Mitch McConnell hires Jesse Benton to run his 2014 re-election bid

[AJ Antimony]

Ok well, he can hire Jesse Benton... and his primary challenger can hire David Adams.

 

[sailingaway]

Good for Jesse.

Like it or not this probably means that McConnell will endorse Rand for 2016.

For what consideration?

That is the concern.

 

[parocks]

I agree with that, personally.

But he is supported by people inside and OUTSIDE the GOP. That is Ron's huge value, independents and crossovers who don't feel represented by either of the main parties feel represented by Ron. Some will become GOP and work within it, some won't, but will be there in general elections, for volunteer work and funding, or will support his legislative proposals such as end the fed, or some of those.

No one else has a tie to these people. This is Ron's UNIQUE VALUE beyond organization. We sure don't want to throw it away.

Those Is and Ds did not make Conservative Republicans happy. Those Is and Ds are not particularly effective at communicating with Conservative Republicans. The fight that we had to win in the primaries, and didn't, at all, was to make it absolutely clear that Ron Paul was a Conservative. The word Libertarian is used as an insult, meant to divide Ron Paul from Conservative Republicans. We shouldn't be embracing that label.

I'm not suggesting the interesting coalition of people (who often do not like each other) is not useful. But when the Conservative Republicans you have to have to win a primary associate Ron Paul with the antiwar protesting left, you have a real problem which leads to winning no primaries.

 

[sailingaway]

Those Is and Ds did not make Conservative Republicans happy. Those Is and Ds are not particularly effective at communicating with Conservative Republicans. The fight that we had to win in the primaries, and didn't, at all, was to make it absolutely clear that Ron Paul was a Conservative. The word Libertarian is used as an insult, meant to divide Ron Paul from Conservative Republicans. We shouldn't be embracing that label.

I'm not suggesting the interesting coalition of people (who often do not like each other) is not useful. But when the Conservative Republicans you have to have to win a primary associate Ron Paul with the antiwar protesting left, you have a real problem which leads to winning no primaries.

But they sure want him on their side when it comes to the general election, don't they?

I'm remembering something Amash said about how maybe not many endorse Ron from the House but his is the ONE endorsement everyone wants to get.

 

[parocks]

Ok, we're talking about math. Are we talking about the percentage of the tea party that supports Ron Paul? I'd say a minority. And I'd say double digits. So, somewhere between 10 and 50 % but closer to 10%. The grassroots dropped this ball in December 2011 by not reminding people of the invention of the Tea Party in 2007. We apparently want no allies, do not want to join together with anybody we don't agree with 100% in order to achieve objectives. This strategy seems to lead to not achieving objectives very often.

Can you read? I said percentage. single. digit. percentage. Jesse is that you?
Like Maine is representative of the rest of the country. How many electoral votes do you have?
Was I talking about Maine alone? No, why would I?
Now it may be the same way in KY, I don't know, but the majority of the country that considers themselves Tea Party would have nothing to do with Paul, and most continuously trashed him and backed a Santorum or Gingrich this this election cycle. Many of them downright hate Ron. Yet in my home state at both CD and State conventions, there were three factions, establishment, Tea Party, and Ron Paul liberty people. None of them had a majority, but we were able to get the Tea party folks who blatantly said would never vote for RP and would support Romney, to vote with us in a coalition to get people in positions that we both wanted, because the establishment types have been screwing both grassroots factions over for so long. This happened across the state, the state with the second largest electoral vote in the nation and the largest GOP convention in the world, and is largely representative of what the reality is in the majority of rest of the nation is as far as I can discern.

 

[sailingaway]

Ok, we're talking about math. Are we talking about the percentage of the tea party that supports Ron Paul? I'd say a minority. And I'd say double digits. So, somewhere between 10 and 50 % but closer to 10%. The grassroots dropped this ball in December 2011 by not reminding people of the invention of the Tea Party in 2007. We apparently want no allies, do not want to join together with anybody we don't agree with 100% in order to achieve objectives. This strategy seems to lead to not achieving objectives very often.

Real life doesn't work like statistics. Ron is electric, and the tea party name has been adopted by non RP people, as well as there having been disagreements in the beginning. But look outside. A third of the country, more of the country than are GOP, are independents. You don't think that worries the establishment?

 

[alucard13mmfmj]

So money and social gains is all that is needed for little Benton to work for someone who is not a friend of the movement. LOL. I guess Benton doesn't care or believe in anything his Grandfather-in-Law says about these politician types.

If he is selling out now, I'd imagine he sold us out during the campaign.

