Those members of the GOP who want to join us are more than welcome but we cannot win if we court them alone. They will resist. We have to reach out to those outside of the party. They can be dems or 3rd party or even people who don't vote. This is the only way to win. We must simply overwhelm them with numbers.

The neocons are firmly entrenched in the GOP and they are spread out all over the country. The good news is their base has shrunk considerably. It is our job to rebuild the "base" with our own people and getting Ron Paul elected is the first step towards doing that.

Excellent post. The level of fanaticism displayed by the neocons for war is very alarming. The weird occurrences at these straw polls makes one wonder. Hatred drives people to do stupid things, like stomping on a sign. If the election was between Hillary and Ron Paul, I bet the neocons would be voting for Hillary.