Dear, Dr. Paul The funds will dry up if you dont seperate yourself from the amateurs

[Captain Shays]

Any credible suggestions?

My suggestion isn't about which political professional Ron Paul should hire. Its about a complete change in tactics from what any candidate in US history has attempted but it think would work for Ron Paul in this particular election. Ready?

Ron Paul should right now choose his VP running mate if or when he gets the Republican nomination and he should pick right now, his entire cabinet selection.

Here are my reasons.
1. In this politically charged environment with the media at the helm of the flow of most public information, there would be a firestorm which could not be ignored by anyone.

2. Voters would get a chance to see the outcome of a Ron Paul presidency. They wouldn't have to guess what he will do, or whom he would choose to be with him.

3. Ron Paul's entire cabinet selection would be on the campaign trail with him in seperate locations. It would be like having clones to help you in your work. While Ron Paul himself can only be in one place at a time, his VP candidate whether Walter Williams or Pat Buchanan could be elsewhere working on the campaign and getting the freedom message out to more people in better or different ways than Ron Paul alone can accomplish. Of course the same goes with John Stossel or Michael Scheuer and the other selections.

Our problem right now isn't raising money or having enthusiastic volunteers. Its the media ignoring our candidate deliberatly.

You tell me how they could possibly ignore an entire cabinet selection when its never been done before? If that isn't new worthy then nothing is.

 

[Dave Wood]

I think New Hampshire has turned into the state of a bunch of pansies.

I think that is a naive cop-out.

Spreading the message isnt doing the job. The sale is not being "closed" with the voters.

Not to mention to unbelievable fraud that was going on up there. This should have been foreseen and would have been dealt with be seasoned campaign strategist.

 

[stevedasbach]

Folks, there probably aren't any "big name" campaign managers available who would be willing to take on the Republican establishment. It could cost them their future livelihood.

Plus, anyone with that background would be a disaster with the grassroots. If you think we've got communication problems now, see what happens with someone who expects to control every detail of the campaign in charge. The first thing to go would be the real-time reporting of donations.

They can probably attract some talent in each state, and in specific areas like media, advertising, etc. They also could likely attract a person with strong non-campaign project management experience (e.g. the guy who quit his job at Google) to improve the day-to-day managment of the campaign.

 

[Dave Wood]

My suggestion isn't about which political professional Ron Paul should hire. Its about a complete change in tactics from what any candidate in US history has attempted but it think would work for Ron Paul in this particular election. Ready?

Ron Paul should right now choose his VP running mate if or when he gets the Republican nomination and he should pick right now, his entire cabinet selection.

Here are my reasons.
1. In this politically charged environment with the media at the helm of the flow of most public information, there would be a firestorm which could not be ignored by anyone.

2. Voters would get a chance to see the outcome of a Ron Paul presidency. They wouldn't have to guess what he will do, or whom he would choose to be with him.

3. Ron Paul's entire cabinet selection would be on the campaign trail with him in seperate locations. It would be like having clones to help you in your work. While Ron Paul himself can only be in one place at a time, his VP candidate whether Walter Williams or Pat Buchanan could be elsewhere working on the campaign and getting the freedom message out to more people in better or different ways than Ron Paul alone can accomplish. Of course the same goes with John Stossel or Michael Scheuer and the other selections.

Our problem right now isn't raising money or having enthusiastic volunteers. Its the media ignoring our candidate deliberatly.

You tell me how they could possibly ignore an entire cabinet selection when its never been done before? If that isn't new worthy then nothing is.

Interesting idea but where would we get the money to pay them? They couldnt leave their day jobs to do free campaigning for RP.

 

[Dave Wood]

Folks, there probably aren't any "big name" campaign managers available who would be willing to take on the Republican establishment. It could cost them their future livelihood.

Plus, anyone with that background would be a disaster with the grassroots. If you think we've got communication problems now, see what happens with someone who expects to control every detail of the campaign in charge. The first thing to go would be the real-time reporting of donations.

They can probably attract some talent in each state, and in specific areas like media, advertising, etc. They also could likely attract a person with strong non-campaign project management experience (e.g. the guy who quit his job at Google) to improve the day-to-day managment of the campaign.

Whats your suggestion Steve? You have always come across as an intelligent politico on this forum, any ideas?

 

[WilliamC]

Just one example...precinct captains should have been started months ago.

I signed up for precinct captain last Friday. Today I still have no names for my precinct and no information about what types or how many slim jims I need.

I will get my own map of my precinct, and I will probably go ahead and incur the wrath of my wife and print my own slim jims. But do I just start going to every single door with the same generic slim jim? I thought the point of this was to target specific voters with information that is important to them.

