A blimp is a BAD IDEA - here is why

[willwash]

I will say that the campaign hooked up our Meetup in Pensacola with a good amount of quality stuff around January of 08, prolly about a thousand or so dollars worth. A few 4' x 8' big signs, and a bunch of smaller ones, plus the Ron Paul limo came into town and we all got to ride around town in it which was pretty cool.

But I was just a grassroots peon

Edit: Me and the family (only one kid at the time!) just before our limo ride:

You can see the little notation on the sign that the campaign funded those signs

 

[phill4paul]

Oh yeah, the shifty smoking tattooed Mexican guy wearing a hat wrong on the official literature....

I had never seen this. Really? SMDH.

 

[amy31416]

Raise your hand if you vote and Matt Collin's "liberty community liaison" work is swaying your opinion to say "Fug it, I'm out."

He sure is working hard to disenfranchise that 6% that sways elections. Which leads me to determine that he is nothing more than a plant for the opposition.

Raises hand, and harrumphs.

If Rand wins, it will be despite people of his ilk, not because of them. And you know he'll say that he won it for Rand, just like he's the one who got Rand into politics in the first place--as if he has more influence than Ron.

Step down and disappear Matt. Take Jesse with you.

 

[willwash]

@Collins: was the limo a bad idea too?

 

[Anti Federalist]

LOL it's an articulated semi limo.

 

[Matt Collins]

@Collins: was the limo a bad idea too?

Yes very much so... granted the campaign in 2008 wasn't leading much of anything very well, nor did they have a plan for victory, but if the grassroots (us) had put half as much effort into efforts that won the election as we did to frivolous things such as blimps and limos, then Ron would've done way better.

 

[angelatc]

@Collins: was the limo a bad idea too?

That's an excellent question.

 

[angelatc]

Yes very much so... granted the campaign in 2008 wasn't leading much of anything very well, nor did they have a plan for victory, but if the grassroots (us) had put half as much effort into efforts that won the election as we did to frivolous things such as blimps and limos, then Ron would've done way better.

There's those moving goalposts again. We achieved the real goal of the campaign in spades, despite the campaign. But they won't ever admit victory because they were not responsible for it.

Let's not forget that the CAMPAIGN had lots of money leftover at the end of the campaign. But it's clearly the fault of the grassroots that the grassroots money wasn't utilized effectively to improve Ron Paul's performance?

 

[Anti Federalist]

Yes very much so... granted the campaign in 2008 wasn't leading much of anything very well, nor did they have a plan for victory, but if the grassroots (us) had put half as much effort into efforts that won the election as we did to frivolous things such as blimps and limos, then Ron would've done way better.

Your long term memory is shot.

A "traditional" campaign would not work, could not work, due to the fact that almost nobody knew who RP was in 2007, and of those who did, many had the wrong idea.

The government propaganda organs were offlimits to us, they would not cover RP until we started forcing them to.

And that was the whole reason for the moneybombs, sign waves, limos and blimps and all the rest.

 

[Anti Federalist]

Yes very much so... granted the campaign in 2008 wasn't leading much of anything very well, nor did they have a plan for victory, but if the grassroots (us) had put half as much effort into efforts that won the election as we did to frivolous things such as blimps and limos, then Ron would've done way better.

 

[angelatc]

Your long term memory is shot.

A "traditional" campaign would not work, could not work, due to the fact that almost nobody knew who RP was in 2007, and of those who did, many had the wrong idea.

The government propaganda organs were offlimits to us, they would not cover RP until we started forcing them to.

And that was the whole reason for the moneybombs, sign waves, limos and blimps and all the rest.

The blimp was a gimmick - it was a marketing gamble - and it worked. He just can't stand that.

 

[cajuncocoa]

+rep

 

[Matt Collins]

That's the most frustrating thing about this conversation. First, the blimp was a bad idea because the money that was spent was not spent on targeting likely voters effectively. Fair point. But then, later on, the same guy says that the campaign was not about winning. It was about messaging. Getting Ron Paul's name recognized, and his message heard.

No, that is not what I wrote. The campaign WAS about winning, but remember that one can win an election without actually getting elected.

building an organization, raising awareness of an issue, building name recognition, attacking a politician, getting politicians on the record, being a spoiler, and changing the race dynamics are all reasons to run a campaign besides just getting elected.

