Did anybody see this? Thoughts?

[Patrick Henry]

http://www.lewrockwell.com/politicaltheatre/


I have it from a very good source that virtually all the people involved in Ron's Iowa campaign, and who had worked for other candidates in previous straw polls, believe that Ron actually won, but the GOP establishment fixed the results to give it to the warmonger Bachmann. To the extend the media suspected this, they cheered.

BTW, the bulk of Bachmann' s support came from warmonger ministers from across Iowa, who bused their obedient congregants to Ames with orders to support the "Christian candidate." They were automatons, in other words, not the thinking individuals who supported Ron.

[limequat]

Well, I tend to put more stock into what Lew Rockwell says than Alex Jones...

[sailingaway]

I think Lew needs to lie down until it passes. If the campaign has something to tell us, they will do so. If they don't it will be because either nothing remotely like that happened, or because despite unexplained events, they would rather have good will than a stink over this. Nothing is going to change the results in people's minds, in any event.

[ItsTime]

Well the announcement made him look guilty of something lol But I doubt anything fishy happened.

[flightlesskiwi]

i dunno. maybe, maybe not. personally, i'm going to hold of on yeaing or naying anything like this. however, i can see how making it close would legitimatize the victory.

and i think we should take 2nd place in stride and keep marching forward, even if the game was/is rigged. imho, there is no point in fighting a battle that's already passed.


They were automatons, in other words, not the thinking individuals who supported Ron.

unfortunately, that can be said of the majority of american voters. not just bachmann supporters.

[wstrucke]

Didn't the campaign have someone watching the vote counting, along with every other campaign? Regardless, we're on our way. We need to stay focused on the task at hand which is continuing to spread the message, particularly in NH.

[flightlesskiwi]

Well the announcement made him look guilty of something lol But I doubt anything fishy happened.

guilty of not liking the results. :p

[puppetmaster]

would never surprise me

[4RP08inKCMO]

In 2007 they announced the results starting with last place and included the number of votes for each candidate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM5Lp0zIo9M.

[FriedChicken]

Its tacky to attack preachers and their congregants in my opinion. Bachmann went out and courted their vote, I wish Ron Paul would have. We tend to have this "Christians don't like us" attitude in the Ron Paul camp .... if that is the case than why am I here?

[realtonygoodwin]

Meh, who cares. Let's move on to the next thing.

[Zydeco]

The Ames poll has been rigged before. In 1995 there was behind-locked-and-guarded doors wrangling between Bob Dole and Phil Gramm's people -- with no other candidates' reps permitted in the counting room! -- and then, after much longer than you need to count a few thousand votes -- the result emerged: a tie for first at the Ames Straw Poll between Dole and Gramm, each with exactly 2,582 votes each! Yeah right. But don't take my word for it, listen to this guy (43 second video):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_Ss4sSRvEE

[CMoore]

So what? At this point, the outcome turned out to be the best outcome possible. We could not have engineered it any better. If Ron Paul had WON outright, the entire straw poll would have been dismissed. Since Bachmann won, they could not discredit the poll and having Dr. Paul come in such a CLOSE second prevents them from discrediting his strength. They are between a rock and a hard place. I think maybe all those prayers that went up over at the Daily Paul did the trick.

[Zydeco]

I agree, we should move on, and this result was better than a clear first from a tactical point of view.

But between you and me, there might well have been some "irregularities."

[Tinnuhana]

Concern yourself with the caucus and getting delegates. Wednesday kicks off the official NH campaign. With the finish in Ames, a lot of the Ron-leaning republicans and independents will be coming out of the wilderness.

[Aratus]

even if the bachmann and/or pawlenty campains had directly bought 10,ooo tickets apiece and handed them out to the throngs for free,
there was no guarantee that the people who took the hypotheical tickets would have honored the oral agreement by voting the way each
campaign assumed that they might or were going to. you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make the critter drink. the poll was fair.

[Crickett]

So what? At this point, the outcome turned out to be the best outcome possible. We could not have engineered it any better. If Ron Paul had WON outright, the entire straw poll would have been dismissed. Since Bachmann won, they could not discredit the poll and having Dr. Paul come in such a CLOSE second prevents them from discrediting his strength. They are between a rock and a hard place. I think maybe all those prayers that went up over at the Daily Paul did the trick.

