By way of introduction, my name is Keith Murphy, and I'm the owner of Murphy's Taproom in Manchester, NH. I'm a big supporter of Ron Paul, and local grassroots efforts are based out of my pub. Dr. Paul was at my place last night, and I've been lucky enough to have him as a regular customer for the past two months.
I see the campaign, as well-intentioned as they are, making some serious errors in judgment. Please consider the following advice:
1) HE NEEDS TO SPEND MORE TIME HERE. For Ron Paul to do well, i.e. come in first or second in the NH primary, he needs to practically live here and campaign every day across the state. He needs to stop into every restaurant, every barber shop, and every grocery store. That's how Buchanan won NH, and that's the only way that Ron Paul can pull it off here. Hell, he can have my spare bedroom for free if he wants it (same goes for any RP supporter here to help get him elected.)
2) HOUSE PARTIES, HOUSE PARTIES, HOUSE PARTIES. NH residents are very spoiled, and they take their historic role in picking presidents very seriously. They are accustomed to, if they are so inclined, being able to meet literally every single candidate, and I don't mean meet them at a pre-organized rally. I mean meet them at house parties organized by their supportive neighbor. Hillary Clinton is here all the time, and she has her NH supporters organizing house parties for her to stop by and meet 15-30 people at a time. That's how NH is won, more than any other single strategy. He should be here all the time (and that means not seeing Texas nor Washington DC until the primary) and spend most of his evenings traveling a well-marked route from house party to house party.
3) STOP SENDING HUGE MULTI-PAGE MAILERS I keep seeing these huge, 15-page mail pieces that must cost a fortune to print and mail. Look, most people aren't going to read through something like that. When they get a campaign piece in the mail, they're going to read the front, if you're lucky, and they just might read the back. Most of them aren't going to open it up. This is a tremendous waste of donor dollars going right into the trash.
4) CHANGE THE RADIO ADS FREQUENTLY] The campaign has been cramming the airwaves with two commercials for the past three weeks or so. That has raised name rec, but its leading to name fatigue already. When I talk to locals about Ron Paul, the response I get lately hasn't been positive because all they know is that they've been hearing the same damn commercials over and over and over, and each commercial mentions his name fifteen times. They're getting tired of it. They've all heard of him by now, but they don't know what he stands for. Record more commercials, aiming at the crucial undeclared voters, making it clear that Ron Paul will end the war before any of the Democratic candidates. Give some pithy comments on the falling dollar, on the effect on the middle class. Don't bring up the gold standard, because almost no one knows what that is anymore. Talk about health care, and how a doctor knows how to fix the system. Talk about Dr. Paul's life story. Talk about his stance on immigration. Just please change it up! People will vote against him because they're tired of hearing the same two commercials. Some have heard them so often they're actually mocking it, reciting it line for line.
5) BE BOLD IN DRAWING DISTINCTIONS In both radio and television ads, use bold, dramatic language to show that Ron Paul is different than every other candidate. We need an equivalent to the famous 1964 Daisy ad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkWAhuXtalw. Go for 60 second ads. The current 30-second ads are too short to convey what this campaign is about. Look, we're running out of time here, and the campaign isn't doing enough to draw over the undeclared voters we need to win this primary - because I have to say that the neocons in the Republican Party aren't going to vote for Dr. Paul in significant numbers. Be brash. Be loud. Take risks. Stake out Dr. Paul's positions and let no one confuse him with the other Republicans. Current polls say about 70% of NH's undeclareds are leaning towards voting in the D primary due to their disgust with the war, and we've got to convince them to ask for an R ballot. Run an ad with film of all the Democratic candidates saying they'll keep troops in Iraq for years, and then have Ron Paul promise to begin troop removal within 60 days of taking office. Run an ad making it clear that the current R candidates are just like the D candidates, and that Ron Paul is truly different. He is the sole choice for change in America, the very definition of anti-establishment. Start making that case, because you aren't making it now, and we're running out of time. Think outside the box.
These comments are meant constructively, and with deep concern for how the campaign is going. If the vote were today Ron Paul would come in fourth, maybe third if overall turnout is low (thereby distilling the effect of his zealous supporters), but that won't be enough. He needs to come in first or second to get any sort of bounce going into South Carolina and the mega-primary in February.
