techPresident - Ron Paul and the Ghost of Ross Perot - Comments

Yes ~ Ron is the 2008 Ross!

4Yahshua — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 10:50:49 -0500

Greetings! Just want y'all to know that I really believe this especially after watching him on Glen Beck on 1-1-2008. The man does not believe in any U.S. Government complicity in the events of 9/11!!! Wake up bloggers!! Don't you watch T.V.? Sadly, the man seems to be another "shill" for the Bush Sr. White House!
Seek the Mighty One Upstairs!

TREES ~ YES BUSHES? NO!!!!!!!!!
"For 26 years we have had a Bush Sr. White House! How can we get back OUR House??"

Paul and Dean aren't that similar

Zephyr Teachout — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 12:09:38 -0500

I don't think Dean and Paul are that similar at all, actually.

Dean, at core, is a pragmatist who believed in self-government, and he appealed to people with those traits. Paul--although I'm still figuring him out--seems to start from first principles and believe in little government. They are polar opposites in temperament.

The only similarities I see are the use of Meetups (but, as Paul supporters have pointed out, that was a completely supporter-driven tactic), high numbers of online fundraising, and an opposition to a central orthodoxy in the party regarding the Iraq war.

That's not a very deep set of comparisons, and if the internet wasn't around, I don't think the comparisons would be there. The orange caps, as you'll recall, was a campaign (top down) invention. The Georgia for Dean and its ilk press releases were always more muted than the DFA official press releases.

Dean/Paul Movement Comparisons Are Fascinating

Luigi Montanez — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 00:33:56 -0500

The similarities: Overwhelmingly white, college-educated, and well-off financially. But the Paul movement seems to be younger (the Dean movement was much older than portrayed by the media) and much more tech savvy than Deaniacs.

But it all comes down to the primaries. How does the Paul movement actually become a political campaign that converts money and energy into votes? If Iowans thought Deaniacs in orange caps were a put-off, what will they think of brash, "REVOLUTION" t-shirted Paul supporters? How exactly does the Paul campaign plan to harness their activist energy?

Assuming Paul loses in the primaries, what happens to his movement afterwards? Does it stick together a la DFA, or like libertarians are apt to do, break apart? Will we be seeing Chairman Ron Paul installed into the RNC after a Democratic landslide and President Hillary in 2008? Completely fascinating to think about.

FYI, here's the RonPaulGraph for total donors:

http://www.ronpaulgraphs.com/total_donors.html

72,000 for just this quarter, but I don't know if that's really a count of total donations or unique donors.

Ron Paul and the Ghost of Ross Perot

Micah L. Sifry — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 21:20:17 -0500

Ron Paul is in the internet's sweet spot for politics. That is, he is an remark-able candidate with a clear message that the mainstream media has been ignoring. The net reacts to censorship by routing around it; in the case of politics, the net reacts to mainstream silence or disrespect by creating or using new media systems to spread a message that people find compelling. The 2008 election just got a whole lot more interesting.