RSDavis
12-19-2007, 12:08 PM
http://laceylibertarian.us/wp-images/rPaulRev.jpg
Ron Paul Roundup (12-19-07)
by RS Davis (http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=194780914&blogID=339543951&Mytoken=CE92A48F-43BA-4514-B6DF3265AA57AC1032634736)
Hello Freedomphiles! Sorry I didn't have a Roundup for you yesterday - I was sick as a dog. Man, I don't think I've been that sick in years. I was both extremely miserable and grossing myself out with my level of sickness. You don't want to know the details, unless you enjoyed the domino effect puking in the "Lard Ass" scene from Stand by Me.
Anyway, enough about me, let's jump into the Roundup. Looks like the money bomb story isn't going away. Before we look at what people are saying about that, let's see what Ron Paul himself has to say about it:
What a day! I am humbled and inspired, grateful and thrilled for this vast outpouring of support.
On just one day, in honor of the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, the new American revolutionaries brought in $6.04 million, another one-day record. The average donation was $102; we had 58,407 individual contributors, of whom an astounding 24,915 were first-time donors. And it was an entirely voluntary, self-organized, decentralized, independent effort on the internet. Must be the "spammers" I keep hearing about!
The establishment is baffled and worried, and well they should be. They keep asking me who runs our internet fundraising and controls our volunteers. To these top-down central planners, a spontaneous order like our movement is science-fiction. But you and I know it's real: as real as the American people's yearning for freedom, peace, and prosperity, as real as all the men and women who have sacrificed for our ideals, in the past and today.
And how neat to see celebrations all across the world, with Tea Parties from France to New Zealand. This is how we can spread the ideals of our country, through voluntary emulation, not bombs and bribes. Of course, there were hundreds in America.
As I dropped in on a cheering, laughing crowd of about 600 near my home in Freeport, Texas, I noted that they call us "angry." Well, we are the happiest, most optimistic "angry" movement ever, and the most diverse. What unites us is a love of liberty, and a determination to fix what is wrong with our country, from the Fed to the IRS, from warfare to welfare. But otherwise we are a big tent.
Said the local newspaper: "The elderly sat with teens barely old enough to vote. The faces were black, Hispanic, Asian and white. There was no fear in their voices as they spoke boldly with each other about the way the country should be. Held close like a deeply held secret, Paul has brought them out of the disconnect they feel between what they know to be true and where the country has been led."
Thanks also to the 500 or so who braved the blizzard in Boston to go to Faneuil Hall. My son Rand told me what a great time he had with you.
A few mornings ago on LewRockwell.com, I saw a YouTube of a 14-year-old boy that summed up our whole movement for me. This well-spoken young man, who could have passed in knowledge for a college graduate, told how he heard our ideas being denounced. So he decided to Google. He read some of my speeches, and thought, these make sense. Then he studied US foreign policy of recent years, and came to the conclusion that we are right. So he persuaded his father to drop Rudy Giuliani and join our movement.
All over America, all over the world, we are inspiring real change. With the wars and the spying, the spending and the taxing, the inflation and the credit crisis, our ideas have never been more needed. Please help me spread them https://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate in all 50 states. Victory for liberty! That is our goal, and nothing less.
Sincerely,
Ron
Do you guys get the feeling that Dr Paul is as enamoured of us as we are of him? The New York Daily News is actually quoting (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2007/12/19/2007-12-19_ron_paul_raises_record_6m_in_a_day.html) the above:
He's well on his way to raising more money this quarter than any other Republican candidate for President, but his name is not Rudy, Mitt or Mike.
It's Ron Paul, the Lone Star State libertarian who stunned the GOP field this week when he announced raising a whopping $6 million in one day, beating Democrat John Kerry's one-day record of $5.7million in 2004.
"The establishment is baffled and worried," Paul declared on his Web site, where an electronic tally Tuesday put his total haul since Oct. 1 at $18.3 million. "And well they should be."
CNN is reporting (http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/18/paul.fundraising/?iref=mpstoryview) on the record-breaking haul, as well:
GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul is raking in millions of dollars even as he remains one of the candidates with the least face time in mainstream media.
His campaign said it raised $6 million-plus in 24 hours earlier this week -- one of the largest single-day fundraising totals in U.S. election history -- but he remains low in the polls.
Paul says those polls might be mistaken and insists he has a wide following.
Much of Paul's money comes from individuals contributing smaller amounts, according to his campaign and records dating back to September filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Paul said Monday that his source of funding distinguished himself from other Republican presidential candidates because his cash did not come from "powerful special interests."
And MTV is even mentioning (http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1576580/20071217/index.jhtml) it:
They've done it again.
The supporters who raised more than $4 million for Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul in November pulled in nearly $6 million for the 10-term Texas congressman on Sunday, according to the campaign. The haul fell short of their $10 million goal, but it is record-breaking nonetheless. If all the donations hold up when the campaign files quarterly papers with the Federal Elections Commission, it will be the biggest one-day online take by any campaign ... ever...
..."The central campaign here does the traditional bricklaying," Benton said, "but it's at the grass roots where these spontaneous fundraising stunts happen." In other words, the campaign sets up the fundraising system and the congressman's supporters, known in various corners of the Internet as "Freedom Fighters," get people to donate.
Op-Ed News is calling (http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mary_mac_071217_ron_paul_3a_the_bionic.htm) Dr Paul "the bionic candidate:"
As reported by Politico.com, Ron Paul became the $6 million dollar man and what that figure shows is that the American people donating to his campaign are a force to be reckoned with and even more powerful than the fictional bionic man.
