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G-khan
06-18-2007, 10:12 AM
Here's a good article I found on this, it's still in rough draft.

http://ronpaulforum.com/showthread.php?t=232

Two Strategies for a Guaranteed Ron Paul Victory

Feedback and comments will be greatly appreciated and valued.

Two Strategies for a Guaranteed Ron Paul Victory
in the Republican Primaries
(First Draft)

Summary

The Ron Paul campaign’s primary strengths are our candidate’s overwhelming popularity on the internet and the rapidly emergent grass roots support manifesting in the form of the Ron Paul Meetups. These two strengths, areas in which no other candidate is currently able to compete, contain the fundamental basis for total victory of the Ron Paul campaign in the Republican primaries and perhaps in the general elections as well.

Primary elections are low turnout events and a motivated body of voters can easily elect their candidate. Only Ron Paul has a motivated, active voter base, one which will continue to grow and expand exponentially.

The first strategy: Ron Paul will deliver weekly live internet webcasts to the American people on a specific topic or issue.

The second strategy: There will be a Ron Paul Meetup in every neighborhood of every city and town in America, and each Meetup will be responsible for covering its neighborhood/zone with campaign signs, literature, rallies, registering voters, canvassing the neighborhood door to door and turning out the vote.

Both of these strategies are available, highly doable and if implemented will guarantee a Ron Paul primary victory and the Republican nomination.

Introduction

To win at any game, you must play to your strengths. If you expend too much energy on trying to improve on your weaknesses, where your game is inherently deficient, you waste time and energy and resources and risk losing the game. It’s generally a better strategy to rely upon your strengths and force your opponent to play your game. Chances are pretty good that your strengths are also your opponent’s weaknesses, which gives you strategic advantage in the game.

What are our strengths and weaknesses in the campaign for the Republican nomination?

Our strengths are:

Ron Paul’s overwhelming and rapidly growing popularity on the internet among informed, intelligent, interested and aware Americans and particularly among the newly awakening young people and
The rapidly emergent grass roots support manifesting in the form of the Ron Paul Meetups.

Our weaknesses are:

The controlled mainstream media does not and likely will not characterize this candidacy as legitimate, serious and “first tier” unless it is forced to do so.
The Republican establishment will use all of its power to bloc the election and nomination of Ron Paul.
A relative lack of funding compared to other candidacies.

Although we can and are making progress penetrating the mainstream media blockade, we can be sure that they will always characterize us as “marginal”, “fringe” and a “gadfly candidacy”, we can be sure that we will be underrepresented in the manipulated and controlled polls and we can be sure that our real positions on issues will be misrepresented and spun in a negative manner UNLESS the mainstream media is FORCED to do otherwise by massive evidence to the contrary and market pressures. It is worth noting that there has been chatter in the media to the effect that “second and third tier” candidates will be excluded from future debates after the CNN debates based on their standings in the “polls”.

The Republican establishment will use every dirty trick and election stealing tactic in the book plus some new ones to prevent Ron Paul’s primary election and nomination UNLESS the numbers are so large that they cannot deny him victory.

The big money donors will not give to a campaign that fundamentally stands against big money interests. The Ron Paul campaign will not have substantial financial resources at its disposal UNLESS it garners many small donations from many individual supporters.

The following strategies both play to our strengths and attack our opponents’ weaknesses as well as address our weaknesses as well. Rather than wasting time and resources attempting to overcome our inherent deficits, these strategies compensate for these deficits by playing off our strengths.

The implementation of these strategies will change the face of American political process for all time and restore democratic process to our national political life.

Strategy Number One: Weekly Live Internet Webcast

Ron Paul will address the nation each week with a live internet webcast. Each of these prepared presentations will focus on a specific, announced topic or issue. Thirty minutes would be a good length of time; long enough to give a full, reasoned treatment to the subject but not too long to strain the attention span. Ron will explain the details of a particular problem facing the nation and outline possible solutions.

In this way our candidate will bypass the mainstream media blockade, do an end run around their snide cynicism and condescension, and address the American people directly with no intermediary. We do in fact have a broadcast network available to us right now; it is the internet. In fact we are already broadcasting our message to the public via the internet every day. YouTube is already broadcasting our programming and we have teams of correspondents and pundits among the populace who are generating programming for us on a daily basis. Now we can take this “live” and use this network as our own broadcast medium.

In this way, Ron Paul will begin to present himself to the people in a very Presidential manner. In fact, by doing this he will rapidly become the defacto, pre-election President of the people. He will replace Bush as President in the people’s minds and hearts before the election has even taken place!

Of course the process of bypassing and circumventing the mainstream media in this historic manner will itself be newsworthy, obliging coverage on the part of the media of the phenomenon, as it sees itself rendered obsolete and irrelevant. They will be forced to recognize the power of our campaign and participate in their own marginalization. The other campaigns will not be able to copycat our strategy because their candidates have nothing to say. They do not have a message that can be sustained for five minutes, let alone 30 minutes. All they have is 30-second sound bites. They and their media will be revealed as hollow and marginal.