Yes, I've contacted the website, my state coordinator (who doesn't yet have an email address) and posted about it here. So now what?

 

[partypooper]

Ron Paul should right now choose his VP running mate if or when he gets the Republican nomination and he should pick right now, his entire cabinet selection.

i agree that the complete change of strategy is in order but i disagree with your idea of choosing VP. in fact, i think the idea is preposterous. the public already thinks he is sort of crazy, and choosing members of the cabinet after coming 5th in two primaries will put him safely into the 'insane' category.

his VP candidate whether Walter Williams or Pat Buchanan could be elsewhere working on the campaign and getting the freedom message out to more people in better or different ways than Ron Paul alone can accomplish. Of course the same goes with John Stossel or Michael Scheuer and the other selections.

despite many political similarities, pat buchanan (and i suspect others you mentioned) would not agree to be VPs, not in these circumstances (two fifth places so far).

Our problem right now isn't raising money or having enthusiastic volunteers. Its the media ignoring our candidate deliberatly.

no, that's not the problem - it is that sort of thinking that brought us where we are now. the media is not ignoring dr paul "deliberately" - they are more interested in reporting on candidates who win or come in second. they don't talk about duncan hunter - or fred thompson for that matter - either.

the problem has been all along in dr paul refusing to engage the republican base and instead catering to independents and often far left. those people should have given us the edge in winning - but they can not comprise the majority of voters if we are to win republican nomination.

in addition, dr paul behaves as having an asperger of sorts: he talks about what he feels like talking about while completely disregarding questions and concerns of those listening to him. nobody expects him to say to people what he doesn't think is true - but i do expect him to answer questions actually posed instead of shifting to his pet themes of foreign and monetary policy regardless of the question actually posed.

 

[realist]

Folks, there probably aren't any "big name" campaign managers available who would be willing to take on the Republican establishment. It could cost them their future livelihood.

Plus, anyone with that background would be a disaster with the grassroots. If you think we've got communication problems now, see what happens with someone who expects to control every detail of the campaign in charge. The first thing to go would be the real-time reporting of donations.

They can probably attract some talent in each state, and in specific areas like media, advertising, etc. They also could likely attract a person with strong non-campaign project management experience (e.g. the guy who quit his job at Google) to improve the day-to-day managment of the campaign.

How about political consultants? They are widely used and unless the campaign chooses to make an announcment (or they are "outed" by someone) they can work behind the scenes providing guidance and organizing those in the limelight.

 

[realist]

Our problem right now isn't raising money or having enthusiastic volunteers. Its the media ignoring our candidate deliberatly.

.

I'm not sure I would agree with that.

I might rephrase that to say "our problem HASN"T been raising money".

That is a concern going forward if something doesn't change IMHO. I could be wrong but, our real time donations charts and graphs should show if the concern is legitimate or not very soon.

 

[literatim]

Just one example...precinct captains should have been started months ago.

I signed up for precinct captain last Friday. Today I still have no names for my precinct and no information about what types or how many slim jims I need.

I will get my own map of my precinct, and I will probably go ahead and incur the wrath of my wife and print my own slim jims. But do I just start going to every single door with the same generic slim jim? I thought the point of this was to target specific voters with information that is important to them.

Yes, I've contacted the website, my state coordinator (who doesn't yet have an email address) and posted about it here. So now what?

All precinct information is on your precinct leader page.

 

[R_Harris]

The more things change, the more they remain the same

My husband and I were discussing this very thing last night as we watched the election returns. The grassroots has gone above and beyond what any other candidate's has. We have given the official HQ at least three golden opportunities to make a MAJOR splash with the media and general population (the 5th, the blimp and the 16th). Then there was the 3rd quarter fund-raising totals. Did we see (even as supporters) any official press releases put out the day after any of these events? Nope. The media actually tried to give the campaign exposure after the 3rd quarter fund-raising totals and HQ dropped the ball and let the opportunity go by. And how many times has HQ failed to even return the calls of major talk-show and newscasters calls or, even worse, made the commitment for an appearance and then cancelled it at the last minute (which left a disgruntled show host out in the cold with time on their hands to do nothing but bash our candidate)? This campaign seems like it's being run by a bunch of young guys who get their knickers in a knot when they feel slighted over something and then go after petty 'revenge'. This is TOTALLY unacceptable and will NOT curry any favor with anyone except those other younger supporters who are of the same mind-set. We can NOT play in the big-leagues acting like 9th graders in high school.

I'm not going to call names as far as who it is at HQ that I think needs to be replaced but, we all know here who they are as we've all had the ball dropped by the same people there when major events came up that we needed their support on like media appearances and interveiws before the big rallies.

