Cardinal Red
01-04-2008, 04:44 PM
Yesterday, I tried to spread some cheer and bring some perspective with my post
"Positive Messages from Iowa" (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=74058)
I was overwhelmed by the 7,000 of you who read my post and the 140 of you who left such kind comments. As someone who has been heavily involved with politics and elections for two decades, I thought I could provide some context for yesterday’s results, which, as I noted, were far better than some naysayers would have you believe.
Today though, I don’t want to celebrate what we’ve done well, but to talk about what we need to do better.
I held my tongue before the Iowa caucuses despite seeing a lot of things that had me very concerned about the campaign. But this campaign had already provided so many positive surprises in so many ways that I didn’t want to discount the fact that I could be wrong, we could pull a rabbit out of a hat and dramatically overperform in Iowa. That didn’t happen. While we were helped out by the poor performance of some of our opponents, our own performance was solid, but not exceptional—If we want to win, or at least win some primaries and caucuses, we need to make it exceptional.
This isn’t a “bash the campaign” piece—so let me start out by listing a few of the many things the campaign has done very well
(1) Obviously this campaign has enabled the grassroots to a degree that has been unprecedented in American politics. Our presence both on the Internet and “on the streets” is second to no campaign on the Republican side—giving up that kind of control takes a lot of courage on the part of the campaign.
(2) Our *national* organizing has been quite good—While everyone else has been in Iowa and New Hampshire, we have put up substantial campaign infrastructure in South Carolina, Nevada, and other follow-on states (from Montana to Minnesota) to allow us to run a credible national campaign, not just a one or two state effort.
(3) Mail drops and campaign lit have generally been very good and sophisticated, as you would expect from a Congressman who has run his own election campaigns based on this sort of advertising before
(4) We obviously have a number of smart, dedicated, hardworking staff and they are all completely behind Dr. Paul. You never hear the sort of backbiting of the candidate from his staff that you get with many campaigns.
Having said all this, there are a number of areas where the campaign is clearly falling short.
(1) Dr. Paul has not hired any serious top-tier campaign staff who know how to run and win national campaigns.
With the sort of money he has raised, there is no excuse for not having this. Dr. Paul’s loyalty to his current staff is an admirable personal quality, but while existing top staff can certainly be key contributors, they are out of their league running a serious national campaign by themselves. What’s more political watchers and the media know this—and don’t underestimate the extent to which the failure of the media to take our campaign seriously is a result of this. We do not need to spend millions for someone “fancy” or “a big name” but hiring folks who have served in senior positions on major national campaigns shows that you are playing to win. And of course, these guys also can help your strategy.
There are basic blocking and tackling things we have failed to do effectively like going through the process of seeking political endorsements (we’ve improved on this a bit recently) and reaching out to key Republican and conservative organizations and conservative media groups. With senior, experienced, campaign staff, we wouldn’t have made those errors.
(2) TV ads to this point have been far too unprofessional.
Dr. Paul did not have to run much serious TV in his old district and none at the level of sophistication required for the national campaign. Our TV ads simply haven’t been 1/10th as good as they need to be. Many have already commented on this, so I’m not going to say anything more.
(3) We simply don’t get out the message about our successes effectively enough.
I used to be a journalist and communications professional so I know what I am talking about here. It took me about 15 minutes to write “positive messages from Iowa” and many other grassroots volunteers also put out successful messaging in the wake of the election. But the campaign did not have any of this information ready to get to the media—we never even issued a post-Iowa “Victory” press release, despite the fact we had a lot to be proud of. There are so many great stories in and around this campaign that never get highlighted. We’ve also heard about major organizations such as the AARP and NRA that have not even received responses when they have made inquiries to the campaign.
(4) There is no direction given to the grassroots by the campaign.
The grassroots is obviously our campaign’s greatest strength, but it is also our greatest weakness. It doesn’t have to be. While 95% of our grassroots is great 5% of them are doing things that hurt the campaign. Sometimes when I or others on Ron Paul forums would speak out about something we KNOW from our experience was hurting the campaign, we would get flamed by the offender, and told something to the effect that “You’re not Ron Paul and you can’t tell me what to do”.
While at one level, these flamers were behaving childishly—at another level they have a valid point—I’m not Ron Paul or his campaign and while I still want to help us do smart things, hearing it from me is not the same as hearing it from an official campaign representative. Without the campaign providing some direction to the grassroots, we are going to continue to have too many people hurting the cause whether intentionally or not. The campaign needs to hire liaisons who work with folks like Ron Paul forums, Daily Paul, etc. full time.
In any case, all of this is meant to be constructive, and there is still plenty of time to change some things around—not just for the all-important upcoming primaries, but, if we do not win the primaries, for a possible independent run. But if we want to see that change and the results that come with it, we need to start NOW.