Another strength of this strategy is that it is easily quantifiable. It is a simple matter to measure the number of people watching the webcast, as well as the number of people watching the streaming video after the fact.

This strategy will solve funding issues and more than pay for itself. At the end of each webcast, the campaign manager, or a celebrity supporter, will ask the people to support Ron’s message by contributing to the campaign. They will be instructed on how to contribute by clicking on the appropriate button on the web application page. Once registered, viewers will be able to contribute with just a few clicks using a credit card or paypal and can even set up recurring monthly payments.

Webcasts will also be produced as DVD’s for that part of the public which is not web savvy. These can be sold for profit and/or distributed freely and will become a primary campaign tool.

The webcasts can have three potential formats. The first would be a fireside chat, similar to the video in which Ron announced his candidacy. His wife might be at his side, presenting the public with a vision of the future first couple. Following the chat, Ron might take call in questions from the public and/or email questions. A fundraising appeal would follow. Ron might present the fundraising appeal himself or let a celebrity supporter do so.

Another potential format would be the town hall meeting. Ron would meet with a group of citizens live in an American city or town and give them a prepared talk, followed by questions from the audience and/or media. Again, this would be followed up with a call to contribute and join the campaign by becoming a member of or starting a local Meetup.

The third potential format would be a live press conference. Ron will give a prepared presentation, followed by Q&A with the media and a call to contribute and participate in the renaissance of the American democratic process.

The power of this strategy will be undeniable and easily quantifiable, both in terms of the numbers participating in the webcasts and the numbers of contributions and total dollars raised. There will be no way for the establishment to maintain that our campaign consists merely of a small crew of socially arrested geek spammers.

The technology to do this is available, tested, easy and relatively inexpensive. It would seem likely that among our crew of socially arrested geek spammers their may be more than a few who are web video streaming savvy and willing to donate their time and knowledge to making this project happen fast and effectively.

Strategy Number Two: a Ron Paul Meetup in Every Neighborhood

Currently our on the ground forces as measured by Meetup.com metrics are growing at the daily rate of 4% on a slow day to 8% on a strong day. This is taking place with minimal mainstream media exposure and is probably being driven mostly by word of mouth among the people and the internet activity of “a small crew of socially arrested geek spammers” J on YouTube and social networking sites.

Currently there are Ron Paul Meetups in every state with membership just now topping 7,000. There are Meetups if 5 countries including Seoul, South Korea and apparently Santa and his elves are Ron Paul fans too, because in fact there is now a North Pole, Alaska Ron Paul Meetup.

Even without the implementation of Strategy Number One, membership in the Ron Paul Meetups is likely to grow by leaps and bounds in the coming months. With the implementation of the webcasting strategy, Ron Paul Meetup membership will eventually be measured in terms of millions. What will be the goal of this huge resource of awakened and motivated Americans? What can this emergent force accomplish?

First, it is important to recognize that what we are witnessing and calling forth among the American people has no precedent in our lifetimes. The nearest analogies might be the Civil Rights Movement and the RFK campaign. It might be characterized as a nascent voter revolt. It is a new force that is changing the landscape of American politics before our very eyes and the establishment may very well be oblivious to it or at least at a loss about how to neutralize it.

We should implement the strategy of not just a Ron Paul Meetup in every city but a Ron Paul Meetup in every neighborhood of every city and town in America, perhaps delineated by postal zip code zones. Rather than large, centralized groups we should build a network of small, decentralized local groups. This model will be an efficient, individual centered, person powered practical implementation and reflection of the core philosophy of the campaign itself. The industry and creativity of the people in this campaign will demonstrate in practical terms the greatness of America and Americans and the fundamental principles upon which the country was founded.

Each neighborhood Meetup will be responsible for:

•Exposing the populace in its zone to Ron Paul and his message
•Making person to person contact with as many voters in its zone as possible
•Registering those voters
•Delivering those voters to the polls on Election Day

The neighborhood Meetups will make the Ron Paul for President message omnipresent in the community by placing and maintaining Ron Paul signs on freeway on/off ramps and at major intersections, by tabling at supermarkets and post offices, by standing with signs at major intersections and rallying at public transit sites, by distributing flyers and brochures at coffee shops and bookstores and by all other such means. The neighborhood Meetup will self generate campaign materials on an as needed basis by producing them from their desktop printers or pooling with other local Meetups to do larger print runs. This will represent defacto fundraising from among the membership and will relieve the national campaign of the financial and time resource burdens of maintaining local campaign offices and staff and producing and distributing literature and campaign materials. Local Meetups will be defacto, virtual, decentralized campaign offices networked via the internet.

Neighborhood Meetups will maintain a consistent human presence in the community by tabling in public places—parks, malls, supermarkets, public transit points, post offices. Meetup members will chat with the people and answer their questions with respect and love. They will collect contributions from the people and supply them with campaign materials such as signs, posters, brochures, DVD’s and buttons.