Just look at the mess in Iowa with the database and the lack of speakers for RP at each princinct. These are things that the official campaign should NOT be dumping in the laps of the grassroots folks who are, for the most part, passionate but inexperienced! Mistakes like these are too often simply unrecoverable!

On to NH - the grassroots was awesome! Period. The official campaign - not so, IMHO. The ads they ran were lackluster and they waiting until the last minute to run a negative ad - something you simply don't do in most major markets and especially in NH. You ALWAYS want to wind up with your positive messages, not with an ad with another candidate's name mentioned in it.

Also in relation to NH - I think we may honestly be looking at some vote count indiscrepencies. How can we possible have all those meetup members (some of whom may be too young to vote) and them not be able to garner even one vote a piece for Dr. Paul? I find this simply hard to believe.

There need to be some GOOD comparison ads run in the upcoming states and HQ needs to start actaully giving some support and maybe direction to the grassroots. Setting up the precinct captains section is good but I've never heard of a campaign that made these supporters BUY their own materials and signs!! Not with millions in the bank!!

Excellent post.

It saddens me to see the same mistakes being made today as they were in 1984 and 1988.

Folks, you have to understand something about Ron. He does not believe in, nor is he comfortable with "professional campaigning." It shows in his debate performances, it shows in his campaign staff and strategy.

Ron naively believes that if he just gets the chance to speak before any group, he can "convert" them in 5 minutes. It simply isn't true.

For every new person who says "where has Ron Paul been all of my life," there are 4 others who think he is an eccentric nutcase.

Look, the campaign has had roughly $30 MILLION DOLLARS to work with since last February. What do we have to show for it? Only 18,000 votes. That tranlates to $1,667 a vote. I will submit to you that it demonstrates incompetence from Headquarters. There is simply no "nice" way to put it.

McCain ditched his entire staff two months ago, was given up for dead, and he wins last night.

Anybody connecting the dots here?

 

[Eponym_mi]

Nevermind funds, if positive primary results are not fast in coming, the grassroots is going to dry up along with the funding. HQ needs to get on the ball with some professional campaign managers NOW.

 

[MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2]

I concur...with the original poster. Any of the other Republican candidates would be doing better than we are if they had the same level of grassroots support. Sure Ron Paul is despised by the mainstream Republican Party and that's the worst problem he has, but it's a FACT that his original campaign was NOT expected to get this far.

We've done very good, considering what we're up against. But, we can do better.

 

[BLS]

Excellent post.

It saddens me to see the same mistakes being made today as they were in 1984 and 1988.

Folks, you have to understand something about Ron. He does not believe in, nor is he comfortable with "professional campaigning." It shows in his debate performances, it shows in his campaign staff and strategy.

Ron naively believes that if he just gets the chance to speak before any group, he can "convert" them in 5 minutes. It simply isn't true.

For every new person who says "where has Ron Paul been all of my life," there are 4 others who think he is an eccentric nutcase.

Look, the campaign has had roughly $30 MILLION DOLLARS to work with since last February. What do we have to show for it? Only 18,000 votes. That tranlates to $1,667 a vote. I will submit to you that it demonstrates incompetence from Headquarters. There is simply no "nice" way to put it.

McCain ditched his entire staff two months ago, was given up for dead, and he wins last night.

Anybody connecting the dots here?

Agreed wholeheartedly.

But like my Dad used to say 'Don't come to me with a problem. Come to me with a solution'.

What do we do?

 

[Bradley in DC]

Just one example...precinct captains should have been started months ago.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=72640

 

[Bradley in DC]

This a forum, no one from the campaign visits it.

Yes, most of them do.

 

[Unspun]

With respect to your comment about whining. I havent felt this kind of passion for something in years. What I am seeing happen right before my eyes is VERY painful. I think the proper term should be VENTING not Whining.

Get used to it. I've been a Libertarian for as long as I have been interested in Politics. This is not only about getting Dr. Paul elected, this is about spreading a Libertarian, Constitutional message to the masses. It's very hard to do it without tons of media coverage, but I have never in my life seen anything like this, and it is very positive whether you realize that or not.

 

[ConstitutionGal]

Excellent post.

It saddens me to see the same mistakes being made today as they were in 1984 and 1988.

Folks, you have to understand something about Ron. He does not believe in, nor is he comfortable with "professional campaigning." It shows in his debate performances, it shows in his campaign staff and strategy.

Ron naively believes that if he just gets the chance to speak before any group, he can "convert" them in 5 minutes. It simply isn't true.

