Elwar
09-25-2009, 02:57 PM
Ok, I've been working on the Gary Johnson 2012 site (Please go pledge your support at http://www.garyjohnson2012.com ) and was thinking about things that went poorly during Dr. Paul's campaign and things that worked. And ways to look forward so that we have a good chance at winning in 2012.
I'm not just talking about this for Gov. Johnson, ideally I'd like 3-4 liberty candidates, including Ron Paul, running in 2012 and those that don't catch on dropping out in support of the best contender...
Either way, I'm not looking for a "what should the campaign have done". More of a what could the grassroots have done.
The way I see it, I think a lot of the bad that happened to the campaign was from folks with an agenda trying to latch on to Dr. Paul to gain some sort of credibility for their cause. Whether it's the truthers, the brothel guy in Vegas, the stormfronters...basically anyone who wasn't there to prop up Dr. Paul, but to prop themselves up by associating themselves with his campaign.
I think the best way forward for the grassroots looking forward is to drown out anyone with an agenda other than getting the candidate elected. Have a group of folks dedicated to keeping the coat-tails free from those who would try to cling on.
I think one of the best things from the campaign was the meetup groups. It allowed people on the ground to coordinate things locally and focus on events that matter in their community. I'm definitely going to focus on that for the website so that people can plan things out and coordinate things locally in an easy way.
I think the biggest thing was the media treatment. I'm thinking the only way to combat that is to fund commercials on the competition networks to clarify or point out the attacks from the other network. Maybe a commercial spelling out the webster definition of "isolationist", or pointing to the many times that our candidate has repeated that no, they aren't running as a third party candidate. There's just got to be a way to break through the media's bias. They're pretty much responsible for McCain (and thus Obama) winning, there's no denying that.
Any other thoughts on things to learn from and how to use that knowledge going forward?
I'm not just talking about this for Gov. Johnson, ideally I'd like 3-4 liberty candidates, including Ron Paul, running in 2012 and those that don't catch on dropping out in support of the best contender...
Either way, I'm not looking for a "what should the campaign have done". More of a what could the grassroots have done.
The way I see it, I think a lot of the bad that happened to the campaign was from folks with an agenda trying to latch on to Dr. Paul to gain some sort of credibility for their cause. Whether it's the truthers, the brothel guy in Vegas, the stormfronters...basically anyone who wasn't there to prop up Dr. Paul, but to prop themselves up by associating themselves with his campaign.
I think the best way forward for the grassroots looking forward is to drown out anyone with an agenda other than getting the candidate elected. Have a group of folks dedicated to keeping the coat-tails free from those who would try to cling on.
I think one of the best things from the campaign was the meetup groups. It allowed people on the ground to coordinate things locally and focus on events that matter in their community. I'm definitely going to focus on that for the website so that people can plan things out and coordinate things locally in an easy way.
I think the biggest thing was the media treatment. I'm thinking the only way to combat that is to fund commercials on the competition networks to clarify or point out the attacks from the other network. Maybe a commercial spelling out the webster definition of "isolationist", or pointing to the many times that our candidate has repeated that no, they aren't running as a third party candidate. There's just got to be a way to break through the media's bias. They're pretty much responsible for McCain (and thus Obama) winning, there's no denying that.
Any other thoughts on things to learn from and how to use that knowledge going forward?