Ron Paul Meetups will also register people to vote in the Republican primaries and will instruct Democrats and Independents on the specific rules in their state for crossover voting in the Republican primary and will personally help individual voters with that process.

Ron Paul neighborhood Meetups will get out the vote by maintaining a list of those in the neighborhood who have pledged to vote or Ron in the primary and will contact them on Election Day to help them get to the polls or assist them in any way necessary to getting them to cast their vote for Ron Paul.

Ron Paul neighborhood Meetups will act as poll monitors, vigilant for voting problems or irregularities and fraud and will conduct exit polling to assure the quality of the vote.

Conclusion

If implemented together, these two strategies (in combination with the rest of the campaign’s efforts) will form a synergistic force that will guarantee a substantial victory in the Republican primaries and quite possibly in the general election.

The webcasts will generate awareness, Meetup membership and funds, and the Meetups will generate and channel grassroots activity that will directly result in votes in the ballot box.

We are outside of the box of mainstream politics in America. Let’s make that our strength by thinking and working outside the box. In so doing, we will create the new box and effectively place the other candidates on the outside and leave them wondering how it could all go so wrong so quickly. In this way, the American people will take America back and we will launch a renaissance of American political life. There is Hope for America!

austinphish
06-18-2007, 10:16 AM
Good ideas.

Unfortunately they don't address two things:
1. Iowa Straw Poll. Not enough time or Iowans for RP.

2. We can't make RP do a weekly webcast.

Nathan Hale
06-18-2007, 08:48 PM
I assume that we're speaking here as if we controlled the campaign, so I would agree, in part, with G-khan. Having Ron give a weekly address, if only 5 minutes in length, would be a good idea. His campaign is viral, and net-based, so it's a good way to keep his voter base activated and ready.

But it's not going to win him the primary. Neither will an effort to perpetuate Meetups. Obviously having a Meetup in every town is ideal, but there's no way to work for this other than the same methods used to grow a grassroots effort in any campaign. Meetup.com is a good tool, but a better goal is to have a grassroots following in every town (or more realistically, every county). A first step to this, however, is to get a solid following in every STATE, and least one that's coordinated on the campaign web site. So far I only see four state coordinators, so we have a ways to go before county-level organization should be on the agenda.

What should the campaign's goals be over the next month that will best position them to win the nomination?

1. A tour of New Hampshire. Paul is visiting NH in the middle of July, it's the best time to make this happen. He can set up a few speaking engagements and fundraisers, probably getting the same numbers he got in Kansas (I think he'd exceed that popularity considering the state, but I'm speaking conservatively).

2. A tour of Iowa. The Ames straw poll is a few months away, and Paul needs a tour there desperately. Ames can launch him into the top tier if he plays his cards right. Realistically, however, he just needs to place at the top of the second tier, so he can justify staying in the race when they all drop out after Ames. Right now, Paul's tour of Iowa should be to organize his state supporters. He can and should speak with local farmers and give the same schtick about farm subsidies that gets him re-elected in his own district, but his priority should be setting up his campaign in-state.

3. A donation drive. The end of Q2 is coming. A donation drive with a deadline of June 30th will give a boost to those numbers. After that, the campaign should keep the model on file and use it for a July 4th drive.

4. Build the campaign at the state level. Paul staffers and supporters need to organize groups at the state level in every state. Right now there are 4 people on Paul's staff billed as state coordinators. There need to be 50. The Paul campaign should devise a manifesto of strategies and ideas to issue to each state group and contact state leaders regularly to track progress and results.

Once again, these are just short term goals that the campaign should aspire to.

acstichter
06-18-2007, 10:05 PM
These are great plans. I'm sure the campaign is deciding how to spend its surprising money and how to put to best use its grass roots volunteers.

Your ideas will also inspire the volunteers as they see what has to be done.

Nathan, I'm sure you didn't mean to use the word "schtick"

schtick: an expression which refers to a comic theme or gimmick. :eek:

Nathan Hale
06-19-2007, 07:26 PM
I used schtick a little more colloquially than your definition allows. Of course I take Paul's position seriously.

dc7
06-21-2007, 01:33 AM
I think that it is a good idea.

We may not be able to get ron to do a webcast every week, but for sure there must be plenty of people out there who can burn DVD's. And the meetups would be a great way to distribute them, if each one contributed to the expenses and gave them out locally.

Lauxa
06-26-2007, 07:01 AM
First, while we can't make Ron Paul do weekly webcasts, there is so much youtube video of Ron Paul that I don't see any reason why supporters couldn't put together some "on the issues" compilations. What issues should be covered?

Second, as a Texan I'm not sure that local campaigning will affect the primaries. Basically, the primaries will be decided by the time Texans cast their votes. How can supporters from late-primary states have the most impact?

Finally, I like the idea of putting Ron Paul grafitti on dollar bills, as in this article:
http://bay01.imagebay.com/full_view.php?view=15968_ronpaulmoney_1.jpg
I read a statistic somewhere that over 90% of people who didn't watch the Republican debates don't know who Ron Paul is.

~Lauxa