Remember Ames

[Havax]

I don't think I'm alone when I reflect on how I felt when Ron lost by about 150 votes at the straw poll. We were so close. This is going to come down to the wire in Iowa. I remember thinking "what if we had just done a little more"...the worst feeling in the world is thinking "what if" after a defeat. Remember those feelings and let's go all in for Iowa. It can change everything. I'm going to start calling from home. If you were reluctant before, just remember that feeling, and remember not to take people hanging up on your personally. You'll never meet the people on the other end. Even if it is just a few calls a week, it's something. Let's do this.

Also a random side thought: let's pray for some horrible weather on January 3rd. We have the most passionate supporters that will show up regardless.

[tbone717]

Phone banking is key right now. I was making calls to IA tonight and was doing so around 7pm EST so I was reaching a lot of people. This really helps out the campaign for targeting voters for follow up and avoiding spending time on people who aren't going to the caucus.

[Aratus]

Ron Paul is quite viable and could take Iowa.
This all is coming together in a good way!!!

[BuddyRey]

Great advice.

[asurfaholic]

Im with you on the pray part. Gotta remember that ultimately God is in control, and he has used storms to mess with people before...

[afwjam]

PHONE BANKING!!! WE ALL CAN HELP!

[FriedChicken]

I can't agree more with the need to phone bank.
However ... the campaign is phone banking NH. This thread is about winning Iowa.

RP2012.org is setup with a phone bank to reach and identify Iowan voters. Those identified RP supporters will be given information on how they can help promote Ron Paul and will be encouraged to give a 2 minute speech at their precinct.

RP2012.org is the only place to phone bank to Iowa.

New Hampshire is extremely important as well, so I'm not complaining about anyone putting their calls their instead though. Just ... call ... somewhere!!
Also - we need to get those super brochures out to everyone in both of those states.

[tbone717]

RP2012.org is the only place to phone bank to Iowa.

That is incorrect. I was doing the phone from home program last night and was calling IA for about 2 hours.

[parocks]

I don't think I'm alone when I reflect on how I felt when Ron lost by about 150 votes at the straw poll. We were so close. This is going to come down to the wire in Iowa. I remember thinking "what if we had just done a little more"...the worst feeling in the world is thinking "what if" after a defeat. Remember those feelings and let's go all in for Iowa. It can change everything. I'm going to start calling from home. If you were before, just remember that feeling, and remember not to take people hanging up on your personally. You'll never meet the people on the other end. Even if it is just a few calls a week, it's something. Let's do this.

Also a random side thought: let's pray for some horrible weather on January 3rd. We have the most passionate supporters that will show up regardless.

I think it's wrong to think that our supporters are the most skilled voters. We might be passionate, but are we well trained? The old people might not know who the candidates are, but they enjoy voting. They all know the other old people who are working there. Its a social event for them, and they enjoy that.

They know where the polling places are. Do our supporters all know, right now, where their polling places are?

I think we have 2 different things confused. Our supporters are very unlikely to vote for anyone else but Ron Paul. But our supporters are right in the middle of a demo that doesn't often vote. And that has to be considered as well.

Right now, we (that is, the grassroots, not the official campaign) should think about switching gears from talking about Ron Paul to talking about voting.

We want all 18-29 year olds to vote. We want every campaign to make their pitch to the 18-29 year olds. And then they vote. We don't have to spend one more dime convincing 18-29 year old males. We've got em. But are all of those guys equally committed? Will they all go through a snowstorm for Ron Paul? Do all of our supporters know where the caucus is?

1) Have a concert. Not a Ron Paul concert, but a Public Service concert. A Non Partisan, "rock the vote" concert. One with not just ron paul supporter bands playing ron paul supporting songs, but the biggest bands in the world supporting democracy. Ron Paul is not a really safe choice for a major label band. bands are risk averse. but if they like Ron Paul, there's very little harm in playing a rock the vote concert. All those people at that concert already like Ron Paul. But at this concert, we can get their data. We can tell them exactly how to vote, where their precincts are where their caucuses are and just fill them in. The details don't matter. Everyone will be excited about voting. And that drives up the turnout in that age group. And those are our votes.

2) Ron Paul is at this concert. All candidates are invited to address the crowd. But we've stacked the crowd with our people. The other candidates would be afraid of getting booed off the stage. So, we have Wells Fargo arena in Des Moines. 16K capacity. Work on filling that with Ron Paul and rock stars.

[tbone717]

We want all 18-29 year olds to vote. We want every campaign to make their pitch to the 18-29 year olds. And then they vote. We don't have to spend one more dime convincing 18-29 year old males. We've got em. But are all of those guys equally committed? Will they all go through a snowstorm for Ron Paul? Do all of our supporters know where the caucus is?

Phone from home will help to identify these voters for follow up prior to and on the day of the caucus.

Your concert idea is interesting, but will cost a huge amount of time and money. With the man hours that would be necessary to put something like this together, we can instead use that time to reach out to the remaining 1/3 of IA voters that we have not yet contacted via the phone from home program.

[FriedChicken]

That is incorrect. I was doing the phone from home program last night and was calling IA for about 2 hours.

That's strange, its the first time I heard that. I used Phone from home before and after Ames when it was calling Iowa but they moved the op to NH a long time ago.
I'm guessing you're not allowed to pick which state you call?

[tbone717]

No you are not allowed to pick the state. I'm doing it with the confidence that the campaign knows what state is best for me to be calling in. They are the experts.