Expect an official campaign response at some time
I came across "Flapsblog" a couple weeks ago on Twitter because of a Ron Paul mention. I've been somewhat following his blog since then; not too interested in his straight-line GOP support, but his Ron Paul posts are entertaining, if nothing else. Ok, actually they're usually frustrating as he employs logical fallacies in attempt to smear Ron Paul.
Anyway, I mention all that because his blog is how I first found out about the
alleged association between Ron Paul and Stormfront. Being quite familiar with RP for years now, I knew this was ridiculous.
You may or may not know, but initially Stormfront had the official campaign donation widget in that spot of their site, the one that scrolls the names and has an updated amount raised so far. It was pretty quickly pointed out to Flap that this is not a paid advertisement placement, but rather a viral widget that anyone can place on their site, and does not indicate any association of Ron Paul with Stormfront. Multiple people pointed this out.
Flap didn't change the title of his blog post (which was a claim he could not substantiate: "Paul Places Campaign Solicitation on Neo-Nazi Hate Site"), even though confronted about the lie and his use of the "guilt by association" logical fallacy.*
After all that, and repeated accusations of his lies in the post, Flap started to tell supporters "contact the campaign then and ask them," which is ridiculous to me because why should we have to do the fact-checking for his claims? He revealed himself right then as not caring at all about the truth of the matter. Nonetheless, I decided to go the extra mile (or ten, in this instance) and send the campaign an email. If nothing else, to prove Flap wrong.
I also got on Meetup.com and found Justine Lam's profile and sent her a copy of the email as well. Flap was BCCed on my email.
Justine replied within 12 hours with the logical explanation (as we had been saying) that the widget is able to be placed on any site by anyone and there is no association between the campaign and those who might use it. She also explained that the views of supporters are not necessarily reflective of his own. Big shocker there, I know.
I replied because one question wasn't quite answered, and she had answered me more as the admitted Ron Paul supporter that I am than as a generic inquiry from the public. The question Flap repeatedly asked and that I asked for follow-up on is "Will the campaign repudiate Stormfront and ask them to remove the ad?". I inquired if there was an official campaign position statement I could use regarding "hate sites." She said she would forward that on and Jesse Benton or Don Rasmussen would reply. This was October 23rd and I hadn't heard anything for a few days, so I followed up with her on the 27th. She informed me that they were working on an official response and to "please hold tight", which I am. I'm not impatient at all, and the level of responsiveness so far has been impressive, I think.
So all of that is to say, expect an official campaign response at some time, hopefully soon.
* Eventually he did change the post title when he revisited Stormfront and they had the
This November 5th banner instead. Then he took out the "places" in the title and suggested it was a tactic by the official campaign to drive people to donate through
This November 5th instead. (Never mind that it, too, is clearly not a paid advertisement, and that
This November 5th explicitly states that all donations must be through the official Ron Paul campaign site).
P.S. Hi, I'm new here.