In their reporting, Politico.com wrote, "Sunday, his campaign said, almost certainly guaranteeing he'll outraise his rivals for the Republican nomination in the fourth quarter and likely will be able to fund a presence in many of states that vote Feb. 5." This is the same man that the Republican Party wanted to keep out of their debates and has marginalized. This is the same man that the main stream media barely speaks of. Well, the people who donated this vast sum of money are having their say and rightfully so.
In my opinion this is the way it should be where those who lead us are decided from the bottom up and not the top down. I believe that is exactly what our framers had in mind and would loathe our current political system which is a system they fled in the first place. As our framers have been turning in their graves these past seven years, I do believe they are now smiling. Maybe through the spirits of Ron Paul supporters we are truly hearing the first words of our United States Constitution which reads as follows: "We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
And even NPR is getting in (http://www.npr.org/blogs/news/2007/12/ron_paul_raises_6_million_in_a.html) on the act:
Judging by what you see on this You Tube video that comes from Ron Paul headquarters in New York this weekend as he passed the $12 million fund-raising mark for this quarter, his young supporters like to par-tay!
But by the time the sun came up Monday morning, the $12 million total was a thing of the past. The current total (as of this posting) on Ron Paul's website is $18.201,000. It comes as a result of what might be the largest single-day fund-raising total ever in presidential history — $6 million on Sunday. (His supporters call these single-day fund-raising efforts 'money bombs.')
It also means that regardless of how he does in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, he'll have enough money to continue his campaign into the 22 states that vote on Feb. 5. And he'll probably out raise all the other Republican candidates, including the very hot Mike Huckabee, for this quarter.
Here's the video they mentioned:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvTaJxXsc5s
Wired News reports (http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/12/ron-paul-suppor.html) on the windfall, as well:
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul made history Sunday by raising $6 million in online contributions in 24 hours, breaking the record for the most money raised by a national candidate in a single day, and potentially putting Paul on track to surpass the fourth quarter fund raising of all of his competitors in both parties.
"I just think it's extraordinary," says Anthony J. Corrado, a campaign finance expert and professor of government at Colby College in Maine. "In my view, I expect that Ron Paul will raise more money than any other candidate this quarter. At this point, his main competition will be (Mitt) Romney's checkbook."
USAToday joined (http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2007-12-17-ronpaul-fundraising_N.htm)the fray:
Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, raised an astounding $6 million and change Sunday, his campaign said, almost certainly guaranteeing he'll outraise his rivals for the Republican nomination in the fourth quarter and likely will be able to fund a presence in many of the states that vote Feb. 5.
Paul's campaign spokesman late Sunday announced the campaign had eclipsed the $5.7 million that John Kerry raised the day after he locked up the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination – arguably the largest single-day fundraising haul in U.S. political history.
And TheStreet.com had something (http://www.thestreet.com/s/ron-pauls-tea-party-pulls-in-the-green/markets/marketfeatures/10394850.html?puc=_googlen?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA) to say, as well:
Rep. Ron Paul (R., Texas) supporters have set another fundraising record sparked by impressive online donations. This time they beat out John Kerry's one-day take of $5.7 million in 2004 with a record $6.026 million on Sunday.
This is the second special fundraiser spurred by Paul's grass-roots supporters without the help of the campaign. The first took place Nov. 5 (Guy Fawkes Day). Sunday's event honored the Boston Tea Party, which happened Dec. 16, 1773. Paul supporters in Boston staged a re-enactment of the event.
According to the Ron Paul 2008 website, the campaign has already crushed its fourth-quarter goal of $12 million by raising a whopping $18.2 million. Paul may be able to out-raise all of the other candidates in both parties this quarter. The leader last quarter was Sen. Hillary Clinton (D., N.Y.) with $21 million.
Okay, so those were the people who mentioned the haul, but let's move on to the people reporting on its significance and what the extra money will mean to the campaign. National Review is trying to guess (http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjI2MGU2YzdmM2Q4NjUxMjFiNGI4MjNiMjk1ODg0Njc=) how to spend all that dough:
With a limited time before the votes in the key early states, and a limited number of remaining slots for television ads, could Ron Paul be reaching the point where he has more cash than places to spend it?
In a perfect world, I'd like to see Ron Paul say, "My campaign has never been about money, but we find ourselves with more money than we will need from a nationwide network of generous grassroots supporters. I'm going to take what I don't need for immediate campaign expenses and try to build a national organization to help out libertarian, small-government minded candidates at every level of government. We're going to show that this is indeed a revolution that goes far beyond one man, and we're going to try to return to Constitutional principles at local and state offices, and in the House, and Senate..."
I think it's a pretty good idea, but I think he should save that strategy for when all is said and done, win or lose. You never know when you might suddenly need some extra money for the campaign, and giving it away this early would be a mistake.
The New York Times isn't speculating about what he will do with the money - they went to the source (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/us/politics/18paul.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin):
The Paul campaign would not say how much it had spent and how much cash it had on hand; all of the candidates must report their quarterly finances next month.
Mr. Paul said in a telephone interview Monday that he intended to spend the money "wisely," including on expanded advertising and additional staff members in early primary states.
"We have to do what we can to score well on these early primaries," he said. "And have some money in the bank to campaign for Super Tuesday." Mr. Paul was referring to Feb. 5, a primary day involving numerous states.
USAToday says (http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2007/12/whats-new-11.html) that this means Ron Paul is in it for the long haul:
Ron Paul said the more than $18 million his campaign has raised this quarter shows "we have the support, the momentum and the money." The wire service adds that "Paul said he'd stay in the race at least until Feb. 5, when two dozen states hold contests. 'Nobody would understand if I faded out before Feb. 5,' he said."
