*** December 27th • Flight to Florida with overflight estimates ***

[DanielDeibler]

*** December 27th • Flight to Florida with overflight estimates ***

*** December 27th • Flight to Florida with overflight estimates ***

The Blimp is in flight and headed for Florida. Weather will be an issue today so certain route changes may be necessary. We will be estimating over flight times in certain cities and posting them here. Please see the GPS & Google Maps link to view the Blimp’s current Position. Use the JustinTV link to see live video as it is available. It has been intermittent. This post will be updated as estimates change.

Alert Your Friends: Estimated overflight times of:
8:00am - Departed from Elizabeth City
9:50am - Greenville, NC
10:45am - Goldsboro, NC
12:30pm - Fayetteville, NC

Ron Paul Blimp Site

Ron Paul Blimp MySpace

Ron Paul Blimp Facebook

 

[NinjaPirate]

WOoohoo!!!!! Be safe, and if you can: Come to Orlando!!!!

 

[DanielDeibler]

WOoohoo!!!!! Be safe, and if you can: Come to Orlando!!!!

The Blimp is scheduled to be in Orlando on the 29th

Current Tentative Schedule
• 27th - Thurs- Elizabeth City, NC leave 8 am arrive Jacksonville, FL pm
• 28th - Fri -Jacksonville FL - (media and city circle)
• 29th - Sat - Jacksonville FL leave 8am arrive Orlando
• 30th - Sun - Orlando - media rides
• 31st - Monday - Florida // Crew relief/maintenance
• Jan - Tuesday - fly Orlando // Capital One Bown (pending waiver)
• Jan - wed - Florida // Crew relief/maintenance
• Jan - Thurs - 3rd Orland cut west to Tampa - half and half
• Jan - Fri - 4th Fly over Tampa Area
• Jan - Sat - 5th - Fly Tampa // NFL Playoff Game (pending waiver)
• Jan - Sun - 6th - Florida // South toward Miami
• Jan - Mon - 7th - Florida

 

[bucfish]

bump

 

[DanielDeibler]

blimp

 

[Maltheus]

I'm sure they had no choice due to weather or something, but couldn't they find a winnable state to fly the thing over? Granted, I haven't been following developments in Florida, but I would imagine that to be the toughest of the 50 states to win, for a number of reasons. With the exception of a few older Goldwater Republicans, I find seniors the hardest to convert, giving their dependency on the programs Ron Paul would work to eliminate. And while I don't think that Giuliani can (honestly) win the nomination, I can't imagine him not winning Florida. Just another head-shaker in this whole blimp debacle for me.

 

[fuzzybekool]

I think if the blimp can get the waivers from Homeland Security and show up for the Bowl game and NFL play-off game, that would get National exposure.

 

[FreeTraveler]

I'm sure they had no choice due to weather or something, but couldn't they find a winnable state to fly the thing over? Granted, I haven't been following developments in Florida, but I would imagine that to be the toughest of the 50 states to win, for a number of reasons. With the exception of a few older Goldwater Republicans, I find seniors the hardest to convert, giving their dependency on the programs Ron Paul would work to eliminate. And while I don't think that Giuliani can (honestly) win the nomination, I can't imagine him not winning Florida. Just another head-shaker in this whole blimp debacle for me.

Hey, I'm a senior, and I resent that... sonny!

There are a heck of a lot of Goldwater Republicans down here, as well as ex-flower children that rioted in the streets over the Vietnam war. We've been waiting all our lives for 1) the Internet, to give us our voice back, and 2) a man with the convictions of Ron Paul to make it worth speaking out again!

See my "Ron Paul for Baby Boomers" video, and show it to your parents!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce5YYzVtAUU

 

[slamhead]

God speed my countrymen.

 

[Matt Collins]

There are a heck of a lot of Goldwater Republicans down here, as well as ex-flower children that rioted in the streets over the Vietnam war.

Florida is a quagmire of a state. It's VERY diverse (in a good way) and I enjoyed growing up here.

There are many Yanks here, there are many Southern Crackers here, there are also the Ricans, the Cubans, many wealthy Republicans, many free spirited Democrats, many intellectual independent/libertarians, and not to mention the large Jewish contingent.

That's why it's such a hard state to predict which way it'll swing. Like Baskin Robbins - 31 flavors - somethin' for everyone.

 

[shadow26]

Florida is a quagmire of a state. It's VERY diverse (in a good way) and I enjoyed growing up here.

There are many Yanks here, there are many Southern Crackers here, there are also the Ricans, the Cubans, many wealthy Republicans, many free spirited Democrats, many intellectual independent/libertarians, and not to mention the large Jewish contingent.

That's why it's such a hard state to predict which way it'll swing. Like Baskin Robbins - 31 flavors - somethin' for everyone.

Blimp will be in/over Florence, SC in about one hour...heads up to all Paul supporters in that area.

 

[Cindy]

Paul gets more individual donations from the state of Florida then any other. The meetup groups are many and large and have been busting butt down here.

Considering poor voter turnout rates for the primary in general, how much growing by the day and active support Paul has here, and the Republicans we still have another month to convert, who knows how well our chance may be to create an upset here.

The Republicans in Florida don't even show up in any great numbers to vote at their own party straw polls or REC meetings, there are consistantly more Paul supporters that show up for other candidates events then their own supporters do in this state, and voter apathy and Republican party attitudes turning sour here may give us the advantage we need to take all in this state.

The Blimp can create a huge push over the edge for us .

The biggest thing to remember is that the official campaign and Paul, have not even started campaigning in this state yet, though they plan too in Florida. He's numbers will jump huge when they come to this state with speeches, spending money on comercials and radio ads, and more press resulting from it.

Paul winning Florida on January 29th would be the upset of this primary election and there is a chance of that happening.