 

[parocks]

But they sure want him on their side when it comes to the general election, don't they?

I'm remembering something Amash said about how maybe not many endorse Ron from the House but his is the ONE endorsement everyone wants to get.

I don't know if they do or not. We assume they do. Of course, they're used to not having our vote, and they're used to not doing anything to try to get it. We're unreliable voters, and they don't pander to us. We assume they want our vote though, for some reason. There's a Libertarian Party for us to vote for. There's a Constitutional Party for us to vote for. It seems like the general attitude has been "look, over there, go over there and leave us alone."

But they have to want our vote in some cases, it seems apparent.

 

[Carlybee]

My problem is that the grassroots didn't really do much worthwhile, didn't kick ass at all. Superbrochures sucked. Revpac sucked. There was a lot of sucked, and not much kick ass achievement.

I guess you don't call raising millions of dollars or GOTV efforts an achievement?

 

[sailingaway]

So money and social gains is all that is needed for little Benton to work for someone who is not a friend of the movement. LOL. I guess Benton doesn't care or believe in anything his Grandfather-in-Law says about these politician types.

If he is selling out now, I'd imagine he sold us out during the campaign.

Or, with similar result, if he is the right guy for McConnell, maybe his go along to get along approach reflected in the campaign means his decisions were the antipathy of what we stand for, even if it wasn't about 'selling out'. He may or may not have been influenced much by that, I don't even have to go there. But I don't know much that could say he was the wrong person for Ron's campaign as much as his going to McConnell's, personally.

 

[parocks]

So money and social gains is all that is needed for little Benton to work for someone who is not a friend of the movement. LOL. I guess Benton doesn't care or believe in anything his Grandfather-in-Law says about these politician types.

If he is selling out now, I'd imagine he sold us out during the campaign.

This helps Rand.

Am I the only person who realizes that Rand is up for Reelection to US Senate at the same time that he'd be running for President in 2016?

You, know if Rand goes out of his way to challenge Mitch in 2014, Mitch might want to challenge Rand for US Senate in 2016. It's very very difficult to run for US Senate and President at the same time. Having Mitch attacking you makes it so much harder to do. So, Benton helping Mitch might make it less likely that Mitch hinders Rand in 2016.

 

[sailingaway]

I guess you don't call raising millions of dollars or GOTV efforts an achievement?

We were funneled to phones and the campaign was throwing cold water and people were trying to defer to Ron's campaign, as well. And the superbrochures were damaging possibly in the beginning in Iowa and SC where Ron was running and we were talking very conservative GOP primary voters. In the end when the campaign wasn't doing anything, it was all we had.

 

[cajuncocoa]

Ron Paul was a Republican Congressman in the 70s and 80s. Left very briefly in 1988. And then got back again and became a Republican Congressman in the 90s and 00s.

Of course I know that. But it was as a Libertarian that he first ran for POTUS. Point being, he didn't always feel that the GOP represented him. It didn't...and it still doesn't.

 

[specsaregood]

Does anybody have Mr. Benton's email or mailing address? I'd like to send him a thank you note for all his hard work.

PM me with info, thanks in advance.

 

[steph3n]

Maybe he can be a chairman for Lindsey Graham's campaign as well! that would just be epic in its stature to support the worse.

 

[cajuncocoa]

Does anybody have Mr. Benton's email or mailing address? I'd like to send him a thank you note for all his hard work.

PM me with info, thanks in advance.

I'll bet you would. Interesting how this thread has revealed those who really were about supporting Ron's values and those who just wanted to play party politics.

 

[parocks]

I guess you don't call raising millions of dollars or GOTV efforts an achievement?

The biggest moneybomb in 2007 was bigger than the biggest moneybomb in 2011.

You can't just proclaim that raising money was what "grassroots" did. I could easily just say that was the official campaign.

What effective "grassroots" GOTV was there? GOTV is typically an official campaign function. Phone from Home, the major GOTV effort, was done by the official campaign, with support from "campaign volunteers", which aren't the same as grassroots.

 

[BamaFanNKy]

I'll bet you would. Interesting how this thread has revealed those who really were about supporting Ron's values and those who just wanted to play party politics.

Ron Thanked him. Guess Ron was playing party politics.

 

[parocks]

Of course I know that. But it was as a Libertarian that he first ran for POTUS. Point being, he didn't always feel that the GOP represented him. It didn't...and it still doesn't.

But he ran as a Republican over and over and over again, and as a Libertarian 1 (one) time. He's more a Republican than a Libertarian.

 

[specsaregood]

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