Action 3 News out of Nebraska confirms (http://www.action3news.com/Global/story.asp?S=7510063&nav=menu550_2) it:
Paul says the fundraising success ensures he'll stick with his campaign regardless of how he finishes in the Iowa caucuses.
He says he would remain in the race at least until February Fifth, when two dozen states will hold contests.
Paul says he's optimistic and hopes to avoid finishing last in Iowa.
And The Kansas City Star is reporting (http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation/story/409602.html) about his newfound respect in the GOP:
Ron Paul says he's treated differently by fellow members of Congress since setting online fundraising records.
"There's a better rapport now with other Republicans," he said. "They respect fundraising. And their antennas are up!"
The Globe Gazette out of Iowa reports (http://www.globegazette.com/articles/2007/12/17/latest_news/doc47674580b3d16264901973.txt)that Ron Paul says his anti-war stance is the secret of his success:
GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul credited his stance against the war in Iraq for his hefty fundraising haul over the weekend when he raised more than $6 million in a single day.
Paul, a congressman from Texas, made a rare campaign appearance in Iowa's capital city Monday, greeting a handful of supporters and a bank of TV cameras inside a hotel meeting room.
Paul told the audience that young people and college students don't like the war and find that even the Democrats helped authorize using force in Iraq.
"I believe the war has been the igniting factor to the campaign from day one," Paul said.
So, we weren't the only people tracking the success of Tea Party '07. Dr Paul's brother, David, was also rooting from the sidelines. WoodTV out of Michigan reports (http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7510569):
His presidential-hopeful brother just raised more money in a single day than John Kerry did after he won his Party's nomination in 2004.
David Paul calls it "mind-boggling."
(...)
Ron Paul told his brother he never thought he'd still be in the race at this point. The donors have kept him in.
So what has kept those donors reaching into their wallets and reaching out to the campaign?
"I think less government really resonates with people," David Paul said.
So, other campaigns are now trying to do the same money bomb thing. The only problem is that they are missing a very crucial ingredient - us. Wired News reports (http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/12/mike-huckabees.html):
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee's campaign supporters ripped a page out of rival candidate Ron Paul supporters' playbook Monday evening when they threw up a fundraising site pegged to the theme of "Freedom..."
...The designated one-day fundraising bonanza is scheduled for December 27th, which supporters have dubbed "Freedom Lives Day..."
...In other "money bomb news," a Dennis Kucinich supporter tried to set off his own on Saturday.
NPR is reporting (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17345258) about how the people in Dr Paul's district view him:
His constituents see Paul, a physician, as a low-key, kindly doctor, Roth says, in contrast to his national reputation as a free-wheeling firebrand.
Paul's local reputation is "a little more low-profile," Roth says. "He doesn't come across as this angry, fiery orator. But rather he goes home, and he goes from town hall to town hall, dispensing advice."
Roth says people in Texas appreciate Paul's straightforwardness and lack of political spin. He adds that Paul proposed more earmarks than any other member of the Houston-area delegation — 65 in all, with one financing the renovation of a shuttered theater. Paul's backing for earmarks stands in contrast to his campaign speeches against government funding for a variety of programs. "He does do a lot of the constituent services, even as he talks about low government," Roth says.
So, my man Andrew Sullivan has finally made his endorsement (http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/12/ron-paul-for-th.html) for the Republican nomination:
Paul, moreover, supports the only rational response: a withdrawal, as speedily and prudently as possible. McCain, along with Lieberman, still seems to believe that expending even more billions of dollars to prop up and enable a fast-devolving, ethnically toxic, religiously nutty region is somehow in American interests. Given the enormous challenges of the terror war, the huge debt we are piling up, the exhaustion of the military, the moral and financial corruption that has its white-hot center in Mesopotamia, I do not believe that an endless military, economic and political commitment to Iraq makes sense. It only makes sense if we are determined to occupy the Middle East indefinitely to secure oil supplies. But the rational response to oil dependence is not to entrench it, but to try and move away from it. Institutionalizing a bank-breaking, morale-busting Middle East empire isn't the way to go.
But the deeper reason to support Ron Paul is a simple one. The great forgotten principles of the current Republican party are freedom and toleration. Paul's federalism, his deep suspicion of Washington power, his resistance to government spending, debt and inflation, his ability to grasp that not all human problems are soluble, least of all by government: these are principles that made me a conservative in the first place. No one in the current field articulates them as clearly and understands them as deeply as Paul. He is a man of faith who nonetheless sees a clear line between religion and politics. More than all this, he has somehow ignited a new movement of those who love freedom and want to rescue it from the do-gooding bromides of the left and the Christianist meddling of the right. The Paulites' enthusiasm for liberty, their unapologetic defense of core conservative principles, their awareness that in the new millennium, these principles of small government, self-reliance, cultural pluralism, and a humble foreign policy are more necessary than ever - no lover of liberty can stand by and not join them.
He's the real thing in a world of fakes and frauds. And in a primary campaign where the very future of conservatism is at stake, that cannot be ignored. In fact, it demands support.
National Review Online is reporting (http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzhhN2EwZmZiNjE5MTQzYTg5MGZjZjI5ODhiOTY5NTY=) about Ron Paul's reaction to Huckabee's latest ad.
Hot Air has the video; here's the transcript, of Ron Paul's reaction to Mike Huckabee's Christmas ad, given a short while ago on Fox News:
STEVE DOOCY: Mike Huckabee has started running an ad in Iowa, where you're at right now, also in New Hampshire and South Carolina, and in the back, it's a windowpane but it also looks a lot like a cross. And, and, we had a guest a little while ago who said it was inappropriate to be using religion for political purposes. Congressman, I'm just curious what you think?