 

[Maltheus]

Hey, I'm a senior, and I resent that... sonny!

That's good to hear. I hope I'm wrong. I was only speaking to my limited experience. The seniors I speak to want their medicare and social security and I can't say I blame them too much for that. It's a scary time of their life to be shaking up the system. If only they understood that the shake up is coming one way or another.

 

[FreeTraveler]

That's good to hear. I hope I'm wrong. I was only speaking to my limited experience. The seniors I speak to want their medicare and social security and I can't say I blame them too much for that. It's a scary time of their life to be shaking up the system. If only they understood that the shake up is coming one way or another.

Most people my age know the system is broken, and figure sooner or later the checks will stop. When I point out to them that Dr. Paul will end ALL our foreign occupations and has stated that we need to do that to meet our Social Security and other domestic commitments, it turns into a pretty easy sell.

The other major issue for many seniors is that we're at the point where we start to wonder what sort of legacy we're going to leave. Another easy sell for Dr. Paul.

 

[Badphish]

Actually a great opportunity for Florida has been missed. The Dems will not seat any delagates from FL because we moved our primary ahead. It was the Republicans who did this. Since the Democratic votes during the primary are for show only there should have been a big push to get Dems to switch just for the primary.

Hopefully the blimp goes South from Tampa over SW Florida on it's way to Miami!

Edit: It hasn't been completely missed. Floridians have until Monday to register with a party before the primary.

 

[Jobarra]

For those that don't know, the DNC has stripped Florida of its delegates, just like Michigan. The DNC has told Florida democrats that their votes do not count for the primaries. I'm hoping some of the more active Democrats have already changed to the Republican party since Florida's primaries are unfortunately closed. The Switch deadline is Dec 31st, so I don't know how much time there will be left to convert Dems that probably still don't know their vote doesn't count in the primaries. Can you imagine Democrats voting for anyone other than Dr. Paul? Another consideration is also the positive response of those who watched the Univision debate even after all the boos Dr. Paul got for his Cuba and Castro/Chavez comments. People actually respected his integrity in saying that to a crowd that was known to be hostile. I think Dr. Paul has a VERY good shot at winning Florida. The only question is if enough Democrats have switched by the date of the party switch for the primaries. Either way, I imagine there are going to be alot of angry Democrats when they find out what has happened with their primary votes in Florida.

Hoping if the blimp stays up in the air through January that it swings up into Mobile County, Alabama for a few days since we will be voting the day after Florida. A large turnout for Dr. Paul here could also be reported nationally by exit pollsters since we are the only game in town after Florida and for another 6 days before Feb 5th. We're also an open primary state, so everyone can vote for whichever party. I think they just have to ask for the right ballot to vote on. If Florida goes to Dr. Paul or if the race is still divided at that point, you can bet that all of the news orgs are going to flock to Mobile County like they flock to Iowa/New Hampshire. While the official results won't be released until Feb 5th when the rest of the state votes, imagine what would happen in the rest of the Feb 5th states if Dr. Paul gets a significant majority in Mobile County by exit pollsters

Edit to Add: Almost forgot. The Senior Bowl is also being held on Jan 26th in Mobile's Ladd-Peeble Stadium. Perfect chance for the blimp to advertise to thousands.

 

[NerveShocker]

The blimp is short on funds so if anyone wants to chip in go to the website www.RonPaulBlimp.com
It will definitely get more coverage and air time down south with better weather. Also, of course if we get to fly over a football game it's impossible to guess how much good it could do for us.

 

[walt]

For those that don't know, the DNC has stripped Florida of its delegates, just like Michigan. The DNC has told Florida democrats that their votes do not count for the primaries. I'm hoping some of the more active Democrats have already changed to the Republican party since Florida's primaries are unfortunately closed. The Switch deadline is Dec 31st, so I don't know how much time there will be left to convert Dems that probably still don't know their vote doesn't count in the primaries. Can you imagine Democrats voting for anyone other than Dr. Paul? Another consideration is also the positive response of those who watched the Univision debate even after all the boos Dr. Paul got for his Cuba and Castro/Chavez comments. People actually respected his integrity in saying that to a crowd that was known to be hostile. I think Dr. Paul has a VERY good shot at winning Florida. The only question is if enough Democrats have switched by the date of the party switch for the primaries. Either way, I imagine there are going to be alot of angry Democrats when they find out what has happened with their primary votes in Florida.

Local meetups should be bombing the local press with this info!!!

 

[NerveShocker]

They blimp needs 71,000$ by Monday guys. It's in Florida now and is going to help us get tons of exposure down there. It already has given us an estimated 2.5 million in media exposure. It will do this even more so while in Florida due to good weather and even possibly flying over football games.

Help save the blimp: www.RonPaulBlimp.com

 

[Jobarra]

Local meetups should be bombing the local press with this info!!!

I've already sent a shout to the organizer of the Pensacola meetup group. I would hope they already know this information, but it's not on their site anywhere

Actually, the campaign should have paid for commercials in Florida, but they have dropped the ball on this and on Michigan it seems. At least Michigan is salvagable since they are open primaries. The campaign has made right moves, but it has made some missteps. They may be thinking that since Florida's Republican delegates have been cut in half that it's not worth spending money to cover the whole state which would be relatively expensive. However, I think it is possible that he has a shot at winning Florida which would give more coverage and support going into Feb 5th Dr. Paul has shown that he's a shrewd political strategist though, so I will give him the benefit of the doubt. I'm just hoping he pulls off whatever he's planning. I see alot of people complaining about his statement of "We have so much money we don't know how to spend it", but I think this is a brilliant move by him to give the right impression that he has oodles of support. In other words, I have no doubt he can spend our money efficiently