How fast is Ron Paul movement actually growing?

[Akus]

I just thought that even if we gain 1000 guaranteed supporters every single week, a completely out of touch outlandish figure, we are still very slow growers. We have so much work to do and less and less time to do it. Any thoughts on how to increase our growth besides doing what we're doing anyway, like picketing, bumper stickers and telling everyone we know?

[Shatterhand]

We need a creative brainstorm.

:cool: :eek: ;) :cool: :eek: :cool: ;) :cool: ;) :cool:

[isufferfromronpaulfever]

I just thought that even if we gain 1000 guaranteed supporters every single week, a completely out of touch outlandish figure, we are still very slow growers. We have so much work to do and less and less time to do it. Any thoughts on how to increase our growth besides doing what we're doing anyway, like picketing, bumper stickers and telling everyone we know?

I've offered my 2 cents into what could be a massive campaign swing. Getting Dr. Paul on Howard Stern. If you support that cause, acknowledge it's impact and could provide anything to a small rally meetup... a body, signs or banners, moral support? contact me at howardronpaulmeetup@yahoo.com

[dmitchell]

1000 new supporters each week is a dismal linear growth rate, a very pessimistic prediction. It would imply that one million supporters are able to recruit no better than one hundred thousand supporters. Our growth rate must be exponential, so that as the number of supporters grows, so does the rate of growth.

[Akus]

I've offered my 2 cents into what could be a massive campaign swing. Getting Dr. Paul on Howard Stern. If you support that cause, acknowledge it's impact and could provide anything to a small rally meetup... a body, signs or banners, moral support? contact me at howardronpaulmeetup@yahoo.com

I am afraid HS is too controversial.I mean, I would be happy if I'm wrong and HS will be an asset to RP, but I am afraid I'm not.

Look at the other guys. Oprah is as close to a controversial figure as either Obama or Hillary approached. We need someone like her. HS is no Jerry Springer, but he is a shock jock.

Again, we don't need controversial people representing Ron Paul. But other then Oprah, I really can't think of anybody else.:(

[Man from La Mancha]

I say it again. A massive advertising push at prime time on political radio talk shows. I bet once the $300,000 needed to cover 60 cities for one week it would be self generating from new campaign donations.

[Dustancostine]

Howard is a very intelligent man. And most of the political stuff he talks about is very well thought out. Now the other stuff he does is crude, but if he really decided to support Ron and give him a lengthy clean interview you would probably see some of the best journalism you have ever seen.

Also it seems to me that since RP speaks the truth he does well with raw questions, questions that other candidates shrink away from like plague (Guliani/Mitt with youtube). Paul has nothing to hide and makes decisions on principle, if you are principled not question is tough because you just apply the situation to your principle and the answer will be obvious.

Email already sent.

--Dustan

[guynamedjohn]

A little relavent background on Howard Stern:

http://www.theadvocates.org/celebrities/howard-stern.html
http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2004/03/12/stern/index.html

From the Salon article:
Known mostly for his libertarian take on politics, in 1992 he made news by endorsing Republican Christie Todd Whitman for governor of New Jersey, and she then won in an upset over Democrat Jim Florio. (She repaid the favor in 1995 by naming a New Jersey highway rest stop after the jock.) Stern has also backed Republican George Pataki for New York governor. "When Stern says he helped Pataki win," says Goyette, "I don't think anybody doubts that."


Many politicians have appeared on the Stern show without suffering any damage - quite the contrary. Christine Todd Whitman, George Pataki, Al D'Amato, Arnold Scwarzenegger, Rudy Giuliani, too name a few off the top of my head.

RP's politics are VERY well aligned with Howard's.

Also, Howard gives IN DEPTH interviews - I can't think of a better forum for RP to get his ideas heard my MILLIONS of the uninitiated.

I have emailed the Stern show to request RP as a guest. Everyone here should consider doing so as well. SternShow@HowardStern.com

[Sematary]

A little relavent background on Howard Stern:

http://www.theadvocates.org/celebrities/howard-stern.html
http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2004/03/12/stern/index.html

From the Salon article:
Known mostly for his libertarian take on politics, in 1992 he made news by endorsing Republican Christie Todd Whitman for governor of New Jersey, and she then won in an upset over Democrat Jim Florio. (She repaid the favor in 1995 by naming a New Jersey highway rest stop after the jock.) Stern has also backed Republican George Pataki for New York governor. "When Stern says he helped Pataki win," says Goyette, "I don't think anybody doubts that."


