Ron Paul needs an Oprah! *Grassroots effort to gain endorsements

[Pete Kay]

Ron Paul needs more endorsements. We need to help.

There's a school of thought that endorsements neither help or hurt a campaign. I disagree. Yesterday Oprah drew a crowd of 30 thousand people at Columbia, SC to come rally for Barack Obama. That's just unreal. Her endorsement definitely helps.

Ron Paul does not actively seek endorsements. That's not his style. I believe that endorsements are important for Dr. Paul for two reasons. One: it will help Ron Paul be seen as a front runner. Two: Ron Paul needs surrogates to help spread his message. Active celebrities going out to stump for Ron Paul is a great way to get more people to hear his message of liberty, small government and personal responsibility.

What can we do?

We need to start a letter writing campaign encouraging celebrities to endorse Ron Paul. We need to find people that share his beliefs and put the same passion and energy into getting them onto our side as we do attacking bad press from the MSM. Hundreds of letters from us might just be what it takes to convince someone that this movement is real and powerful and get them to decide to lend their support.

In this thread let's try to compile all libertarian minded celebrities you can think of, then we can pursue each person one at a time.

So far these are who I can think of.

Drew Carey

Clint Eastwood

George Carlin

Mel Gibson(his father already endorses Ron Paul)

Please add to the list! :)

[werdd]

oprah is a racist.

[LibertyEagle]

oprah is a racist.

STOP IT!!! :mad:

[InRonWeTrust]

Maybe some musicians? Some tend to be fairly libertarian.

[LibertyEagle]

Clint Eastwood's endorsement would be wonderful. :)

We need a patriotic, tough guy endorsement. I can think of no one better.

[Janet0116]

Good lord not Mel Gibson!!

[ZenX]

Deja vu? Haven't we had this discussion 3x already?

[yongrel]

Penn Jillette

Kinky Friedman

Trey Parker & Matt Stone

PJ O'Rourke

Dave Barry

those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

[Pete Kay]

oprah is a racist.

Come on, that kind of nonsense is not helping. We are weeks away from the first primary and we need to start acting like it. If you are not helping then you are only hurting. Please be constructive.

[StumbleBum7]

i still say Eminem

[Pete Kay]

Deja vu? Haven't we had this discussion 3x already?

Yeah, but what have we done about it? Talking about who should endorse Ron Paul doesn't gain him any endorsements. We need to take action.

[Pete Kay]

Penn Jillette

Kinky Friedman

Trey Parker & Matt Stone

PJ O'Rourke

Dave Barry

those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

Those are some great ones. Kinky Friedman has already officially endorsed Ron Paul though. :)

[FreeTraveler]

There's a whole subforum dedicated to this, but everybody thinks everything has to be stuffed in the Grassroots section, so it never got much play.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=211

[yongrel]

I just found this thingy:

http://www.theadvocates.org/celebrities.html

could be useful?

[JMann]

I think that event in SC will end up backfiring. It may rally African American support in SC but it will probably hurt him just as much with other voters as none of it seemed remotely Presidential.

Oprah's speech in Iowa (the first one) was less of a rally and more of like an endorsement speech read nearly word for word. I think that may help with women in Iowa and I suspect the New Hampshire speech will be more like Iowa. The event getting a bunch of coverage made me very turned of by O! and Oprah. After watching that I couldn't believe that this man is running for President and my second thought was 50,000 people turned out to see Oprah not O!.

[skinzterpswizfan]

Toby Keith

Someone brought him up a few days ago; I believe he is opposed to the Iraq war and he's a country singer, so I'm sure a ton of conservatives love him.

[Pete Kay]

I just found this thingy:

http://www.theadvocates.org/celebrities.html

could be useful?

That's perfect! Now we need to get active. Everyday the grassroots needs to pursue one of these persons for an endorsements. I really think that Clint Eastwood is a prime person for an endorsement for Dr. Paul.

[ClayTrainor]

Ive always thought South Park's Matt Stone and Trey Parker would be Massively effective endorsements.

also Fat Mike from NOFX. He has a site www.punkvoter.com and also put out 2 albums during the last election called "Rock Against Bush" trying to encourage young voters to vote against bush.

[Dutch]

Wouldn't it be the best thing ever if we can get 35,000 people in a stadium just for Ron Paul, and no celebrities attached?

