It has been a very strange night, emails, blogs and comment's a-flyin'. Was Dr. Paul excluded or not? Why wouldn't the largest money raising campaign in the 4Q be included in the Fox News Debates this Jan. 6th? Especially when Dr. Paul, in Iowa Polls is tied with or ahead of 3 other participants. After a lot of angry emails and comments to the contrary, it has apparently been confirmed.
Then, I realized we needed a plan to get Dr. Paul a similar block of Free-Advertising time as the other candidates.
It really sticks in my craw at the crass attempts to discredit Congressman Paul's Presidential Bid. Why should the Main Stream Media be the ones to tell me for whom I should vote.
I realized we needed to come up with an alternate debate that would highlight the two candidates who were snubbed (Duncan Hunter also) from the Fox Debates
Apparently, it was a mildly controversial article as 7 or 8 people didn't agree with me or my methods for various reasons. However, statistically, this article has been my most favorite'd per view (Thumbs UP and DIGG) of any other previous article I have written. Some with readers in excess of 4000-7000 per article. (look in green banner to your left)
Read the controversial article here and BE SURE TO READ ALL COMMENTS!
MSNBC TO HOST ROUNDTABLE............etc
Now, I want to rebut some of the disagreements and to explain why this is the BEST plan.
1. It has been said by one person that this degrades Dr. Paul by putting him on a lesser show. This would be taken by some that he isn't competitive
I disagree. Being excluded from the Fox debate already does all the harm, whether we are on another "lesser" debate or not.
However, being on MSNBC in a round table discussion would allow the candidates (along with the anchor) to highlight the prejudice of the Fox Network. It would actually help us gain supporters as people love an "underdog". Especially one that has a chance to win.
Everyone "wants" to consider themselves revolutionary.
Who would not believe that this is just a slight being done by the Neo-Cons, on purpose, to harm the position of Dr. Paul? Faux News' ideological leanings are not a secret. The Neo-Cons who would claim this exclusion is the right thing to do or the people who believe everything they hear from Faux News would not vote for Dr. Paul anyway, invited or not.
We would be wasting our time as they would just attempt to discredit him (Nazi, racist, kooky old Dr. Paul) At least he would be given a chance to defend Himself on MSNBC. Being on Fox could cause us to lose a few on-the-line people by the dirty tactics they would use.
2. Why should we share the stage with Duncan Hunter? We don't agree with him.
UHHH.....we don't agree the other guys..........Do we?
How can we be angry at being excluded if we ourselves are preaching exclusion. Duncan Hunter should get his say too, whether we agree or not.
Duncan Hunter is more likely to steal votes from the other guys rather than us. I ain't Skeered
3. Only RP people will watch it? Why bother?
I will watch any interview with Dr. Paul and I am always more motivated afterwards. It is good for even our most die-hard supporters.
It will be on more than one time on MSNBC. My guess is that many debate watchers would watch both debates, maybe 30-40%
The other networks would carry clips that would give RP more face time
People who are on-the-line now will watch and many will be able to cross to the light-side, per say.
Hunter's People would watch too. Maybe we get a few of them?
4. When Dr. Paul scores 3rd or better in Iowa, Fox will invite him to the debate.
My answer would be "SO?"
Dr. Paul would the snub them. This would make the Fox Debate look like the LESSER debate. The coverage and subsequent viewer-ship at MSNBC would be huge. It would benefit DR. Paul, His supporters, MSNBC (on the back of FOX NEWS) , the American People and our hope of freedom.
Can't you see the headline
Dr. Paul Pokes Fox News in the EYE!
©2007 Big Louie, all rights reserved. You must have written permission from the author in order to republish this work.
Published: Saturday, December 29, 2007
Last modified: Saturday, December 29, 2007
The views expressed in this article are those of Big Louie only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Big Louie is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
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Reader Comments:
Posted By: Walter Elly
Date: 2007-12-29 02:53:57
I hear what you are saying, but I think that we should make all efforts to get into Fox News first- then go for alternate forum second- but only doing so VERY CAREFULLY. It could lead people to label us as on the fringe.
Personally I think we should take the tack that it's a news story that Huckabee, Thompson and McCain are in there when Paul isn't - Thompson polls lower then Paul everywhere now and McCain polls lower then Paul in Iowa. Huckabee and Paul are tied in NH. Paul raised more money then anyone ever, and has won the lion's share of the straw polls. He's the most searched for candidate online- and most strikingly, he was at the last Fox News debate and Ron Paul's numbers have only gone UP since then!
So why is Fox excluding him but not the others? That's a news story IMO and that's something that would definitely put the pressure on Fox.
Keep fighting the good fight!