Thanks. The campaign knows where to find me if they need anything. I'm happy to help however I can.
I see the campaign, as well-intentioned as they are, making some serious errors in judgment. Please consider the following advice:
1) HE NEEDS TO SPEND MORE TIME HERE. For Ron Paul to do well, i.e. come in first or second in the NH primary, he needs to practically live here and campaign every day across the state. He needs to stop into every restaurant, every barber shop, and every grocery store. That's how Buchanan won NH, and that's the only way that Ron Paul can pull it off here. Hell, he can have my spare bedroom for free if he wants it (same goes for any RP supporter here to help get him elected.)
2) HOUSE PARTIES, HOUSE PARTIES, HOUSE PARTIES. NH residents are very spoiled, and they take their historic role in picking presidents very seriously. They are accustomed to, if they are so inclined, being able to meet literally every single candidate, and I don't mean meet them at a pre-organized rally. I mean meet them at house parties organized by their supportive neighbor. Hillary Clinton is here all the time, and she has her NH supporters organizing house parties for her to stop by and meet 15-30 people at a time. That's how NH is won, more than any other single strategy. He should be here all the time (and that means not seeing Texas nor Washington DC until the primary) and spend most of his evenings traveling a well-marked route from house party to house party.
3) STOP SENDING HUGE MULTI-PAGE MAILERS I keep seeing these huge, 15-page mail pieces that must cost a fortune to print and mail. Look, most people aren't going to read through something like that. When they get a campaign piece in the mail, they're going to read the front, if you're lucky, and they just might read the back. Most of them aren't going to open it up. This is a tremendous waste of donor dollars going right into the trash.
4) CHANGE THE RADIO ADS FREQUENTLY] The campaign has been cramming the airwaves with two commercials for the past three weeks or so. That has raised name rec, but its leading to name fatigue already. When I talk to locals about Ron Paul, the response I get lately hasn't been positive because all they know is that they've been hearing the same damn commercials over and over and over, and each commercial mentions his name fifteen times. They're getting tired of it. They've all heard of him by now, but they don't know what he stands for. Record more commercials, aiming at the crucial undeclared voters, making it clear that Ron Paul will end the war before any of the Democratic candidates. Give some pithy comments on the falling dollar, on the effect on the middle class. Don't bring up the gold standard, because almost no one knows what that is anymore. Talk about health care, and how a doctor knows how to fix the system. Talk about Dr. Paul's life story. Talk about his stance on immigration. Just please change it up! People will vote against him because they're tired of hearing the same two commercials. Some have heard them so often they're actually mocking it, reciting it line for line.
5) BE BOLD IN DRAWING DISTINCTIONS In both radio and television ads, use bold, dramatic language to show that Ron Paul is different than every other candidate. We need an equivalent to the famous 1964 Daisy ad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkWAhuXtalw. Go for 60 second ads. The current 30-second ads are too short to convey what this campaign is about. Look, we're running out of time here, and the campaign isn't doing enough to draw over the undeclared voters we need to win this primary - because I have to say that the neocons in the Republican Party aren't going to vote for Dr. Paul in significant numbers. Be brash. Be loud. Take risks. Stake out Dr. Paul's positions and let no one confuse him with the other Republicans. Current polls say about 70% of NH's undeclareds are leaning towards voting in the D primary due to their disgust with the war, and we've got to convince them to ask for an R ballot. Run an ad with film of all the Democratic candidates saying they'll keep troops in Iraq for years, and then have Ron Paul promise to begin troop removal within 60 days of taking office. Run an ad making it clear that the current R candidates are just like the D candidates, and that Ron Paul is truly different. He is the sole choice for change in America, the very definition of anti-establishment. Start making that case, because you aren't making it now, and we're running out of time. Think outside the box.
These comments are meant constructively, and with deep concern for how the campaign is going. If the vote were today Ron Paul would come in fourth, maybe third if overall turnout is low (thereby distilling the effect of his zealous supporters), but that won't be enough. He needs to come in first or second to get any sort of bounce going into South Carolina and the mega-primary in February.
Thanks. The campaign knows where to find me if they need anything. I'm happy to help however I can.