Dutch

[mmarcman22]

We don't need endorsements! If the grassroots campaign continues doing what they are doing (getting the word out in whatever way we can), we can overcome. You must have faith and believe otherwise it will not work. If someone doesn't believe in the message, no use trying to force it down their throats. You've been brainwashed by the media in thinking you need celebrity endorsements. I agree with Ron Paul on this issue.

[Pete Kay]

We don't need endorsements! If the grassroots campaign continues doing what they are doing (getting the word out in whatever way we can), we can overcome. You must have faith and believe otherwise it will not work. If someone doesn't believe in the message, no use trying to force it down their throats. You've been brainwashed by the media in thinking you need celebrity endorsements. I agree with Ron Paul on this issue.

I haven't been brainwashed by anyone. I just recognize that the power of endorsements on mainstream America. If any of you think that we have this election in the bag, you are just deluding yourselves. We need all the help that we can get. I don't see how an endorsement could hurt. Instead of people hanging around these boards bitching and moaning we should try to do something constructive.

[BillyDkid]

Penn Jillette

Kinky Friedman

Trey Parker & Matt Stone

PJ O'Rourke

Dave Barry

those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.What I don't get is why these people (with the exception of Kinky) are not getting publicly behind RP. It makes no sense. I see where Tucker said the other night that he is trying to keep his support for Dr. Paul under wraps. I'm not sure I understand what is going on with him. I don't expect him to formerly endorse RP, but, you know, he says these weird things that tend to diminish the movement and RP and it is confusing to me. Don't come out whole hog for the guy, but constantly get in little digs.

[akovacs]

You have to be careful about endorsements. I honestly think Oprah's endorsement hurts Obama more than helps him in states like IA.

[slantedview]

oprah said she wouldn't have any candidates on, except obama.

[JacobLyles]

Dixie Chicks

Pat Buchanan

[HalogenFlood]

The only endorsement Ron Paul needs is from the American people. We need to keep up the grassroots effort to show the country what real support from real Americans looks like. That will do more to sway people to Ron Paul then having an endorsement from some egomaniac like Oprah.

[Spideynw]

What you are talking about is not just an "endorsement". You are talking about an active celebrity campaigner.

[frasu]

We are the most appropriate endorsers... Don't forget that in perspective we are going to be as celebrated or more that this shell-celebrities.

WHY THE HELL SOMEBODY WILL CHOOSE A PRESIDENT BECAUSE A CELEBRITY THINKS SO?

Fk that... it is frankly insulting to me that somebody will use an entertainer to pursue your choice/vote... I get endorsements of people that are economists, politicians, people that have a legitimate opinion...

grrrr

[Antonius Stone]

i think we should convert Jay-Z

[Pete Kay]

We are the most appropriate endorsers... Don't forget that in perspective we are going to be as celebrated or more that this shell-celebrities.

WHY THE HELL SOMEBODY WILL CHOOSE A PRESIDENT BECAUSE A CELEBRITY THINKS SO?

Fk that... it is frankly insulting to me that somebody will use an entertainer to pursue your choice/vote... I get endorsements of people that are economists, politicians, people that have a legitimate opinion...

grrrr

Look, you just have to accept the fact that people are ignorant. You can't assume the rest of the world thinks like you. Half the nation has below average intelligence. We need to use other tools to bring people into the fold. It's hard enough trying to convince intelligent liberals and neo-cons to understand Ron Paul's ideals, it's near impossible explaining his ideas to the uneducated and stupid. I have tried. If somebody is going to go pull the lever for Ron Paul because Clint Eastwood told them to, then I am happy because the end result is the what we are all working for.

[VIDEODROME]

R. Lee Ermey.

http://bigsblog.blogspot.com/images/ermey.jpg

[MalcolmGandi]

KRS One, Chuck D, Jay Z

[ChelC]

I agree with whoever said we don't need a celebrity endorsement. There may be a lot of celebrity worshippers, but there are also a lot of us who are sick and tired of the dancing monkeys who no longer entertain us.

I am the endorsement. You are the endorsement. Ron Paul has a melting pot of regular people from varied backgrounds - that is his endorsement.

Many of Ron Paul's average supporters could debate circles around your average celebrity endorsement. Not everyone buys into the flowery words. We have enough real people who will show their appreciation for a genuine campaign.

When you have the constitution on your side you don't have to be schooled in foreign policy and political science because you have the genius of the founders and the great minds they studied all working for you.

[Think12345]

Barry Goldwater Jr.'s endorsement helped me to convert an old-school Republican. People tend to believe celebrities that they respect.

Think of it this way: if Ron Paul endorsed a guy who was running for Congress, won't you listen to that?