There has been much talk lately about several political underdogs in the Republican Party. The mainstream media has reported one being a fringe candidate and the other being second place in the national polls (keep in mind the national polls only derive numbers from the registered' Republicans). But what do some other online numbers look like? Who is getting the most volunteers, the most subscriptions, and the most monies between the two Presidential Candidates; Former Governor and Baptist Minister Mike Huckabee or Doctor and current Representative Ron Paul?
When looking at the popular flash-video website YouTube (who was recently bought out by Google and also partnered up with CNN to bring both a Democrat and Republican debate with questions from YouTube users), you can view Presidential Candidates official YouTube pages. Every candidate from the right and left and even the greens have utilized YouTube to get their message across by setting up and maintaining channels' that individuals can subscribe to. On each official candidate YouTube site you can view the number of subscriptions. Mike Huckabee has 2,541 subscriptions while Ron Paul has 39,663 subscriptions. This, of course, cannot be used as a metric for who is more popular and likely to do well in the primaries, or can it?
Another site we should look at is Meetup.com. Meetup is a networking site that acts as a tool for organizations ranging from book clubs to political action committees. With this site one can start up a group and have others in the surrounding area join, share ideas and files, conduct meetings, maintain a calendar of events, and rate past group events. People can also show interest for a particular group and get alerts as to when the group is formed. Meetup has been used heavily, not by the official campaigns, but volunteers wishing to help the campaign of their choosing. As of December 9, 2007, Mike Huckabee has 4,903 members in 232 groups with 527 more people interested. Ron Paul has 83,978 members in 1,333 groups with 7,862 more interested. Now, we can't really rely on these numbers to give us an idea as to who has more support, can we?
What about something more official? How about the Federal Election Commission at FEC.gov? This is the official site for the most updated information concerning the amount of donations, personal loans, and cash-on-hand each candidate has. These numbers are updated quarterly. Mike Huckabee, as of September 30th, has 2.3 million dollars. $584,976 of that came from contributions under $200 dollars while $853,109 came from contributions over $2000 dollars. Now keep in mind the maximum an individual can give is $2300 dollars. Ron Paul, as of September 30th, has 8.2 million dollars. $4,105,409 of that came from contribution under $200 dollars while $1,394,256 came from contributions over $2000 dollars. Let us not forget that on November 5th, Ron Paul's campaign received an astounding, record breaking 4.3 million dollars, in one day. That is more than half of what he received in the third quarter.
What are the scientific' national polls saying? An Ipsos Public Affairs poll, as of December 5th, puts Mike Huckabee in second place behind Rudy Giuliani with 18 out of 376 respondents. Last month, Mike Huckabee only had 10 respondents. Interestingly enough, this poll says that it only asked "those who answered Republican' to party affiliation or lean Republican'". Ron Paul only had 3 respondents as of December 5th, putting him in last place. In November, despite the fact that Ron Paul has taken part in all of the debates and got first place in several state's straw polls, the Ipsos Public Affairs poll claims "Ron Paul was not asked in any wave previous to December 3-5, 2007". Wow! This same poll has Fred Thompson getting 17 out of 376 respondents three months before his campaign was official. Ron Paul's campaign has been official since March of 2007.
Some may say that this is not a popularity contest, but those that are saying this are naive. Most voters cast their vote based on name recognition or on how charismatic an individual is, not on the issues. As unfortunate as this may be, it is the truth. The national polls are bogus. The mainstream media is bias. Even the parties being funded by special interests are scared. There is a revolution taking place in this country and it is not being televised. Do not read into the polls. Do not believe what the mainstream media is portraying as truth. Think for yourself and question the so-called authority.
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Published: Monday, December 10, 2007
Last modified: Tuesday, December 11, 2007
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Reader Comments:
Posted By: Mick Russom
Date: 2007-12-11 00:46:32
Huckabee is an authoritarian jerk.
I guess back when he was fat , he would say, get me some dinner, bitch.