For every new person who says "where has Ron Paul been all of my life," there are 4 others who think he is an eccentric nutcase.

Look, the campaign has had roughly $30 MILLION DOLLARS to work with since last February. What do we have to show for it? Only 18,000 votes. That tranlates to $1,667 a vote. I will submit to you that it demonstrates incompetence from Headquarters. There is simply no "nice" way to put it.

McCain ditched his entire staff two months ago, was given up for dead, and he wins last night.

Anybody connecting the dots here?

I am also saddened by these latest 'non'-outcomes. I honestly don't think RP got into this race expecting to still be in after the first couple of debates. I think that just as Tom Tancredo jumped in just to make the others address the illegal immigration problem, Dr. Paul jumped in to make the others address foreign intervention and monetary policy. Then, a funny thing happened, the money started pouring in, the grassroots numbers sky-rocketed and he found himself at the head of a real movement in favor of Constitutional princples. He's said himself several times that we're cured his pessimism (translation: he pretty well expected to go nowhere with his campaign other than waking a few more people up). Now that the support and the money are actually there to continue, he nor the official campaign actually seem to have a game plan in place to effectively use either one. Will correcting this require a complete re-thinking of his campaign strategy? I think it does. Problem is, as has already been pointed out on this thread, the top guns in campaigning are either already taken or wouldn't be willing to come on board with a campaign with two fifth place finishes.

Our only hope, as I see it, is to run some top-notch campaign ads that concisely deal with issues AND solutions targeted to the top concerns in each of the upcoming states. One issue, whether some folks here like it or not, that has people all across the nation jumping up and down IS illegal immigration. People don't want to hear about how these poor illegals are being 'scape-goated' due to a bad economy - they want to hear what a President Ron Paul is going to do to fix the problem as oppsed to what the other candidates have actually DONE but are now SAYING:

1. Huckabee: used taxpayer dollars to help a Mexican Consulate come into Little Rock to aide the illegals already there. Wanted to give scholarships and in-state to tuition to illegal alien minors;
2. John McCain co-sponsored the amnesty bill with TED KENNEDY (how quickly people forget);
3. Fred Thompson voted for at least two bill while in the Senate that would allow employers to fire or lay off American workers and replace them with H1- and L1 visa holders;
4. Mitt Romney hired that landscaping company that he and his brother used for YEARS that hired all those Guatemalan illegals (MAYBE he didn't know about but the fact is that he still did it);
5. The Ghoul SUED in federal court to keep his sanctuary city and has made public statements about 'undocumented workers' being WELCOME in NYC.

Dr. Paul could SINK these other candidates IF he and the campaign would just do some really good ads and USE the above material, especially in South Carolina where numerous polls show that this is the NUMBER ONE issue to voters (especially the Republican BASE).

Bottom line, if HQ doesn't get the people in place who are capable of doing some professional and slick targeted ads, we'll be lucky to even get fifth in the states in the South and, without the South, the campaign is doomed to failure.

Do I LIKE having to say this? Hell no! Is it realistic? You BETCHA. Thing is, how do we convey our thoughts to HQ about this and actually get a response from someone with the power to actually address it?

 

[mconder]

Sure, let's get some real Ivy League / CFR blood into this campaign. Just what we need to succeed...at being one of them!

Telling the truth is the right thing for RP to do, and I am very encouraged that there is 8-10% of the public who has embraced the truth. Our goal is to grow this number while not compromising the message, not to win elections.

This is an educational campaign, not a presidential campaign.

 

[R_Harris]

Sure, let's get some real Ivy League / CFR blood into this campaign. Just what we need to succeed...at being one of them!

Telling the truth is the right thing for RP to do, and I am very encouraged that there is 8-10% of the public who has embraced the truth. Our goal is to grow this number while not compromising the message, not to win elections.

This is an educational campaign, not a presidential campaign.

Unfortunately, an educational campaign and $2 will only get you a cup of coffee.

For the past 25 YEARS, I have endlessly heard this cry from Libertarians and others that we desperately need to "educate" the people.

Frankly, I really don't see that much progress has been made in the so-called "education" thrust to people to get them to "see the light."

Whatever education has taken place (and on a national, coordinated scale, it is not much at all), has had minimal impact. Just look at the national LP party - it has gone nowhere fast since Ed Clark got 980,000 votes in 1980.

I have viewed this campaign as the last ditch effort to stop the tide, but for reasons listed throughout this thread and others, we are not having much success.

I still think that yes, he does need to hire some big-time political consultants or marketing strategists (actually he should have done this a year ago) and come up with a last hour desperation strategy. It is the only chance he's got.