So what really happened on the speculated 300 tickets for ron paul was this:
The Georgetown county GOP guy asked a South Carolina meetup person how many ron paul people would come. He responded "i have no idea... maybe 50.. maybe 300"
This got twisted into 300 tickets bought for paul, which is certifiably false, although the statement about Thompson buying 100 tickets could very well have been true.
And we did make a very strong showing. We had the 2nd best organization there. Our supporters beat out romney, in attendence and visibility.
Since we are all completely independent from GOP activities,(and from the looks of it, all the standard GOP members are older than 50 i.e. out of touch) on the county and possibly even state level, they have no damn clue what is going on with us. As far as their gop chairman knew, we might have shown up with a thousand supporters like in greenville. he has no way of knowing, and so he had to try and deflate that possibility before the actual event.
This is a strong barganing chip that shouldn't be wasted. Our representatives can approach county GOP chairs and state things very simply. "you don't know the who what when where or how of the ron paul grassroots support. we know the internet and we know the youth. you can be open minded to the message and we can bring our strength, or you can resist and be swept aside." In some places this claim will be true and in others, it won't, but they have no way of knowing the difference.
I sat in that auditorium and watched reactions. Justin spoke and they shook their heads and dismissed and a couple even heckled. Later ron paul was announced as third (which with a few late arrivals became 2nd) and they shook their heads dumbfounded. With what they don't understand and what we can bring to the table, we may yet save the republican party.