RON PAUL: Well, I haven't thought about it completely, but you know, it reminds me of what Sinclair, uh, Lewis once said, he said 'when Fascism comes to this country, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross.' I don't know whether that's a fair assessment or not, but you wonder about using a cross like he is the only Christian, or implying that subtly. So, uh, I don't think I would ever use anything like that.
If you remember from previous Roundups, Ron Paul has defended Huckabee and Romney and their Christianity, while admitting it has no place in legal arguments.
Ad Hoc News is reporting (http://www.ad-hoc-news.de/CorporateNews/en/14679702/Ron+Paul's+Online+Supporters+Unite+and+Rally+on) about the newest Ron Paul site:
?Ronspeople.com? was launched today as the new interactive social networking site for Ron Paul supporters where they can easily collaborate using every new media technique available ? text, audio, video, music and photos ? to communicate about the issues facing America. The site is co-branded and empowered by MOLI.com, a next generation social networking company.
Supporters of Ron Paul needed an online destination where their communication options for the presidential candidate have no creative limitations and where they can easily organize their various support efforts.
It's cool and more power to them, but with MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, DailyPaul, and RonPaulForums.com, I think it's pretty well covered.
Best Syndication has a piece (http://www.bestsyndication.com/?q=121707_ron_paul.htm) defending Paul and sticking it to Fox News:
Paul's entire campaign has been focused exclusively on restoring constitutional limits on the national government, ending the interventionist foreign policies that have drained our public coffers, and giving communities the freedom to define their social and moral standards. These were once considered to be pillars of conservatism and drove the Republican Revolution of 1994. Conservatives of the new millennium, however, are fascinated with the power available through the Federal Government to pursue power in the global economy and a perception of security at home by crushing any perceived evil or despot who just has the knowledge to make weapons of modern warfare.
The centerpiece of this new brand of conservatism is faith in federal power to provide us security from the perils of global terrorism and Islamofascism. Obviously anyone who can make an intellectual appeal against allowing the government—in particular the presidency—to usurp so much governing power from every level of government is now considered to be an amoral and ultra-liberal threat to America.
In other words, constitutionally limited government is a commie-pinko threat. George Washington's admonition that we avoid entangling alliances, according to America's new, improved conservatives, is nothing but quaint advice from an 18th century mind that could not conceive of the challenges of the modern world. With all due respect to John Quincy Adams, if America does not roam about the earth in search of monsters to destroy, well, the earth will be up to its armpits in Hitlers.
Mother Jones wrote (http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/01/ron-paul-apostles-libertarian-theology.html) about us, his grassroots campaign:
Their candidate, a 72-year-old obstetrician from Lake Jackson, Texas—land of duck hunters, ranchers, and oilmen—has improbably become an Internet sensation. He counts more Facebook and MySpace supporters than any Republican; more Google searches, YouTube subscribers, and website hits than any presidential candidate; and more Meetup members than the front-runners of both parties combined. In recent months he was sought out on the blog search engine Technorati more often than anyone except a Puerto Rican singer with a sex tape on the loose; his November 5 Internet "Money Bomb" event pulled in $4 million from more than 35,000 individual donors, a single-day online-fundraising record in a primary. (The previous best was $3 million, by John Kerry.) "The campaign calls itself the Ron Paul Revolution," notes Republican Internet consultant David All. "And I don't think that's a far stretch."
Indeed, Paul's literature is dominated by the word "revolution," though with the middle letters inverted to make "love"—a hippie touch that would be countenanced by few Republicans other than the congressman, who has been elected 10 times on the GOP ticket (and who also ran as a Libertarian in the 1988 presidential election). The truth is, Paul's revolution is a conservative one, by his own account—and thus all the more noteworthy for Democrats, who until now comfortably assumed that progressive bloggers, YouTubers, and ex-Deaniacs would give them, and only them, an edge online. As it turns out, nobody has more Internet buzz than a pro-gun, pro-life, antitax, and antiwar Republican.
About.com has a piece (http://civilliberty.about.com/b/2007/12/17/is-ron-paul-the-best-republican-presidential-candidate-for-2008.htm) on Dr Paul. It is both praising and critical, but not a hit-piece by any stretch:
In an earlier blog entry, I described Bill Richardson as the best civil liberties candidate in either party for the 2008 presidential election. But some of you will be voting Republican in your presidential primary. Since Richardson isn't running as a Republican, what are your options?
Topping everyone's list of civil liberties candidates is Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), an old-school Goldwater Republican who would end the federal war on drugs, abolish the federal death penalty, shut down Guantanamo Bay, and put an end to all 9/11-driven civil liberties abuses. In the first presidential debates, Paul was the only candidate in either field to make a central issue of habeas corpus. He has a lot to recommend him.
But there are also problems with Ron Paul's platform, primarily dealing with federal equal protection guarantees. Before voting for Rep. Paul, it is important to look at both his strengths and his weaknesses. His strengths, as a civil liberties candidate, have been well-emphasized. Here are his three primary weaknesses.
And finally, Third Party Watch has a complete transcript (http://thirdpartywatch.com/2007/12/17/joel-hansens-ron-paul-speech/)of Joel Hansen's speech at the Tea Party Rally:
In 1985, the Ron Paul revolution began with the Gold and Silver Bullion Coin act.
Ron and his fellow Congressmen gave us back honest money. They created a gold and silver system to challenge the worthless FRN's and its companion in crime, progressive taxation administered by our friends at the IRS.
Ron Paul gave us back gold and silver coins–honest money in which actual wealth could be stored and exchanged. The gold coins said on its face $50. The silver coin said on its face one dollar.
