Where we are now

[nedomedo]

I was as upset as the rest of you, but a third place finish is good. If we finish second in New Hampshire, it will be looked at as an improvement. They only won by 3 percent, that is nothing. 3 percent? Plus they are not mentioning his name, people will notice that who are watching TV.

The game is changed now and this is what I see happening:

1. I think many progressives and democrats will look at Santorum and get a little freaked out. Perhaps they will feel bad for attacking Ron Paul who agrees with them on more issues than any other candidate. Santorum has that face of your typical country club neocon self loving jerk, and liberals hate him more than anyone. They will destroy him quickly and swiftly. He will be destroyed anyway because he will not finish first or second in NH. Has anyone ever finished third in New Hampshire and ended up being nominee?

2. They have no more bullets to use against Ron Paul, they have used up whatever they could and his support is not dropping. Now the only place he will go is up.

3. Santorum is obviously their weak last resort. They have no more candidates to artificially push. Santorum will fall extremely quickly believe me. It will be obvious then that the race is between Romney and Dr. Paul

4. Google trends definitely tells you something, Ron Paul overtook everyone by a huge margin and is maintaining the lead in Google trends. Santorum will get a boost now for a short time, but that is just people googling him and getting freaked out when they see his actual positions and record. I can tell you right now that most people have no clue what Santorum stands for (I am in Nevada)

5. The entire world is on the brink of collapse, if the economy starts to take bigger hits, or we end up in another conflict Ron Paul will surge. 2012 does not look good...Euro will not survive much longer...some people say March.

Look, we have to get a hold of ourselves. The media attack on Ron Paul was done deliberately to try and divide us and get us to defend Ron Paul on racism, rather than talking about the other 99.99999 percent of more serious issues. I think after Iowa the newsletter issue will die.

There is a lot of Ron Paul support here in Las Vegas, I have been a supporter since 2007. So far I have converted 9 people to Ron Paul, who have also converted their friends.

How do you guys predict things will go down from here?

[Xelaetaks]

I saw a tweet by Ben Swann, four years ago McCain finished fourth in Iowa. Can't say I'm very hopeful though but I'm still interested to see what happens. I do feel like were a little screwed tho. I wish we could bypass the media somehow. The media are probably screwing Ron Paul over the most when it comes down to it.

[nedomedo]

Which ever way you look at it we win. Without Ron Paul there would be no Tea Party movement, Rand Paul wouldn't be in the Senate, the Fed would not be discussed, and who else would speak out against he wars? Think about it, there is like 15% of the population now that is hardcore liberty thanks to Dr. Paul. Most of them would never even dream of being into politics, but Ron Paul lit fire of liberty and we are forever changed. Our generation will be in charge one day, and we will forever know the ideas of liberty. For the first time, we have numbers.

He has already won in my opinion.

[Aratus]

nedomedo... he's the robert taft of this generation! he learned from barry goldwater's example!

[RDM]

We won tonight. We basically came into a 3 way tie. Look at this way. Top tier candidate Romney and a media pumped 2nd tier Santorum was almost beat by Paul. This says alot. I truly believe our support is going to grow from this.

[jersdream]

You can't call Santorum 2nd tier if we lose to him.....we were leading or in 2nd in every poll the last two weeks, we finish 3rd. Nobody here was expecting a 3rd place. The nomination process is all about expectations, we fell short.

We did great overall, especially where this movement started. We have came far, but considering the last two weeks...we fell short.

[priest_of_syrinx]

I am one of the 15% mentioned. And when I think of the major changes that have happened since I started browsing this forum back in '07, it makes me really warm and fuzzy inside. I was 15 and took Fox News like mother's milk. Now that's not the case. I'll admit that between election cycles, I lapsed into apathy pretty badly. But now I'm ready to burn the midnight oil going door to door where I go to university. Tonight marks the end of my complacence.

[sailingaway]

I saw a tweet by Ben Swann, four years ago McCain finished fourth in Iowa. Can't say I'm very hopeful though but I'm still interested to see what happens. I do feel like were a little screwed tho. I wish we could bypass the media somehow. The media are probably screwing Ron Paul over the most when it comes down to it.

the media was on McCain's side. The people should be on Ron's. It is a different thing, but it can still be done.