"Positive Messages from Iowa" (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=74058)
I was overwhelmed by the 7,000 of you who read my post and the 140 of you who left such kind comments. As someone who has been heavily involved with politics and elections for two decades, I thought I could provide some context for yesterday’s results, which, as I noted, were far better than some naysayers would have you believe.
Today though, I don’t want to celebrate what we’ve done well, but to talk about what we need to do better.
I held my tongue before the Iowa caucuses despite seeing a lot of things that had me very concerned about the campaign. But this campaign had already provided so many positive surprises in so many ways that I didn’t want to discount the fact that I could be wrong, we could pull a rabbit out of a hat and dramatically overperform in Iowa. That didn’t happen. While we were helped out by the poor performance of some of our opponents, our own performance was solid, but not exceptional—If we want to win, or at least win some primaries and caucuses, we need to make it exceptional.
This isn’t a “bash the campaign” piece—so let me start out by listing a few of the many things the campaign has done very well
(1) Obviously this campaign has enabled the grassroots to a degree that has been unprecedented in American politics. Our presence both on the Internet and “on the streets” is second to no campaign on the Republican side—giving up that kind of control takes a lot of courage on the part of the campaign.
(2) Our *national* organizing has been quite good—While everyone else has been in Iowa and New Hampshire, we have put up substantial campaign infrastructure in South Carolina, Nevada, and other follow-on states (from Montana to Minnesota) to allow us to run a credible national campaign, not just a one or two state effort.
(3) Mail drops and campaign lit have generally been very good and sophisticated, as you would expect from a Congressman who has run his own election campaigns based on this sort of advertising before
(4) We obviously have a number of smart, dedicated, hardworking staff and they are all completely behind Dr. Paul. You never hear the sort of backbiting of the candidate from his staff that you get with many campaigns.
Having said all this, there are a number of areas where the campaign is clearly falling short.
(1) Dr. Paul has not hired any serious top-tier campaign staff who know how to run and win national campaigns.
With the sort of money he has raised, there is no excuse for not having this. Dr. Paul’s loyalty to his current staff is an admirable personal quality, but while existing top staff can certainly be key contributors, they are out of their league running a serious national campaign by themselves. What’s more political watchers and the media know this—and don’t underestimate the extent to which the failure of the media to take our campaign seriously is a result of this. We do not need to spend millions for someone “fancy” or “a big name” but hiring folks who have served in senior positions on major national campaigns shows that you are playing to win. And of course, these guys also can help your strategy.
There are basic blocking and tackling things we have failed to do effectively like going through the process of seeking political endorsements (we’ve improved on this a bit recently) and reaching out to key Republican and conservative organizations and conservative media groups. With senior, experienced, campaign staff, we wouldn’t have made those errors.
(2) TV ads to this point have been far too unprofessional.
Dr. Paul did not have to run much serious TV in his old district and none at the level of sophistication required for the national campaign. Our TV ads simply haven’t been 1/10th as good as they need to be. Many have already commented on this, so I’m not going to say anything more.
(3) We simply don’t get out the message about our successes effectively enough.
I used to be a journalist and communications professional so I know what I am talking about here. It took me about 15 minutes to write “positive messages from Iowa” and many other grassroots volunteers also put out successful messaging in the wake of the election. But the campaign did not have any of this information ready to get to the media—we never even issued a post-Iowa “Victory” press release, despite the fact we had a lot to be proud of. There are so many great stories in and around this campaign that never get highlighted. We’ve also heard about major organizations such as the AARP and NRA that have not even received responses when they have made inquiries to the campaign.
(4) There is no direction given to the grassroots by the campaign.
The grassroots is obviously our campaign’s greatest strength, but it is also our greatest weakness. It doesn’t have to be. While 95% of our grassroots is great 5% of them are doing things that hurt the campaign. Sometimes when I or others on Ron Paul forums would speak out about something we KNOW from our experience was hurting the campaign, we would get flamed by the offender, and told something to the effect that “You’re not Ron Paul and you can’t tell me what to do”.
While at one level, these flamers were behaving childishly—at another level they have a valid point—I’m not Ron Paul or his campaign and while I still want to help us do smart things, hearing it from me is not the same as hearing it from an official campaign representative. Without the campaign providing some direction to the grassroots, we are going to continue to have too many people hurting the cause whether intentionally or not. The campaign needs to hire liaisons who work with folks like Ron Paul forums, Daily Paul, etc. full time.
In any case, all of this is meant to be constructive, and there is still plenty of time to change some things around—not just for the all-important upcoming primaries, but, if we do not win the primaries, for a possible independent run. But if we want to see that change and the results that come with it, we need to start NOW.