See ya tomorrow!
http://www.brendangates.com/forumlogo.jpg
Ron Paul Roundup (12-19-07)
by RS Davis (http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=194780914&blogID=339543951&Mytoken=CE92A48F-43BA-4514-B6DF3265AA57AC1032634736)
Hello Freedomphiles! Sorry I didn't have a Roundup for you yesterday - I was sick as a dog. Man, I don't think I've been that sick in years. I was both extremely miserable and grossing myself out with my level of sickness. You don't want to know the details, unless you enjoyed the domino effect puking in the "Lard Ass" scene from Stand by Me.
Anyway, enough about me, let's jump into the Roundup. Looks like the money bomb story isn't going away. Before we look at what people are saying about that, let's see what Ron Paul himself has to say about it:
What a day! I am humbled and inspired, grateful and thrilled for this vast outpouring of support.
On just one day, in honor of the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, the new American revolutionaries brought in $6.04 million, another one-day record. The average donation was $102; we had 58,407 individual contributors, of whom an astounding 24,915 were first-time donors. And it was an entirely voluntary, self-organized, decentralized, independent effort on the internet. Must be the "spammers" I keep hearing about!
The establishment is baffled and worried, and well they should be. They keep asking me who runs our internet fundraising and controls our volunteers. To these top-down central planners, a spontaneous order like our movement is science-fiction. But you and I know it's real: as real as the American people's yearning for freedom, peace, and prosperity, as real as all the men and women who have sacrificed for our ideals, in the past and today.
And how neat to see celebrations all across the world, with Tea Parties from France to New Zealand. This is how we can spread the ideals of our country, through voluntary emulation, not bombs and bribes. Of course, there were hundreds in America.
As I dropped in on a cheering, laughing crowd of about 600 near my home in Freeport, Texas, I noted that they call us "angry." Well, we are the happiest, most optimistic "angry" movement ever, and the most diverse. What unites us is a love of liberty, and a determination to fix what is wrong with our country, from the Fed to the IRS, from warfare to welfare. But otherwise we are a big tent.
Said the local newspaper: "The elderly sat with teens barely old enough to vote. The faces were black, Hispanic, Asian and white. There was no fear in their voices as they spoke boldly with each other about the way the country should be. Held close like a deeply held secret, Paul has brought them out of the disconnect they feel between what they know to be true and where the country has been led."
Thanks also to the 500 or so who braved the blizzard in Boston to go to Faneuil Hall. My son Rand told me what a great time he had with you.
A few mornings ago on LewRockwell.com, I saw a YouTube of a 14-year-old boy that summed up our whole movement for me. This well-spoken young man, who could have passed in knowledge for a college graduate, told how he heard our ideas being denounced. So he decided to Google. He read some of my speeches, and thought, these make sense. Then he studied US foreign policy of recent years, and came to the conclusion that we are right. So he persuaded his father to drop Rudy Giuliani and join our movement.
All over America, all over the world, we are inspiring real change. With the wars and the spying, the spending and the taxing, the inflation and the credit crisis, our ideas have never been more needed. Please help me spread them https://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate in all 50 states. Victory for liberty! That is our goal, and nothing less.
Sincerely,
Ron
Do you guys get the feeling that Dr Paul is as enamoured of us as we are of him? The New York Daily News is actually quoting (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2007/12/19/2007-12-19_ron_paul_raises_record_6m_in_a_day.html) the above:
He's well on his way to raising more money this quarter than any other Republican candidate for President, but his name is not Rudy, Mitt or Mike.
It's Ron Paul, the Lone Star State libertarian who stunned the GOP field this week when he announced raising a whopping $6 million in one day, beating Democrat John Kerry's one-day record of $5.7million in 2004.
"The establishment is baffled and worried," Paul declared on his Web site, where an electronic tally Tuesday put his total haul since Oct. 1 at $18.3 million. "And well they should be."
CNN is reporting (http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/18/paul.fundraising/?iref=mpstoryview) on the record-breaking haul, as well:
GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul is raking in millions of dollars even as he remains one of the candidates with the least face time in mainstream media.
His campaign said it raised $6 million-plus in 24 hours earlier this week -- one of the largest single-day fundraising totals in U.S. election history -- but he remains low in the polls.
Paul says those polls might be mistaken and insists he has a wide following.
Much of Paul's money comes from individuals contributing smaller amounts, according to his campaign and records dating back to September filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Paul said Monday that his source of funding distinguished himself from other Republican presidential candidates because his cash did not come from "powerful special interests."
And MTV is even mentioning (http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1576580/20071217/index.jhtml) it:
They've done it again.
The supporters who raised more than $4 million for Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul in November pulled in nearly $6 million for the 10-term Texas congressman on Sunday, according to the campaign. The haul fell short of their $10 million goal, but it is record-breaking nonetheless. If all the donations hold up when the campaign files quarterly papers with the Federal Elections Commission, it will be the biggest one-day online take by any campaign ... ever...
..."The central campaign here does the traditional bricklaying," Benton said, "but it's at the grass roots where these spontaneous fundraising stunts happen." In other words, the campaign sets up the fundraising system and the congressman's supporters, known in various corners of the Internet as "Freedom Fighters," get people to donate.
Op-Ed News is calling (http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mary_mac_071217_ron_paul_3a_the_bionic.htm) Dr Paul "the bionic candidate:"
As reported by Politico.com, Ron Paul became the $6 million dollar man and what that figure shows is that the American people donating to his campaign are a force to be reckoned with and even more powerful than the fictional bionic man.
