I know Rand Paul Forums is the place to go for extreme and provocative comments, but I just do not get these negative comments about Rand's campaign.
I'm EXTREMELY involved in Rand's grassroots campaign in Kentucky. I'm working more than 40 hours a week on it, and that definitely does not include the time I could be spending on here rallying the national troops. I guess I shouldn't have assumed that all liberty loving people on here are going to support Rand, although I don't know why they wouldn't. In Kentucky, we've been busting our asses to get Rand elected and WE ARE WINNING. Rand will be our next senator. I'm not some pie-in-the-sky optimist about these things. I worked hard on Ron Paul's campaign not because I thought he'd be president (it would have been nice!), but because it was the best avenue to advocate for liberty and educate people.
Ignore Rand's fund raising success as irrelevant if you will, but explain how an eye doctor who has never run for dog catcher pulled an early 26% poll against 37% for Trey Grayson, the career politician and current two term Secretary of State.
For those of you not clued in to Kentucky politics, I'll explain what's happening. People all over the country are sick of these weasel career politicians. Until about six months ago, most Republicans in Kentucky were still asleep and thought Mitch McConnell was a conservative. They never questioned it. He's the Senate Minority Leader, king poobah of the GOP. Must be a conservative, right?
Then, Mitch not only voted for the TARP-1 bailout, he twisted a lot of Republican arms in the Senate. The bailout wouldn't have passed without him. This was the same bailout that 94% of his constituents opposed, and many STRONGLY opposed it. The Republican voters in Kentucky were shocked when we finally pried their eyes open and made them see this. Here's a little slim jim I made to 'splain it to them.
http://files.meetup.com/510992/DitchMitch.pdf
Once they woke up, they've been talking to each other and the news is spreading. I've worked hard to make sure the local 9/12 group stopped thinking that Mitch was their guy and realized that he is the problem. It was a tough sell at first, but now they're screaming this fact to everyone who will listen. Somebody woke up in a grumpy mood! They are pissed off!
When Mitch was pushing the bailout for Wall Street banksters, our other senator, Jim Bunning, went on national TV and called it socialism. Mitch cut off his funding and got him booted out of the Senate. That sealed the deal for Kentucky Republicans. Mitch is persona non grata.
This is not a good election to be Mitch's hand picked lap poodle.
Then, to add insult to injury, Mitch's campaign managers are running Grayson's campaign and they see Rand raising money faster than them and Rand rocketing up in the polls with a friggin' ARMY of insanely dedicated grassroots advocates. You can't find an antique car show or a damn bean festival in Kentucky where there aren't Rand Rangers working the crowd, passing out literature and asking people, "Have you heard about Rand?" There are handmade banners all over the state. Rand is campaigning like a fiend. Grayson's guys freak out and what do they do? They totally don't understand what's happening, so they throw Grayson a big DC Insider lobbyist-funded $500-a-plate weasel feast. Bwa ha ha ha ha! Now we've got voters so mad at McConnell's oligarchy of fatcat DC non-representatives that there's blood squirting out of the corners of their eyes. Nice job on KentuckyFight.com, BTW! From our local grassroots perspective, that was perfect!
Today's a good example. Rand has three campaign stops... yes, on a Monday! The grassroots is campaigning at numerous locations too. Grayson? [Insert sound of lonely crickets chirping in the distance.] He's nowhere. He's been going to women Republican meetings and is well received there by maybe a dozen GOP ladies. He's been talking to high school students, probably hoping to cultivate some young GOP supporters for a little energy. It looks good to have them at campaign stops later, but nothing so far. At the last high school function I heard about, some of my friends totally stole his thunder. It became a Rand event. It was almost sad.
The GOP at the county level smells blood in the water. Many are switching from the heretofore heir apparent to the throne to Rand because they know, even this early, that Grayson cannot win this race. Many of these people don't care about liberty. They just want an R to win, and they know it's Rand, not Trey. They can see where the momentum is leading.
On the campaign trail, Rand is very effective. People immediately know that he's genuine. He has his father's love of liberty, but the message is carefully crafted to be the most electable message possible. He appeals to almost everyone.
The biggest problem we have is getting campaign materials fast enough. The campaign can't keep up, and I've been printing a LOT of Rand grassroots campaign materials and I'm gearing up to print a lot more. Even the Rand campaign has no idea how many people are campaigning for him in Kentucky, and how completely dedicated we are.
The state fair is another good example. There were 12 people there when I was there. We had four people working the booth and eight working the crowd. Every place you looked, there were people wearing "I'm A Rand Fan" lapel stickers. Grayson had no presence there at all. Zip.
TEA parties? I told Rand today that I've about given up on TEA parties. A large percentage of the people there are wearing Rand T-shirts and buttons, and when I show up to campaign, there are three guys I've never seen before wearing Rand shirts and campaigning for Rand, passing out slim jims and bumper stickers. There's no point preaching to the choir.
Sorry I've been too busy campaigning to let you guys know what's happening here in Kentucky, but even with the GOP dirty tricks to come, Rand WILL BE our next senator.
I wish all of the best to Kokesh, Schiff, Harris, and all of the other worthy liberty candidates. I love those guys! I think they all have a very good chance this year, given that the sheeple have finally awakened, due in no small part to the Ron Paul campaign, and we can take some well deserved pride in that fact. But don't tell me there are liberty candidates with a better chance to win than Rand. It's just not true.
When people hear Rand speak, they want to vote for him. Most feel strongly enough about it to donate money and many become active grassroots volunteers. There is no stopping this freight train. In a couple of months, I think that'll be as obvious to everyone as it is to the Rand Paul grassroots volunteers.
A cool mil in 3Q09 would be a great news story that would help make the inevitability of Rand's campaign a fact to more people sooner, but with or without that goal being achieved, Rand will be our next senator. Count on it.
Thank you to all who have donated to Rand's campaign. I think it's the best possible investment in liberty that you can make. If not, I wouldn't have invested my entire life into this campaign.
