Has Jessie Benton cleared out his desk yet?

[walt]

http://blog.nj.com/njv_paul_mulshine/2007/11/no_news_is_bad_news.html

It's not just one event.

Great article, someone should hand a copy of that article to Ron Paul today - hopefully he will chose to do the right thing then.

 

[jj111]

BS. The only chance our candidate ever had is grassroots supporters recruiting more grassroots supporters and, in the end, voters. If you had bothered to actually talk to republicans you'd find out they dislike Ron Paul because of the media coverage he's gotten. Massive ad campaigns and interviews can cast doubt on republicans' perceptions of him but for the most case they won't win votes (they still question him and don't look into him on their own). According to the exit polls, half of McCain's voters in NH saw Ron Paul favorably. These votes could have been won if someone had talked with them (because McCain represents nothing that Ron Paul does...especially regarding the most divisive issue, the Iraq War in which McCain wants to add another 100k troops and is content with us being there another hundred years). You seal the deal by actually talking with voters: proving to them that this candidate is worth supporting.

This campaign is entirely about grassroots. The hardcore supporters from nearly a year ago built this campaign into what it is but unfortunately the people they recruited cared more about armchair quarterbacking the campaign and in general spending all their Ron Paul time on the internet and not out pounding the pavement (they did donate en masse, I'll give them that).

We are to blame for these losses (especially the supporters in Iowa), no one else. Now it becomes more about winning delegate slots than winning primaries (in the event of a likely brokered convention) but those are achieved the same way: go out and talk to people.

Well the RP2008 campaign website SUCKS in recruiting volunteers to Meetup Gropus. You cannot even find a word about Meetups without spending 10 minutes looking for it on the site. It's in fine print hidden at the bottom of a subpage without any heading mentioning Meetup or Local activism. Huckabee's site is far more simple and effective in getting people aware of Meetup groups. I called the campaign 3 times about this and they still have not fixed this.

 

[BLS]

Ok....so let's ASSUME that Ron's campaign is full of amatuers.....

What can we do about it?

 

[walt]

replace them so the campaign has credibility with the media.

 

[angrydragon]

Ok....so let's ASSUME that Ron's campaign is full of amatuers.....

What can we do about it?

I don't know.

 

[newbitech]

interesting that there are not 1000 posts from the grassroots in here bitching at this reporter.

The grassroots is partially to blame here as well for burying this article. Would have been nice to see some discussion around this in Nov.

 

[newbitech]

Ok....so let's ASSUME that Ron's campaign is full of amatuers.....

What can we do about it?

first thing to do is stop repeating the same damn mistakes.

the grassroots needs an open line to Dr. Paul and get rid of these middle men.

 

[angrydragon]

I think there should be some top-down management from HQ and a bottom-up grassroots working together. Right now it's just bottom-up and it's taking a while to go up.

 

[Redcard]

Honestly, I don't know what to do at this point. We've finished 4th and 5th. Supposedly there's a large warchest to go forward. Michigan is not a major concern since it doesn't have a lot of delegates and we're likely to not make as big a dent.

I think Paul would do himself the best purpose if he campaigned heavily from here until Super Duper Tuesday in the dead center of the nation. Tennessee, Illinois, Missouri, and Georgia. Just one of those states HARD every week or so.. and spend the night in Atlanta the night before. California and NY are going to both be brutal battlegrounds, but you can't be on both sides of the nation effectively, and both are SO big. It's 269 delegates in the middle of America. IF he needs to, he can branch to Oaklahoma and get 41 more.

 

[newbitech]

Honestly, I don't know what to do at this point. We've finished 4th and 5th. Supposedly there's a large warchest to go forward. Michigan is not a major concern since it doesn't have a lot of delegates and we're likely to not make as big a dent.

I think Paul would do himself the best purpose if he campaigned heavily from here until Super Duper Tuesday in the dead center of the nation. Tennessee, Illinois, Missouri, and Georgia. Just one of those states HARD every week or so.. and spend the night in Atlanta the night before. California and NY are going to both be brutal battlegrounds, but you can't be on both sides of the nation effectively, and both are SO big. It's 269 delegates in the middle of America. IF he needs to, he can branch to Oaklahoma and get 41 more.

I was pissed that Rudy edged us out in N.H. I thought for sure we would own his ass until FL. I also thought we'd compete with Huckabee better in N.H.

I am going to say take it 1 election at a time until super tuesday. The only one who looks unbeatable at this point is Romney. The field is still wide open.

I am gearing up for a major push here in Tampa/St. Pete. I think we can make some waves in FL, but its going to take some serious serious hard work.

 

[freelance]

One of the first things that a campaign staff does (and continues to do throughout the entire campaign) is develop a working relationship with the media. No, they're not our friends, but a professional and competent campaign staff works those relationships to the advantage of the candidate.

I cannot, for the life of me, even guess at what the campaign staff is doing, or why they are taking this destructive course of action with the media? Plain old common decency requires that you do not no-show, not the press, not anyone.

 

[Matt Collins]

I work for a major talk radio station. I can tell you first hand that Jessee Benton is incompetent. He almost botched an interview with a major syndicated talk show host until I yelled at full volume over the phone to get Ron to call in for a 5 minute interview which they had already committed to but canceled last minute.