In their reporting, Politico.com wrote, "Sunday, his campaign said, almost certainly guaranteeing he'll outraise his rivals for the Republican nomination in the fourth quarter and likely will be able to fund a presence in many of states that vote Feb. 5." This is the same man that the Republican Party wanted to keep out of their debates and has marginalized. This is the same man that the main stream media barely speaks of. Well, the people who donated this vast sum of money are having their say and rightfully so.
In my opinion this is the way it should be where those who lead us are decided from the bottom up and not the top down. I believe that is exactly what our framers had in mind and would loathe our current political system which is a system they fled in the first place. As our framers have been turning in their graves these past seven years, I do believe they are now smiling. Maybe through the spirits of Ron Paul supporters we are truly hearing the first words of our United States Constitution which reads as follows: "We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
And even NPR is getting in (http://www.npr.org/blogs/news/2007/12/ron_paul_raises_6_million_in_a.html) on the act:
Judging by what you see on this You Tube video that comes from Ron Paul headquarters in New York this weekend as he passed the $12 million fund-raising mark for this quarter, his young supporters like to par-tay!
But by the time the sun came up Monday morning, the $12 million total was a thing of the past. The current total (as of this posting) on Ron Paul's website is $18.201,000. It comes as a result of what might be the largest single-day fund-raising total ever in presidential history — $6 million on Sunday. (His supporters call these single-day fund-raising efforts 'money bombs.')
It also means that regardless of how he does in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, he'll have enough money to continue his campaign into the 22 states that vote on Feb. 5. And he'll probably out raise all the other Republican candidates, including the very hot Mike Huckabee, for this quarter.
Here's the video they mentioned:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvTaJxXsc5s
Wired News reports (http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/12/ron-paul-suppor.html) on the windfall, as well:
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul made history Sunday by raising $6 million in online contributions in 24 hours, breaking the record for the most money raised by a national candidate in a single day, and potentially putting Paul on track to surpass the fourth quarter fund raising of all of his competitors in both parties.
"I just think it's extraordinary," says Anthony J. Corrado, a campaign finance expert and professor of government at Colby College in Maine. "In my view, I expect that Ron Paul will raise more money than any other candidate this quarter. At this point, his main competition will be (Mitt) Romney's checkbook."
USAToday joined (http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2007-12-17-ronpaul-fundraising_N.htm)the fray:
Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, raised an astounding $6 million and change Sunday, his campaign said, almost certainly guaranteeing he'll outraise his rivals for the Republican nomination in the fourth quarter and likely will be able to fund a presence in many of the states that vote Feb. 5.
Paul's campaign spokesman late Sunday announced the campaign had eclipsed the $5.7 million that John Kerry raised the day after he locked up the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination – arguably the largest single-day fundraising haul in U.S. political history.
And TheStreet.com had something (http://www.thestreet.com/s/ron-pauls-tea-party-pulls-in-the-green/markets/marketfeatures/10394850.html?puc=_googlen?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA) to say, as well:
Rep. Ron Paul (R., Texas) supporters have set another fundraising record sparked by impressive online donations. This time they beat out John Kerry's one-day take of $5.7 million in 2004 with a record $6.026 million on Sunday.
This is the second special fundraiser spurred by Paul's grass-roots supporters without the help of the campaign. The first took place Nov. 5 (Guy Fawkes Day). Sunday's event honored the Boston Tea Party, which happened Dec. 16, 1773. Paul supporters in Boston staged a re-enactment of the event.
According to the Ron Paul 2008 website, the campaign has already crushed its fourth-quarter goal of $12 million by raising a whopping $18.2 million. Paul may be able to out-raise all of the other candidates in both parties this quarter. The leader last quarter was Sen. Hillary Clinton (D., N.Y.) with $21 million.
Okay, so those were the people who mentioned the haul, but let's move on to the people reporting on its significance and what the extra money will mean to the campaign. National Review is trying to guess (http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjI2MGU2YzdmM2Q4NjUxMjFiNGI4MjNiMjk1ODg0Njc=) how to spend all that dough:
With a limited time before the votes in the key early states, and a limited number of remaining slots for television ads, could Ron Paul be reaching the point where he has more cash than places to spend it?
In a perfect world, I'd like to see Ron Paul say, "My campaign has never been about money, but we find ourselves with more money than we will need from a nationwide network of generous grassroots supporters. I'm going to take what I don't need for immediate campaign expenses and try to build a national organization to help out libertarian, small-government minded candidates at every level of government. We're going to show that this is indeed a revolution that goes far beyond one man, and we're going to try to return to Constitutional principles at local and state offices, and in the House, and Senate..."
I think it's a pretty good idea, but I think he should save that strategy for when all is said and done, win or lose. You never know when you might suddenly need some extra money for the campaign, and giving it away this early would be a mistake.
The New York Times isn't speculating about what he will do with the money - they went to the source (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/us/politics/18paul.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin):
The Paul campaign would not say how much it had spent and how much cash it had on hand; all of the candidates must report their quarterly finances next month.
Mr. Paul said in a telephone interview Monday that he intended to spend the money "wisely," including on expanded advertising and additional staff members in early primary states.
"We have to do what we can to score well on these early primaries," he said. "And have some money in the bank to campaign for Super Tuesday." Mr. Paul was referring to Feb. 5, a primary day involving numerous states.
USAToday says (http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2007/12/whats-new-11.html) that this means Ron Paul is in it for the long haul:
Ron Paul said the more than $18 million his campaign has raised this quarter shows "we have the support, the momentum and the money." The wire service adds that "Paul said he'd stay in the race at least until Feb. 5, when two dozen states hold contests. 'Nobody would understand if I faded out before Feb. 5,' he said."
