The Rand Paul Blimp

[RonPaulFanInGA]

The other thread got me thinking: what about a Rand Paul blimp? It'd be more effective than the Ron Paul blimp, which was a national thing. Keeping a blimp in just Kentucky would get a lot of media attention.

[dannno]

Ya the Ron Paul blimp did not get enough national exposure.. barely got any media exposure which was totally lame.. I mean, I know the media is controlled, but a blimp for a Presidential candidate?? How could you NOT cover that?

[Chase]

Would it be cost effective? I remember the Ron Paul blimp being expensive... money that could undoubtedly find better uses in a statewide campaign.

[Lovecraftian4Paul]

You might be on to something. If we got a simple hot air balloon or even a few airplanes to fly banners around, it could be good visibility for a limited area. Of course, I doubt all of us together could raise the huge amount of money to put a blimp like the one we had for RP in the air. It would have to be a more limited version, which is fine anyway. We just need something to put his name in the air.

[american.swan]

We don't need a blimp. But I do like the air plane banners. Great for events like weekend football basketball and Horse Racing ;)

[Matt Collins]

This money could be better spent on direct and targeted marketing. Trust me on this one.

[MRoCkEd]

This money could be better spent on direct and targeted marketing. Trust me on this one.
We'll trust you this time.

[fletcher]

The blimp was the biggest waste of money from a grassroots effort in the history of the world. It was enormously expensive and produced zero results.

[mstrmac1]

I think its a great idea!

[Aratus]

why not get clusters of regular ole helium balloons, dangle a RAND PAUL banner from them,
and in a manner like the house in the PIXAR flic "UP" you release ALL these balloons over
the countryside of KENTUCKY!?!!--- you'd get the same exposure from 1000 clusters of balloons
with their 1000 banners that you could get from someone laying out $100,ooo for the blimp!

[hotbrownsauce]

The blimp was the biggest waste of money from a grassroots effort in the history of the world. It was enormously expensive and produced zero results.

Yeah, I don't remember ever hearing what it did for Ron Paul. I am fairly sure they mentioned it on CNN with Wolf Blitzer or whatever... Yeah, here are some videos.

YouTube - RON PAUL BLIMP makes news on CNN's Situation Room 12-7-07 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nagb559DpWc)
youtube.com/watch?v=FES7Ug_3beY
youtube.com/watch?v=Ga-cwedk504
youtube.com/watch?v=WzZjpbpm06k
youtube.com/watch?v=SgleRRFC6Gk

The money would have probably been more useful elsewhere.....

[sratiug]

Fun facts about Kentucky. Kentucky has the most miles of navigable rivers in the lower 48 states. Houseboats are all the rage, at least on some cable show I saw. Maybe a navy would complement the air force. Or we could dredge up the Lusitania and sail it down the Ohio river and give tours explaining the corruption of our government that sent its passengers out to die to get us into WWI.

[BeFranklin]

Freedom baby :)

[angelatc]

No blimp. Maybe some of those little blimp balloons though! Those were awesome.

[angelatc]

The blimp was the biggest waste of money from a grassroots effort in the history of the world. It was enormously expensive and produced zero results.

It got a lot of press and recognition. It actually is about the only thing people still talk about.

Everything we did got zero short term results.

[ronpaulhawaii]

The blimp was the biggest waste of money from a grassroots effort in the history of the world. It was enormously expensive and produced zero results.

I agree, too expensive, but it did produce some good results...


Fun facts about Kentucky. Kentucky has the most miles of navigable rivers in the lower 48 states. Houseboats are all the rage, at least on some cable show I saw. Maybe a navy would complement the air force. Or we could dredge up the Lusitania and sail it down the Ohio river and give tours explaining the corruption of our government that sent its passengers out to die to get us into WWI.

I like this, and the towbanners, and the helium launches like the grannies did for NASCAR. Not a full on blimp though...


No blimp. Maybe some of those little blimp balloons though! Those were awesome.

Send Ma an email and she'll send you one ;):D

[pacelli]

The blimp was the biggest waste of money from a grassroots effort in the history of the world. It was enormously expensive and produced zero results.

QFT, +250,000 per month.