Maybe they did..LOL it came out perfect, even if not correct. The corrupt will be making more mistakes, too. They do not like Bachman either, and this is starting to get away from them..LOL

[limequat]

The more I think about it the more this makes sense.
The GOP chairman takes an hour longer than necessary to announce the votes, then makes that weird announcement that we all saw, then apologizes to the Ron Paul camp the next day.

I bet he was a reluctant particpant in the "irregularities".

Agreed that we don't need to push it, but it would sure help my peace of mind to know that we actually won.

[JohnGalt23g]

Conspiracy theorists, settle down!!

Bachmann ran a good straw poll campaign, and won. Nothing wrong with that.

Ron Paul also ran a good straw poll campaign, and came in a close second... all the while downtalking ethanol subsidies, drug prohibition, and war. Nothing wrong with that... at all.

Realistically at this point, this is a 4 man race, with Ron entering in the fourth position, closely behind Perry and Bachmann. Given that lineup, I kinda like our chances.

[PaleoForPaul]

I have it from a very good source that virtually all the people involved in Ron's Iowa campaign, and who had worked for other candidates in previous straw polls, believe that Ron actually won, but the GOP establishment fixed the results to give it to the warmonger Bachmann.

This would be unsurprising to me. Just casually watching the event all day on CSPAN all I saw were Ron Paul shirts and signs vastly outnumbering those of other candidates.

Of course, this works out perfectly because any Ron Paul supporter who dares to claim something dishonest went on is immediately labeled as a "conspiracy theorist" which fits into the already created memes about Ron Paul supporters.

[PaleoForPaul]

So what? At this point, the outcome turned out to be the best outcome possible. We could not have engineered it any better. If Ron Paul had WON outright, the entire straw poll would have been dismissed. Since Bachmann won, they could not discredit the poll and having Dr. Paul come in such a CLOSE second prevents them from discrediting his strength. They are between a rock and a hard place. I think maybe all those prayers that went up over at the Daily Paul did the trick.

It is always better to win. I've read this rational over and over again, and like it or not the sunday morning shows would have had a hard time not inviting Ron Paul on the morning after. Perhaps they would have had Perry do the media tour instead, but surely everyone would have sat up and noticed. With Ron coming in second they can simply marginalize him by not mentioning the full results.

[wgadget]

MAYBE Ron Paul "allowed" it to go this way...Who knows? Seems he may have gotten more press (albeit underground) than if he had outright "won" it. Most people know a statistical tie when they see one, and now they're getting a full serving of MEDIA BIAS to go with it.

[LibertyEagle]

Move on. This only makes us look like whiners.

If you believe it, just commit that we will do everything in our power to win by so great a margin in the next one that even if someone wants to cheat, they will not be able to.

[V3n]

Its tacky to attack preachers and their congregants in my opinion. Bachmann went out and courted their vote, I wish Ron Paul would have. We tend to have this "Christians don't like us" attitude in the Ron Paul camp .... if that is the case than why am I here?

He DID! http://www.ronpaul2012.com/2011/08/15/ron-paul-offers-social-conservatives-real-solutions/


Wead told POLITICO that the outreach included mailing 5,000 DVDs of Paul to pastors in Iowa before Saturday’s events. And it relied heavily on a new team of evangelicals who are backing Paul. They include Wead himself and also Brian Jacobs, who used to work with Rev. Billy Graham. Jacobs spent the days before the Straw Poll calling pastors throughout Iowa.”

[dannno]

Just wait until they rig the real election.

[Dianne]

Well on Cspan day before yesterday, a guest commentator mentioned that Bachmann might not have won if she had not been so pro-active. He mentioned that near the close of the voting, there were around 200 people in Bachmann's tent who had not yet voted.. According to the commentator, Bachmann herself walked those people down to the voting place. Had she not been pro active Paul probably would have won.

My first thought was, she knew what the vote needed was; and they kept the voting place open beyond closing time; to give her the win.

He called it pro active, I call it fraud.

[Austin]

I'm only curious as to what the 160+ scattered votes were.

[wgadget]

I'm only curious as to what the 160+ scattered votes were.

Yes, I am, too. Interesting number there, eh?

[Napoleon's Shadow]

Interesting others are starting to take a serious look at this:
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?310033-Serious-Question-Was-the-Iowa-Straw-Poll-stolen-from-Ron-Paul

[wstrucke]

It doesn't matter at this point, we have to press on ahead.