Action 3 News out of Nebraska confirms (http://www.action3news.com/Global/story.asp?S=7510063&nav=menu550_2) it:
Paul says the fundraising success ensures he'll stick with his campaign regardless of how he finishes in the Iowa caucuses.
He says he would remain in the race at least until February Fifth, when two dozen states will hold contests.
Paul says he's optimistic and hopes to avoid finishing last in Iowa.
And The Kansas City Star is reporting (http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation/story/409602.html) about his newfound respect in the GOP:
Ron Paul says he's treated differently by fellow members of Congress since setting online fundraising records.
"There's a better rapport now with other Republicans," he said. "They respect fundraising. And their antennas are up!"
The Globe Gazette out of Iowa reports (http://www.globegazette.com/articles/2007/12/17/latest_news/doc47674580b3d16264901973.txt)that Ron Paul says his anti-war stance is the secret of his success:
GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul credited his stance against the war in Iraq for his hefty fundraising haul over the weekend when he raised more than $6 million in a single day.
Paul, a congressman from Texas, made a rare campaign appearance in Iowa's capital city Monday, greeting a handful of supporters and a bank of TV cameras inside a hotel meeting room.
Paul told the audience that young people and college students don't like the war and find that even the Democrats helped authorize using force in Iraq.
"I believe the war has been the igniting factor to the campaign from day one," Paul said.
So, we weren't the only people tracking the success of Tea Party '07. Dr Paul's brother, David, was also rooting from the sidelines. WoodTV out of Michigan reports (http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7510569):
His presidential-hopeful brother just raised more money in a single day than John Kerry did after he won his Party's nomination in 2004.
David Paul calls it "mind-boggling."
(...)
Ron Paul told his brother he never thought he'd still be in the race at this point. The donors have kept him in.
So what has kept those donors reaching into their wallets and reaching out to the campaign?
"I think less government really resonates with people," David Paul said.
So, other campaigns are now trying to do the same money bomb thing. The only problem is that they are missing a very crucial ingredient - us. Wired News reports (http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/12/mike-huckabees.html):
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee's campaign supporters ripped a page out of rival candidate Ron Paul supporters' playbook Monday evening when they threw up a fundraising site pegged to the theme of "Freedom..."
...The designated one-day fundraising bonanza is scheduled for December 27th, which supporters have dubbed "Freedom Lives Day..."
...In other "money bomb news," a Dennis Kucinich supporter tried to set off his own on Saturday.
NPR is reporting (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17345258) about how the people in Dr Paul's district view him:
His constituents see Paul, a physician, as a low-key, kindly doctor, Roth says, in contrast to his national reputation as a free-wheeling firebrand.
Paul's local reputation is "a little more low-profile," Roth says. "He doesn't come across as this angry, fiery orator. But rather he goes home, and he goes from town hall to town hall, dispensing advice."
Roth says people in Texas appreciate Paul's straightforwardness and lack of political spin. He adds that Paul proposed more earmarks than any other member of the Houston-area delegation — 65 in all, with one financing the renovation of a shuttered theater. Paul's backing for earmarks stands in contrast to his campaign speeches against government funding for a variety of programs. "He does do a lot of the constituent services, even as he talks about low government," Roth says.
So, my man Andrew Sullivan has finally made his endorsement (http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/12/ron-paul-for-th.html) for the Republican nomination:
Paul, moreover, supports the only rational response: a withdrawal, as speedily and prudently as possible. McCain, along with Lieberman, still seems to believe that expending even more billions of dollars to prop up and enable a fast-devolving, ethnically toxic, religiously nutty region is somehow in American interests. Given the enormous challenges of the terror war, the huge debt we are piling up, the exhaustion of the military, the moral and financial corruption that has its white-hot center in Mesopotamia, I do not believe that an endless military, economic and political commitment to Iraq makes sense. It only makes sense if we are determined to occupy the Middle East indefinitely to secure oil supplies. But the rational response to oil dependence is not to entrench it, but to try and move away from it. Institutionalizing a bank-breaking, morale-busting Middle East empire isn't the way to go.
But the deeper reason to support Ron Paul is a simple one. The great forgotten principles of the current Republican party are freedom and toleration. Paul's federalism, his deep suspicion of Washington power, his resistance to government spending, debt and inflation, his ability to grasp that not all human problems are soluble, least of all by government: these are principles that made me a conservative in the first place. No one in the current field articulates them as clearly and understands them as deeply as Paul. He is a man of faith who nonetheless sees a clear line between religion and politics. More than all this, he has somehow ignited a new movement of those who love freedom and want to rescue it from the do-gooding bromides of the left and the Christianist meddling of the right. The Paulites' enthusiasm for liberty, their unapologetic defense of core conservative principles, their awareness that in the new millennium, these principles of small government, self-reliance, cultural pluralism, and a humble foreign policy are more necessary than ever - no lover of liberty can stand by and not join them.
He's the real thing in a world of fakes and frauds. And in a primary campaign where the very future of conservatism is at stake, that cannot be ignored. In fact, it demands support.
National Review Online is reporting (http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzhhN2EwZmZiNjE5MTQzYTg5MGZjZjI5ODhiOTY5NTY=) about Ron Paul's reaction to Huckabee's latest ad.
Hot Air has the video; here's the transcript, of Ron Paul's reaction to Mike Huckabee's Christmas ad, given a short while ago on Fox News:
STEVE DOOCY: Mike Huckabee has started running an ad in Iowa, where you're at right now, also in New Hampshire and South Carolina, and in the back, it's a windowpane but it also looks a lot like a cross. And, and, we had a guest a little while ago who said it was inappropriate to be using religion for political purposes. Congressman, I'm just curious what you think?