[fletcher]

Yeah, I don't remember ever hearing what it did for Ron Paul. I am fairly sure they mentioned it on CNN with Wolf Blitzer or whatever... Yeah, here are some videos.

YouTube - RON PAUL BLIMP makes news on CNN's Situation Room 12-7-07 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nagb559DpWc)
youtube.com/watch?v=FES7Ug_3beY
youtube.com/watch?v=Ga-cwedk504
youtube.com/watch?v=WzZjpbpm06k
youtube.com/watch?v=SgleRRFC6Gk

The money would have probably been more useful elsewhere.....

Wow. Half a million dollars got a couple short segments on CNN about a blimp that said "Who is Ron Paul"! That is far better than buying hundreds of ads that actually tell people who Ron Paul is and about his message. Oh, wait, no it isn't. Well at least it produced results in the states it flew in. Or not. Ron came in fifth in SC and Florida with 3%. Great job Blimp! The only thing the blimp produced was some embroidered fleece jackets for the crew.

Biggest waste of money EVER!!!

[Austin]

No blimp please...

There are much better ways to spend our money.

[He Who Pawns]

Rand Paul blimp? Oh HELL no.

[Matt Collins]

Glad to see some people have figured out what I knew a long time ago ;-)

[BeFranklin]

Don't see why people are telling other people what to do. If other people decide to do the blimp, and do it, its their own decision.

FYI - The blimp was a blip in the total funds raised for all projects, money bombs, etc. It generated a lot more advertising publicity than just the CNN link someone posted. And as someone pointed out, still only thing a lot of people talk about.

The money I donated was money I am glad to have donated. It did something. On the other hand, a lot of money we raised for Ron Paul's direct campaign was never spent on the campaign. Some of it I understand went to the CFL.

[RonPaulFanInGA]

Rand Paul blimp? Oh HELL no.

Well, this thread was tongue-in-cheek. No way you spend 350,000 dollars for a one month blimp rental to support a candidate with 67,000 raised and not even officially declared.

For Ron Paul it made sense, since many blimp donors were people who already maxed out to his official campaign. Plus he was at like nine million for the quarter when the blimp thing came about.


Fun facts about Kentucky. Kentucky has the most miles of navigable rivers in the lower 48 states. Houseboats are all the rage, at least on some cable show I saw. Maybe a navy would complement the air force. Or we could dredge up the Lusitania and sail it down the Ohio river and give tours explaining the corruption of our government that sent its passengers out to die to get us into WWI.

Now, the Rand Paul paddle-wheel steamboat.....

[hotbrownsauce]

I think the bottom line is people who don't like the Blimp idea any longer want something that produces more concrete results.

I'm just curious, has anyone done a study on if the thousands raised for the blimp yielded results equal to that amount or more? Sometimes we classify results differently. Every person is different. So one persons version of satisfactory results isn't necessarily someone elses.

On a better note, as mentioned above. The blimp has left a lasting impression on a lot of Paul supporters. I hope the same is true with other people.

I'm done talking blimp now. =)

[Eric21ND]

Wow. Half a million dollars got a couple short segments on CNN about a blimp that said "Who is Ron Paul"! That is far better than buying hundreds of ads that actually tell people who Ron Paul is and about his message. Oh, wait, no it isn't. Well at least it produced results in the states it flew in. Or not. Ron came in fifth in SC and Florida with 3%. Great job Blimp! The only thing the blimp produced was some embroidered fleece jackets for the crew.

Biggest waste of money EVER!!!
I concur. The blimp did not produce hard results. Nothing replaces boots on the ground and mainstream media bombardment (tv, radio, print).

[Eric21ND]

For the price of the blimp you could own the Kentucky airwaves for months.

[IPSecure]

YouTube - Mini Ron Paul Blimp (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBizHvp7K4g)

[nayjevin]

a 1/50th scale replica would catch some headlines. might not be worth the cash, who knows. how bout remote control? you know some talking heads would run with that

"Founding Father of R3volution Births Baby Blimp, Senatorial Candidate"

[Ethek]

KY is too spread out.

Tow planes with banners ala the RonPaul Air Force would get much a better response. This would have to be AFTER a prolonged TV ad campaign for him to be seen as a credible name when placed next to a long time state politician like Grayson.