Can anyone confirm this (re: Texas Straw Poll)

[Madison]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5101510.html


Crowd support seemed split between Hunter and Paul, whose grass-roots supporters waved signs and chanted his name throughout the day.

True or false?

[jblosser]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5101510.html



True or false?

Eh... inside the ballroom where the speeches were, it could be argued. Their signs were about as wide across the rooms as ours, but probably not as dense (I am being generous, some would claim we had at least 50% more).

Outside there was no contest, we were the only presence. Their spin I've seen so far is "Duncan didn't need a parade or signs outside, people already like him". Of course, he apparently did need to be in TX for two weeks touring all the GOP clubs.

[ScotTX]

The only time I saw visable support for Hunter was during his stump speech outside the hall on Friday where about 30 Hunter supporters showed up and 50 Ron Paul supporters also came with tons of signs. There were also quite a few people, specifically in one section of the auditorium, who were waving Hunter signs during his speech at the Straw Poll.

[libertarian4321]

This event was HARD CORE CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVE PRO WAR REPUBLICAN. Given that the event was designed to only allow previous Republican delegates to vote, you mostly got hardened NEOCONS and the religious right showing up.

When many of the neocon and religious right candidates pulled out late (tancredo, brownback, huckaby, etc), the people who had already committed to the event turned to the only neocon/religious right remaining candidate (Hunter). IMHO, much of the "hunter support" was "anyone but Ron Paul" support.

The event, leading up to the poll, was essentially a 4 hour long pro war rally. Speaker after speaker, video after video, all glorifying the Iraq war and whipping up support for the war in Iran. They even had the governor of Texas (Republican Rick Perry) saying that there were "No Texans Running".

Short of calling Ron Paul a Godless communist al queda lover, they did everything they could to turn the crowd against him.

BTW, the Ron Paul supporters were the most numerous in the event center, and they certainly dominated if you included the folks outside (some didn't want to pay the entrance fee- which, in retrospect, may have been smart- the $25 I spent to get in as a guest is only going to be used to whip up war support by these crazy neocon nuts).

[LibertyEagle]

libertarian, only you know why you keep furthering this BS.

All others, please read the 1st post in this thread:
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=15309

[jblosser]

Thanks for the support LE but he's not wrong about what the state party did to try to keep the crowd with them. I just doubt it did much since our crowd wasn't going to be swayed and their crowd was already there. The undecideds didn't show up in significant mass, but the "anything but Ron Paul" comment probably isn't far off for those that latched onto Duncan's glad-handing the two weeks he was here. There was something that drove Duncan's warmongers out there, and Ron Paul's very visible support probably contributed.

[LibertyEagle]

Well, Hunter had the support of Eagle Forum too, for the most part, didn't they?

Note: BTW, go look at his next post (new thread).

[jblosser]

Yes, they set up repeated open conference calls with him for GOP delegates to call in to.

[LibertyEagle]

Yes, they set up repeated open conference calls with him for GOP delegates to call in to.

I wonder why we didn't do that?

[jblosser]

I wonder why we didn't do that?

Because in the grand scheme of things this poll doesn't matter, and Ron has better ways to spend his time. Duncan did the work here because he is almost out and needs a shot in the arm. It's doubtful it will go anywhere unless the national party decides to try to push him forward too, which is unlikely.