RON PAUL: Well, I haven't thought about it completely, but you know, it reminds me of what Sinclair, uh, Lewis once said, he said 'when Fascism comes to this country, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross.' I don't know whether that's a fair assessment or not, but you wonder about using a cross like he is the only Christian, or implying that subtly. So, uh, I don't think I would ever use anything like that.
If you remember from previous Roundups, Ron Paul has defended Huckabee and Romney and their Christianity, while admitting it has no place in legal arguments.
Ad Hoc News is reporting (http://www.ad-hoc-news.de/CorporateNews/en/14679702/Ron+Paul's+Online+Supporters+Unite+and+Rally+on) about the newest Ron Paul site:
?Ronspeople.com? was launched today as the new interactive social networking site for Ron Paul supporters where they can easily collaborate using every new media technique available ? text, audio, video, music and photos ? to communicate about the issues facing America. The site is co-branded and empowered by MOLI.com, a next generation social networking company.
Supporters of Ron Paul needed an online destination where their communication options for the presidential candidate have no creative limitations and where they can easily organize their various support efforts.
It's cool and more power to them, but with MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, DailyPaul, and RonPaulForums.com, I think it's pretty well covered.
Best Syndication has a piece (http://www.bestsyndication.com/?q=121707_ron_paul.htm) defending Paul and sticking it to Fox News:
Paul's entire campaign has been focused exclusively on restoring constitutional limits on the national government, ending the interventionist foreign policies that have drained our public coffers, and giving communities the freedom to define their social and moral standards. These were once considered to be pillars of conservatism and drove the Republican Revolution of 1994. Conservatives of the new millennium, however, are fascinated with the power available through the Federal Government to pursue power in the global economy and a perception of security at home by crushing any perceived evil or despot who just has the knowledge to make weapons of modern warfare.
The centerpiece of this new brand of conservatism is faith in federal power to provide us security from the perils of global terrorism and Islamofascism. Obviously anyone who can make an intellectual appeal against allowing the government—in particular the presidency—to usurp so much governing power from every level of government is now considered to be an amoral and ultra-liberal threat to America.
In other words, constitutionally limited government is a commie-pinko threat. George Washington's admonition that we avoid entangling alliances, according to America's new, improved conservatives, is nothing but quaint advice from an 18th century mind that could not conceive of the challenges of the modern world. With all due respect to John Quincy Adams, if America does not roam about the earth in search of monsters to destroy, well, the earth will be up to its armpits in Hitlers.
Mother Jones wrote (http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/01/ron-paul-apostles-libertarian-theology.html) about us, his grassroots campaign:
Their candidate, a 72-year-old obstetrician from Lake Jackson, Texas—land of duck hunters, ranchers, and oilmen—has improbably become an Internet sensation. He counts more Facebook and MySpace supporters than any Republican; more Google searches, YouTube subscribers, and website hits than any presidential candidate; and more Meetup members than the front-runners of both parties combined. In recent months he was sought out on the blog search engine Technorati more often than anyone except a Puerto Rican singer with a sex tape on the loose; his November 5 Internet "Money Bomb" event pulled in $4 million from more than 35,000 individual donors, a single-day online-fundraising record in a primary. (The previous best was $3 million, by John Kerry.) "The campaign calls itself the Ron Paul Revolution," notes Republican Internet consultant David All. "And I don't think that's a far stretch."
Indeed, Paul's literature is dominated by the word "revolution," though with the middle letters inverted to make "love"—a hippie touch that would be countenanced by few Republicans other than the congressman, who has been elected 10 times on the GOP ticket (and who also ran as a Libertarian in the 1988 presidential election). The truth is, Paul's revolution is a conservative one, by his own account—and thus all the more noteworthy for Democrats, who until now comfortably assumed that progressive bloggers, YouTubers, and ex-Deaniacs would give them, and only them, an edge online. As it turns out, nobody has more Internet buzz than a pro-gun, pro-life, antitax, and antiwar Republican.
About.com has a piece (http://civilliberty.about.com/b/2007/12/17/is-ron-paul-the-best-republican-presidential-candidate-for-2008.htm) on Dr Paul. It is both praising and critical, but not a hit-piece by any stretch:
In an earlier blog entry, I described Bill Richardson as the best civil liberties candidate in either party for the 2008 presidential election. But some of you will be voting Republican in your presidential primary. Since Richardson isn't running as a Republican, what are your options?
Topping everyone's list of civil liberties candidates is Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), an old-school Goldwater Republican who would end the federal war on drugs, abolish the federal death penalty, shut down Guantanamo Bay, and put an end to all 9/11-driven civil liberties abuses. In the first presidential debates, Paul was the only candidate in either field to make a central issue of habeas corpus. He has a lot to recommend him.
But there are also problems with Ron Paul's platform, primarily dealing with federal equal protection guarantees. Before voting for Rep. Paul, it is important to look at both his strengths and his weaknesses. His strengths, as a civil liberties candidate, have been well-emphasized. Here are his three primary weaknesses.
And finally, Third Party Watch has a complete transcript (http://thirdpartywatch.com/2007/12/17/joel-hansens-ron-paul-speech/)of Joel Hansen's speech at the Tea Party Rally:
In 1985, the Ron Paul revolution began with the Gold and Silver Bullion Coin act.
Ron and his fellow Congressmen gave us back honest money. They created a gold and silver system to challenge the worthless FRN's and its companion in crime, progressive taxation administered by our friends at the IRS.
Ron Paul gave us back gold and silver coins–honest money in which actual wealth could be stored and exchanged. The gold coins said on its face $50. The silver coin said on its face one dollar.
See ya tomorrow!
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