Jessee also was exceptionally rude to me when I had an opportunity to get Ron on a major local top 40 market mid-morning talk show and wouldn't make the effort to pull it off. Because of this the host trashed Ron Paul and refuses to talk about him.

Jessee needs to be replaced and someone else more competent needs to be put into that position. THERE IS NO EXCUSE for this mishandling of media appearances.

 

[Matt Collins]

screw boortz. No one listens to that show anyways. Dr. Paul would have got nothing by going on the show.

Not quite. Boortz is very popular in specific cities.

 

[Johncjackson]

People never get off the Ron Paul Money Train voluntarily.

And the conductor is too nice to kick them off, I guess.

..

 

[pavilion33]

Not quite. Boortz is very popular in specific cities.

I listened to Boorts for awhile today he was giving RP hell for the missed interview and said the 911 peps where killing his chances.

 

[Ethek]

I listened to Boorts for awhile today he was giving RP hell for the missed interview and said the 911 peps where killing his chances.

Boortzs being pissed off is not surprising. I cannot believe the campaign canceled last minute on that interview. I listen to the guy in KY. He has a big market and I think he has a chip on his shoulder for the notoriety Paul has in the Libertarian party. I think its a bit of professional jealousy because I have no doubt Boortz likes to indulge himself of his influence. It is big.

Boortz already had an easy route to pick on Paul because they strongly disagree on foreign policy. Boortz is also swallowing his libertarian principles by leaning towards backing Huckabee (because of the Fairtax.) This really hurts us in a heavily evangelical state like Gerogia. It has basically guaranteed a poor showing there because Boortz has the lions share of libertarian minded heavily under his influence. Boortz has ulterior motives. I don't pretend to understand all of them.

Canceling the interview just pushed the guy over the edge.

 

[walt]

I work for a major talk radio station. I can tell you first hand that Jessee Benton is incompetent. He almost botched an interview with a major syndicated talk show host until I yelled at full volume over the phone to get Ron to call in for a 5 minute interview which they had already committed to but canceled last minute.

Jessee also was exceptionally rude to me when I had an opportunity to get Ron on a major local top 40 market mid-morning talk show and wouldn't make the effort to pull it off. Because of this the host trashed Ron Paul and refuses to talk about him.

Jessee needs to be replaced and someone else more competent needs to be put into that position. THERE IS NO EXCUSE for this mishandling of media appearances.

how much more quantification do we need?

 

[frasu]

Ok....so let's ASSUME that Ron's campaign is full of amatuers.....

What can we do about it?

We need a Keyser Soze figure running the campaign:

But there might be another, more hidden story -- a secret weapon Kerry unleashed in Iowa several weeks ago. His name is Michael Whouley.

Michael who? Unless you're a hard-core political junkie, you've probably never even heard the name. But within the Democratic political world, Whouley is an almost-mythical figure. Revered as one of the party's fiercest and most talented ground-level organizers, Whouley is widely credited with saving Al Gore's foundering campaign in Iowa and New Hampshire in the 2000 primaries against Bill Bradley. Now this old Kerry ally may be working his magic one more time.

Whouley often seems like a kind of Keyser Soze figure -- his fearsome powers are the stuff of legend, but the man himself is rarely seen. Unlike other top campaign operatives, Whouley shuns attention. He avoids shows like "Hardball" and "Crossfire," and you can't find a picture of him on the Web. Whouley is so secretive that in 2000 he wouldn't even walk in front of a C-SPAN camera so his mother-in-law could see him on television. On the phone, Whouley sounds like a 300-pound truck driver -- he has a grumbly, profane voice, heavily inflected with the accent he acquired growing up in Boston's working-class Dorchester neighborhood. (In fact, he is short, "balding," and "whip thin," according to The New York Times.)

 

[Exarel]

Very arrogant attitude to take. There is a thing called professionalism, and this has now happened not once ... but twice. First with Glenn Beck and now this time.

The campaign staff is our own worst enemy and if Dr. Paul has any hope of securing the nomination, he needs a more professional staff.

We give this campaign $20 million last quarter, and you mean to tell me that they can't spend it wisely enough to get us at least in double digits in New Hampshire???

Clearly this campaign staff needs to go.

You realize that there are other ways to make a run that do not involve spending money in NH. It has been done many times before, the other candidates spend their money early, and the others spend it later for super tuesday and beyond. Many have also won using this tactic. I agree that the campaign needs more work, but how they spend the money isn't one of them.

 

[Dlynne]

I work for a major talk radio station. I can tell you first hand that Jessee Benton is incompetent. He almost botched an interview with a major syndicated talk show host until I yelled at full volume over the phone to get Ron to call in for a 5 minute interview which they had already committed to but canceled last minute.

Jessee also was exceptionally rude to me when I had an opportunity to get Ron on a major local top 40 market mid-morning talk show and wouldn't make the effort to pull it off. Because of this the host trashed Ron Paul and refuses to talk about him.

Jessee needs to be replaced and someone else more competent needs to be put into that position. THERE IS NO EXCUSE for this mishandling of media appearances.

Based on several incidents I have been told about in the past, this does not surprise me but it does make me feel sick. When I think about all the people who donated to Paul's campaign, and lots of those people scrapped together that money, I just want to go to Paul's headquarters and slap somebody. We deserve better than this. What is wrong with them?