Many politicians have appeared on the Stern show without suffering any damage - quite the contrary. Christine Todd Whitman, George Pataki, Al D'Amato, Arnold Scwarzenegger, Rudy Giuliani, too name a few off the top of my head.

RP's politics are VERY well aligned with Howard's.

Also, Howard gives IN DEPTH interviews - I can't think of a better forum for RP to get his ideas heard my MILLIONS of the uninitiated.

I have emailed the Stern show to request RP as a guest. Everyone here should consider doing so as well. SternShow@HowardStern.com


email sent

[Slugg]

I just thought that even if we gain 1000 guaranteed supporters every single week, a completely out of touch outlandish figure, we are still very slow growers. We have so much work to do and less and less time to do it. Any thoughts on how to increase our growth besides doing what we're doing anyway, like picketing, bumper stickers and telling everyone we know?

I think we are pulling in more like 1000 people a day. This, however, cannot continue unaided. The next debate should give us some more momentum again (hopefully) and we should see BIG numbers.....the straw poll could also very well push us even further (though I now think it can't really hurt us).

[andrewgreve]

I say it again. A massive advertising push at prime time on political radio talk shows. I bet once the $300,000 needed to cover 60 cities for one week it would be self generating from new campaign donations.

What is the plan for the money being given to the campaign? If what you're saying is correct, they should be using some of the 2.4 million to do this ad campaign thing.

??

[markpa]

I would hope the campaign is focusing on the debate in Iowa and the straw poll right now. I assume thats what they are doing becuase they just opened a HQ in Iowa and the surrounding meet ups are doing a massive door to door campaign. There is just so much to be done with the old media against him. The internet and technology is changing everything though and I believe the campaign is still growing by leaps and bounds.

I'm going to the rally in Pittsburg next week so I'm hoping to see a huge turnout with a lot of media attention. :D

[seefate]

I just thought that even if we gain 1000 guaranteed supporters every single week, a completely out of touch outlandish figure, we are still very slow growers. We have so much work to do and less and less time to do it. Any thoughts on how to increase our growth besides doing what we're doing anyway, like picketing, bumper stickers and telling everyone we know?

I don't want to contradict you sir, but your logic is flawed, horribly.

Running the math.. 1000 / 50 States = 20 people.. Your telling me we can only get 20 people per week!? 20 / 7 = 2 to 3 people a day per state!? I think your numbers are a bit low. I would like to think something like 20 - 30 people per day per state would be more like it but what do I know.. :(

[dude58677]

I said this before that Ron Paul should operate a PGA event on NBC sports in New Hampshire. I think it would be a great way to get campaign donations and a perfect way to get his name known.

[Joe Knows]

I say it again. A massive advertising push at prime time on political radio talk shows. I bet once the $300,000 needed to cover 60 cities for one week it would be self generating from new campaign donations.

As a political consultant, Man from La Mancha is absolutley correct!

[sylvania]

What about Ellen Degeneres? Here's the link to request an appearance of Ron Paul on her show.

http://ellen.warnerbros.com/show/dearellen/

She's huge, and I'll bet there are many poeple out there like me, who switched from watching Oprah to Ellen when it became apparent that Oprah had annointed herself Poprah. Often they are on at the same time, so maybe people not buying Oprah's claptrap would be open to Ron Paul's message.

I couldn't find out much about her politcal leanings but I looked to see if she had donated money to the 2008 campaign and didn't see anything.

I am not all that certain she even gets involved in politics, but maybe it'd be worth a shot.

[Birdlady]

Rather than pushing the responsibility onto other people and celebrities, we need to look at what we can do.

[shrugged0106]

What about Ellen Degeneres? Here's the link to request an appearance of Ron Paul on her show.

http://ellen.warnerbros.com/show/dearellen/

She's huge, and I'll bet there are many poeple out there like me, who switched from watching Oprah to Ellen when it became apparent that Oprah had annointed herself Poprah. Often they are on at the same time, so maybe people not buying Oprah's claptrap would be open to Ron Paul's message.

I couldn't find out much about her politcal leanings but I looked to see if she had donated money to the 2008 campaign and didn't see anything.

I am not all that certain she even gets involved in politics, but maybe it'd be worth a shot.


done- e-mail request sent

[abstrusezincate]

I think the biggest thing is name recognition. We went out to a swap meet today in Pittsburgh, and we probably had 1,000 people pass by. Not everyone stopped, obviously, but a lot of people stopped to read what we had written, and we could tell it was the first they heard of Ron. They looked like they were thinking. We talked to some, and agree or disagree, they respect him and his message. Most people seemed to agree, and that we were able to reach out in person made a difference.