[sailingaway]

You can't call Santorum 2nd tier if we lose to him.....we were leading or in 2nd in every poll the last two weeks, we finish 3rd. Nobody here was expecting a 3rd place. The nomination process is all about expectations, we fell short.

We did great overall, especially where this movement started. We have came far, but considering the last two weeks...we fell short.

third would have been great -- a month ago, but no, not today.

STill, the papers are all calling it a 'close' third, which it was.

However, to the OP, they will push Huntsman for NH, and he has not been vetted either. We need to do that. But I do agree NH will reject Santorum.

[pauliticalfan]

What I'm happy about is the 21.4% and 26k+ vote number. Very strong performance. Unfortunately, Romney and Santorum had stronger performances.

[merrimac]

I'm not freaking out. I'm calm. I didn't believe Ron Paul would get the nomination before tonight and my opinion remains unchanged.

[SenseForMiles]

I think regardless of what happens, we need to keep supporting this campaign and fund this campaign and spread Ron Paul's message as far and wide as possible. We are in an information war right now with the media. They spread their lies, we spread the truth. Spreading awareness as to what's really going on in this country should be the ultimate goal here, whether Ron Paul wins the GOP nomination or not. If he does not, I will fully support a 3rd party run if he so chooses to do that. Regardless, he should stay in this race for as long as he possibly can and spread his message (our message) to the people who are still asleep.

[Czolgosz]

Ron is still in this.

'sides, I'd rather exhaust a RP candidacy before going to plan B.

[BamaAla]

How much, if any, did Ron's taking the weekend off affect the final outcome?

[RDM]

How much, if any, did Ron's taking the weekend off affect the final outcome?

None. The GOP got what they wanted propping up Santorum. I still think this game their playing is going to backfire. We just got to continue on and step up our efforts. You figure we came in a 3 way tie with the largest media smear campaign in the history of elections against one candidate and still came out looking good.

[anaconda]

Keep in mind that the winning percentages were ridiculously low (a new record low it seems). Iowa withheld affirmation from every candidate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa_caucuses

Is anyone in the media talking about the ridiculously low numbers for first place?

[Czolgosz]

None. The GOP got what they wanted propping up Santorum. I still think this game their playing is going to backfire. We just got to continue on and step up our efforts. You figure we came in a 3 way tie with the largest media smear campaign in the history of elections against one candidate and still came out looking good.


^^ the right perspective

[tttppp]

You can't call Santorum 2nd tier if we lose to him.....we were leading or in 2nd in every poll the last two weeks, we finish 3rd. Nobody here was expecting a 3rd place. The nomination process is all about expectations, we fell short.

We did great overall, especially where this movement started. We have came far, but considering the last two weeks...we fell short.

Considering the media bashing Ron Paul over the newsletters, he came out ok. He didn't fall like everyone else did when the media bashed them.

The media also tried to sink Ron Paul over his foreign policy, which didn't work.

Not to mention he lost a lot of votes to Santorum who was completely inflated by the media. Once the media learns that the family man Santorum is really a scumbag politician, his votes will go back to Ron Paul.

[RDM]

Considering the media bashing Ron Paul over the newsletters, he came out ok. He didn't fall like everyone else did when the media bashed them.

The media also tried to sink Ron Paul over his foreign policy, which didn't work.

Not to mention he lost a lot of votes to Santorum who was completely inflated by the media. Once the media learns that the family man Santorum is really a scumbag politician, his votes will go back to Ron Paul.

Right on. I also believe many people are going to see Ron remained strong through all of this and this may lure people who doubted him before to now come on board. I really do believe our support is going to grow from this.

[MikefromSyracuse]

A reporter in Iowa from ABC evening news (6:30pm) stated that the young RP people consider this as more than a political campaign -- its a movement -- their words.
IMO this youth for RP is going to grow exponentially on the order of how OWS grew.