Huckabee: women's role in marriage is to "graciously submit"Mon Dec 10, 2007 at 10:15:38 AM PST
Huckabee's opinions on marriage. Specifically, what he believes about a women's role in a marriage.
In August of 1998, Huckabee was one of 131 signatories to a full page USA Today Ad which declared: "I affirm the statement on the family issued by the 1998 Southern Baptist Convention." What was in the family statement from the SBC? "A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ."
The ad wasn't just a blanket, "we support the SBC statement," but rather highlighted details. The ad Huckabee signed specifically said of the SBC family statement: "You are right because you called wives to graciously submit to their husband's sacrificial leadership."
Add "graciously submit" to his "Take back the nation for Christ" statement, and if the media does its job, he's well on his way to being toast.
The baptist press server is down serving up this damning evidence for the totalitarian authoritarian wingnut Huckabee. Who thinks people are packages:
"The reality is that we track packages from UPS and FedEx every time we order from amazon.com, and yet we’ve got a government that says we don’t know what to do and how to keep up with people. If necessary, we ought to outsource this whole issue to FedEx and UPS. They seem to have a better way of keeping up with packages than our government does with people." Mike Huckabee
He also wants to take this nation back "for Christ." Funny, I didnt know Christ liked unending wars and trade defecist and budget shortfalls so much.
Posted By: TAMMY
Date: 2007-12-11 07:52:02
What's funny (and a tad bit pathetic) is that most journalists covering this waited to see if the mainstream is going to cover him and based their opinion on that and a few telephone polls of 500 people who are registered republicans who voted in the last primary.... oh and who also have landlines. Don't they understand that the MSM makes prophecies self-fulfilling? They choose not to cover paul, not b/c there's nothing to cover either. He raised a record amount of funds in one day, he has the most meetup groups of any candidate, he wins every after debate text/online poll, he wins the vast majority of straw polls... hell, he even has a BLIMP being launched for him tomorrow. These are all events that if Rudy or McCain had happen, it would be on non-stop, every channel, 24/7. But no, they chose not to cover it, hoping, deep down, that their reign of being able to influence the american conscientiousness goes unchallenged. But here's the beautiful part. The truly American part. People have stopped listening to them. How else could he have raised that money? It wasn't botnets. It was real people willing to donate their hard-earned money.
If they wanted to do some serious research on Ron Paul's support, you'd get into the forums and the blogs, into facebook and myspace and anywhere that actual voters are lurking. Voters who tend to be ignored but who are sick and tired of it and not going to take it anymore.
And if you want to see just how despicable those telephone polls are, watch this video:
(Link Edited For Length)
Posted By: phoobaar
Date: 2007-12-11 15:24:26
Mike Huckabee was selected by the MSM as an alternative to Ron Paul, whom they found unacceptable for whatever reason. Since they could not justify their blatant marginalization of Paul, they replaced him with Huckabee, to put forth the illusion that they were not in the business of marginalizing second-tier candidates. This of course gave Huckabee a much-needed boost, and elevated him to first-tier status. The MSM has no love for Huckabee; he is a man of God after all, which the liberal media detests. But they understand that he is no threat to Hillary Clinton, whereas Paul would mangle her.
Posted By: R Griffith
Date: 2007-12-11 19:27:46
Have you ever heard of divide and conquer? How much is Huckabee drawing off Ron Paul? Zero. They are on different planets. Huckabee can only hurt the rest of them.The MSM if they are truly against him (as he will sticker-shock the Military Industrial Complex) have now become lemmings
Posted By: R Griffith
Date: 2007-12-11 19:37:08
Also, let me say this. Hey, I admire Huckabee for the weight he lost but Ron Paul never got fat in the first place.
Posted By: J. Jones
Date: 2007-12-22 19:57:26
Mangle? He would mop the floor with her.
LOL, please good Lord let me see Clinton try to debate Ron Paul before you call me home.