Topic: Ron Paul
A Post-New Hampshire Strategy for Ron Paul's Success We have learned some important lessons from the New Hampshire Primary. This is what we must do to apply those lessons and move on to victory.by Jake Morphonios
(Libertarian)
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
There are two forces that have been driving Ron Paul’s success: the internet and a young, zealous support base. Ron Paul wins internet polls. Ron Paul receives huge, internet-based money bombs. Ron Paul has supporters waving signs everywhere you look. Why then did Ron Paul not break double-digits in New Hampshire?
An unexpected, record turnout of voters threw off much of the pre-vote polling predictions. Baby-boomers turned out in a much higher than expected percentage. These individuals are less tech-savvy than the typical Ron Paul supporter. They use the internet less, which means that this voting demographic has only seen the Ron Paul that the major media lets the public view and we all know how little attention the mainstream media gives Dr. Paul. It should come as no surprise then that when there is a substantial increase in voters who do not know about Ron Paul’s message that the voting block will vote for media darlings like McCain, Romney and Huckabee.
This is a critical lesson that Ron Paul supporters must learn immediately.
Ron Paul’s message must reach this segment of the population. Don’t expect folks in their 60’s to spend a lot of time on MySpace or YouTube researching Ron Paul. This demographic must be reached through television ads and word of mouth. Yard signs are important, but they don’t tell voters anything about Ron Paul. Our blimp is wonderful, but if Grandma Smith doesn’t know how to use the internet how can she "Google Ron Paul"?
There must be an immediate shift in focus. It is time to shift from an air war to putting boots on the ground. Here is what must be done - now:
1) Almost all the members of our young base have parents and grandparents that can be swayed into voting for Ron Paul. We must educate ourselves about Ron Paul’s message, develop our own 30 second sales pitch and call mom, dad, grandma and grandpa to sell our candidate - and encourage them to do the same.
2) We must talk to members of the baby-boom generation to advocate for our candidate. Baby-boomers outnumber the younger voting block by a significant margin. We must recruit as many of them to our cause as possible.
3) According to Dr. Paul himself, his campaign needs an additional $23 million dollars to keep the fight going. Money is an immediate need. I support the effort to drop another huge money bomb on January 21st, however Ron Paul needs as much money as he can get NOW. Set money aside for the next money bomb, but give what you can today.
In order to help Ron Paul remain successful past Tsunami Tuesday, we must give his campaign more money and we must use our youthful base of supporters to convert as many baby-boomers as possible to the Revolution. The formula for success is simple and straight-forward. Tactics shift in war as needed. It is time for such a shift.
Speaking to his crowd of supporters after the conclusion of the New Hampshire Primary, Ron Paul said:
"Your generation, the young people of this country, have awakened, and this is going to be the beginning of something very big for this country."
Thank God for Ron Paul and this historic revolution in which we are engaged. Now put your shoulders to the wheel and let’s get back to work!
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2008 Jake Morphonios, all rights reserved.
Published: Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Last modified: Wednesday, January 9, 2008
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I don't think it's smart to rely on the youth to spread the message. Sure, some of them do, but it's just not a sound way to get the message across. It also doesn't help that some states have closed primaries. My state does and when I told my family about Paul it was too late to switch to Republican.
Paul in my opinion needs to pull some unorthodox, yet positive things out of his sleeves in order to conquer his biggest problem: the mainstream media. For example, just brainstorming here, one idea may be to have a big money bomb on the day following a big loss (today would have worked). This will get responses from the media such as "Ron Paul sets another record--the most money raised in a day following a 5th place finish. Even X, the winner didn't raise anything close to that amount." Another idea maybe is to have Paul himself drop out of a big debate in order to do something unexpected, positive, and pracitcal like, say, visiting a children's hospital. Obviously it would have to be more than a simple visit, but this is just an idea.
Paul might also need to start statistically challenging the status quo. For example, maybe in a debate he could use some legit sources to counter the notion that terrorists exist and are a real threat. What I mean is, he can propose the easy logic such as "TV shows footage of illegal immigrants crossing the border from Mexico. Not once have I ever seen one with a turban, AK-47, and grenade launcher." Backed with numbers and the like, he can more convincingly show that the only reason "terrorists" hate us is because we are over there. Thoughts anyone?
Good ideas. The newspapers and tlevision networks no longer even report Rep.Paul's percentage of votes received, althouth they do report those going to the candidate's who got a smaller percentage. Money is important, the show of volunteers is great, but this campaign has to be by word of mouth one by one
Posted By: Karin Friedemann
Date: 2008-01-10 09:06:48
The kids have proven that they can get a stable 10% of the voter population to vote for Ron Paul. Now we have to shift focus on the people who are long-time Republicans and sell Dr. Paul's image as "America's doctor you can trust" as well as "A real true old-fashioned conservative Republican."
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2008 Jake Morphonios, all rights reserved.