FFS - I was in an official campaign office, and we couldn't even get official campaign material. DH got on the phone with Benton, and to his credit he had Michigan and a couple of other states sent us their leftovers after their primary ended. But here's the kicker - most of it was grassroots stuff which we were not supposed to hand out, but since it was that or nothing.....I can already hear Collins tsk tsking...how dare we pass out things that were not approved by the campaign, while ignoring the fact that the campaign left us no real choice. Remember - this was after the grassroots money bombs that filled their coffers with more money than they possibly dreamed of going into 2007. There was literally no version of any official budget in existence that they couldn't easily fund four times over.

No one is debating that 2008 had some serious problems all around. The trick is to learn from experience, listen to those who are more experienced, gain experience on our own, and then be prepared to help future candidates with knowledge, training, and experience.

 

[cajuncocoa]

It's interesting how that works. It probably shouldn't work like that, but it often does.

The same effect can apply to sports.

"I can't stand the Dodgers!"
"Why?"
"Cause I used to know this guy that was a big Dodgers fan and he sold peanuts at the stadium. I couldn't stand him!"

But the peanut guy at Dodgers Stadium isn't working to implode the bullpen.

 

[angelatc]

blah blah blah

building name recognition,

blah blah blah .

We rocked it. Trying to undermine that is just counter-productive.

 

[GunnyFreedom]

Yeah present company excepted, obviously. My bad.
.

I didn't mean it like that. Der Kollinz is obviously fine with trashing Tom Woods at every single opportunity, so his vision for 'the liberty movement' is restricted to the Rothfeld/Benton cluster, and them alone. You can absolutely TRASH 99% of the liberty movement and this twerp will continue to pretend to be your best friend, but if you say one word askance about Rothfeld, you are persona non grata and he will do everything in his power to see to it that you never work in politics again. All this does for me is to demonstrate that Rothfeld & Co belong in the mafia before a political movement. Y'all can thank Matt Collins for causing that to happen.

 

[cajuncocoa]

blah blah blah blah, building name recognition, blah blah blah blah

You will never guess what having a blimp does, Real Marketing Man of Genius.........

 

[angelatc]

No, that is not what I wrote. The campaign WAS about winning, but remember that one can win an election without actually getting elected.

building an organization, raising awareness of an issue, building name recognition, attacking a politician, getting politicians on the record, being a spoiler, and changing the race dynamics are all reasons to run a campaign besides just getting elected.

No one is debating that 2008 had some serious problems all around. The trick is to learn from experience, listen to those who are more experienced, gain experience on our own, and then be prepared to help future candidates with knowledge, training, and experience.

The guy who ran our RPF office in 2007 would agree with you 100% on a lot of things, like the effectiveness of sign waves. But instead of relentlessly yammering about how ineffective they were, he unofficially encouraged them in front of the HQ, we made coffee and hot chocolate to entice them inside, and we staffed our phone banks with the information we got from the sign in sheets.

At no point did he belittle anybody or tell them they were wasting their time, or insist they should meekly listen to those with more experience.

That's how leaders lead.

And don't get me wrong - I can't do it. Example: When a generous donor offered to foot the bill for getting "For Liberty" in every library in the country, I tried like anything to coordinate the project and I couldn't rally the troops even though they were pretty much 100% on board. The difference between you and me in that respect is that I blame myself for my shortcomings, while you would blame all of them for theirs.

 

[angelatc]

I didn't mean it like that. Der Kollinz is obviously fine with trashing Tom Woods at every single opportunity, so his vision for 'the liberty movement' is restricted to the Rothfeld/Benton cluster, and them alone. You can absolutely TRASH 99% of the liberty movement and this twerp will continue to pretend to be your best friend, but if you say one word askance about Rothfeld, you are persona non grata and he will do everything in his power to see to it that you never work in politics again. All this does for me is to demonstrate that Rothfeld & Co belong in the mafia before a political movement. Y'all can thank Matt Collins for causing that to happen.

Yeah it isn't uncommon for supporters to do a post mortem on failed campaigns. Your observations weren't even all that harsh. It's really unusual to be called a traitor for it. Was Collins on the payroll?

 

[Matt Collins]

Der Kollinz is obviously fine with trashing Tom Woods at every single opportunity

Uh no, not at all. I think very highly of Tom as an academic and as a historian and economist and also as someone who can break down complex ideas into things that the layman can understand.

And I only mention his bad behavior when someone else brings it up, in order to make sure that the record is set straight.