But, the thing I think I learned is that name recognition is what we need. We need to see yard signs start popping up everywhere. That would do wonders.

[markpa]

What about Ellen Degeneres? Here's the link to request an appearance of Ron Paul on her show.

http://ellen.warnerbros.com/show/dearellen/

She's huge, and I'll bet there are many poeple out there like me, who switched from watching Oprah to Ellen when it became apparent that Oprah had annointed herself Poprah. Often they are on at the same time, so maybe people not buying Oprah's claptrap would be open to Ron Paul's message.

I couldn't find out much about her politcal leanings but I looked to see if she had donated money to the 2008 campaign and didn't see anything.

I am not all that certain she even gets involved in politics, but maybe it'd be worth a shot.

Awesome idea!!:D I just filled out the form explaining the excitement surrounding the campaign and why I think he should be on the show.

I don't want to assume anything here but just knowing that Ellen is gay and that Dr. Paul votes against a federal ban on gay marriage maybe she will be receptive. I didn't mention that in my e-mail ofcourse...didn't want to be offensive.

[james1844]

Hi All,

According to the meet up groups and members, we are experiencing 1% growth per day. Thats 1% per DAY. Thats very, very good.

Best,

James H.

[G-khan]

I just sent a request also and said it would be good for her show and it would get her a lot of new viewers...:D

[goldenequity]

Ditto...sent off a request....great idea.:)

[jnpg]

I say Dr. Phil and Ellen-
Dr. Phil is all about personal responsibility. And lots of viewers....

[sylvania]

Dr. Phil's e-mail address:

http://www.drphil.com/plugger/respond/?plugID=9163

I e-mailed him. Thanks.

[Original_Intent]

Hi All,

According to the meet up groups and members, we are experiencing 1% growth per day. Thats 1% per DAY. Thats very, very good.

Best,

James H.

The meetups membership has been roughly doubling every month. So the OP posting that getting 1,000 people per week is outlandish is the most absurd thing I have ever heard, and I would ask him to say that he didn't mean that.

[goldenequity]

that's good...hahahhaahahaha:D :D

[max]

Our job is not to bring in millions of supporters. The task at hand is to creat enough noise and momentum to FORCE the media to talk about RP...Of course, it will be negative, but once Ron Paul becomes a household name...people will learn about him...That's when we hit exponential growth!

Our task then will not be name recognition. The struggle will then be about convincing people that the media is full of shit...(something that large numbers of Americans already are starting to realize...

Keep working your assess off and your efforts will leverage into media coverage.

[NCGOPer_for_Paul]

Don't know how much this means, but last weekend, my wife and I were at a beer, bourbon, and BBQ festival here in Charlotte. WRFX (99.7 The Fox), flagship station of the John Boy & Billy Show was there along with Robert D. Raiford, the old guy that does political rants. A lot of the stuff he talks about has a libertarian/conservative bent to it. I actually spoke to Mr. Raiford for a few minutes about Ron Paul. Mr. Raiford was familar with Dr. Paul, and seemed to be receptive.

Don't know if it means anything, but I thought it was worth a try.

(We purchased tickets for this event before we heard about Spartanburg/Greenville.)

[Akus]

The meetups membership has been roughly doubling every month. So the OP posting that getting 1,000 people per week is outlandish is the most absurd thing I have ever heard, and I would ask him to say that he didn't mean that.

I actually meant that and I actually thought that even if, instead of a 1000 people/week gain, we gain 10000 people/week, that is still awefully slow. That's little bit more then half a million a year.:(

[michaelwise]

Don't forget about My Space, Face Book, and lurkers on all the other blogs. All the lurkers viewing Ron Paul stuff all over the world, and agreeing with his message is quite substantial. Won't take much to get them on board when they start hearing his name on TV and radio. Even the members currently in our active groups don't fully realize the magnitude of the movement just yet, and it may be a little discouraging to them, because they don't realize how much company they have.

Headquarters is letting us take the lead, to see what we will come up with. This lends even more credibility to the movement, because we are self-directed, and not orchestrated from campaign headquarters. I see the macro scale of this, and it is even bigger than anybody thinks. Hang in there.

[LibertyEagle]

What is the plan for the money being given to the campaign? If what you're saying is correct, they should be using some of the 2.4 million to do this ad campaign thing.

??

2.4 million is a drop in the bucket. When the campaign actually starts television ads, it will be gone in a flash.

It sounds like a lot to us, but for him to compete in this election, nation-wide, he is going to need a LOT of more money.