Posted By: JT
Date: 2007-12-29 04:41:21
Paul is THE "one on one" candidate, the best thing to do with Fox and those other candidates is to take control of the situation and be the aggressor, instead of the defender, don't be the student, be the teacher!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7493899900883927358http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071108/NEWS08/311080111
Posted By: John
Date: 2007-12-29 04:46:54
My first thought was similar to your idea, only a bit different:
Find a way for Ron Paul to appear on a different major network doing a commentary on the Faux Debate. Something like a play by play using video clips from the Faux Network. Maybe even give him 24 hours to prepare his comments.
Let Ron Paul play the part of Sean Hanity, sharing his insightful commentary on the faux sanctioned candidates and their comments.
The network hosting the Ron Paul commentary would need to promote the Ron Paul Faux News Commentary Special in advance of the faux news debate and schedule it so folks can watch both.
I would love to hear what Ron Paul had to say in that context. If promoted right I think a lot of other folks would too. It would be one of the best political broadcasts of the year. I think the host network could sell a lot of advertising for a broadcast like that. And would probably be able to sell it more than once.
Posted By: BigLouie
Date: 2007-12-29 05:50:04
This is a response to a post to me in the ron paul forums at
www.ronpaulforpresident2008.com
The poster basically said we MUST be on the fox debate or all is lost
my reply as follows
Sorry, I don't agree. Fox will not be a friendly place for a round table discussion, Especially after a good showing in Iowa. Their malice is obvious isn't it? They realize they can just pick Dr. Paul up at the last second if he does well, but their first goal is to wreck his Iowa credentials. Then, they can attack him at the debates if Plan A fails.
The Neo-Cons have a back-up plan, you do not. You are being led like sheep.
The best Idea is to hit them broadside, exclude them after DR. Paul places 2nd or 3rd in Iowa. There was a good post on this by a guy who has 5000+ post on this forum
He Wrote
"I think Fox had higher ratings talking about the simultaneous debate on MSNBC (if I remember that right) than the debate itself had. Also, and I was out of the country that year, didn't Perot basically run for president as a regular guest on Larry King?"
He is right. It did have higher ratings.
This is a much better attack than calling Fox and begging them to PLEASE take him. We sound like children when we beg.
Do you really think you are DEMANDING IT? Get real.
The advertisers KNOW that this kind of controversy MAKES them money, forget wasting time on boycotts. We need to attack, not BEG.
Posted By: Louis Nardozi
Date: 2007-12-29 06:59:30
How YOU can protest! Upload a clip of your favorite Ron Paul video to http://www.foxnews.com/us/ureport/index.html and ask them how DARE they exclude Dr. Paul from the debate!
Posted By: Josh
Date: 2007-12-29 07:11:38
If we get this setup, I think it would make sense to invite all the other candidates, not just Duncan Hunter. Maybe some of the others would rather be a part of the alternative forum than the Fox News one.
Posted By: Matt
Date: 2007-12-29 07:55:54
The best way to hurt Fox aka NewsCorp (NWS)is SELL THEIR STOCK If they wanna play dirty...FINE WE WILL TOO IF YOU SUPPORT RON PAUL AND YOU OWN SHARES IN NEWSCORP SELL SELL SELL
Posted By: Mike M
Date: 2007-12-29 09:47:05
send the info about this exclusion to your local newspapers and local radio talk shows. Any place that has some real jouralists left... Stop crying and lets show the world we are determined.
Posted By: Kerry for Paul
Date: 2007-12-29 09:57:52
I agree with Matt. Sell your shares of Newscorp. But also boycott the advertisers that use Newscorp. Make there be financial repercussions to what FOX News is doing.
Posted By: james
Date: 2007-12-29 10:01:16
We should ask the official campaign to look at the options and deide the best way to deal with this. That way we can all get behind one strategy.
Posted By: Sey Naci
Date: 2007-12-29 10:23:55
Ron Paul being excluded from the FAUX forum is good news, not bad. It can work in RP
Posted By: Walt Thiessen
Date: 2007-12-29 11:04:44
The campaign has already spoken. Here's the text of the release they sent out.
Has Fox News Excluded Ron Paul?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Jesse Benton
December 28, 2007 703-248-9115
ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA – According to the New Hampshire State Republican Party and an Associated Press report, Republican presidential candidate and Texas Congressman Ron Paul will be excluded from an upcoming forum of Republican candidates to be broadcast by Fox News on January 6, 2007.
“Given Ron Paul’s support in New Hampshire and his recent historic fundraising success, it is outrageous that Dr. Paul would be excluded,” said Ron Paul 2008 campaign chairman Kent Snyder. “Dr. Paul has consistently polled higher in New Hampshire than some of the other candidates who have been invited.”
Snyder continued, “Paul supporters should know that we are continuing to make inquiries with Fox News as to why they have apparently excluded Dr. Paul from this event.”
Posted By: Chig
Date: 2007-12-29 17:05:07
Solution seems pretty straight forward to me, take a tapped version of every question asked in the Fox
Posted By: Westmiller
Date: 2007-12-29 22:11:49
Latest: Ron Paul NOT excluded from Fox debate
http://www.nolanchart.com/article797.html