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

[sailingaway]

That's not how it works in all caucus states - Colorado is just one example where the Delegates to State vote for National delegates. Just even having that voting priveledge as a delegate is not something the campaign can take credit for, because it's up to the individual. The campaign can take credit for encouraging delegates to run and train them - but it's a bottom up effort in the end.

The campaign did interfere in this as well, and instead of voting on a Ron Paul slate were duped into voting for people who hated Ron Paul in a compromise that didn't actually work out.

My understanding is that the guy in Maine was just a great guy. So it was likely spotty based on the people involved, as well.

 

[parocks]

this is the only thread i've followed today; it lasted the whole workday and shows no sign of letting up.

good times. ; )

Like the olden days

 

[sailingaway]

No, I don't really care about speeches. I want less government. And we need to have the politicians who will vote for less government.

I think you get more of them if people who vote know what they want and why they want it. And to get there, someone has to say something. Because it isn't what they are hearing on Fox news.

 

[Carlybee]

Attacking the official campaign is less appropriate, and more common on this thread.

If not for the grassroots there never would have been a campaign

 

[parocks]

What is it called when one does the same thing over and over and over, expecting different results? Is that the definition of "rational"?

This isn't doing the same thing over and over. People don't have the same hostility to Rand as they do to Ron.

 

[sailingaway]

This isn't doing the same thing over and over. People don't have the same hostility to Rand as they do to Ron.

why do only a certain group of 'people' count as people with you?

Because they have different audiences.

 

[Carlybee]

Can you define principles, or just cut out that part?

Spreading the message of liberty - not getting a good president? That's what you're about?

I want concrete legislative victories, and I just don't care all that much about spreading some message.

I want the LIBERTY, not the MESSAGE OF LIBERTY.

The Good President gets you the LIBERTY.

I want the concrete Liberty result, and it it means that Rand and Mitch work together, I don't care, if it gets me the Liberty result.

No I don't take Mitch at his word. I don't know that he's made that announcement at all. It is reasonable to think that would be the result. We'll have to see.

It's very possible that Benton would've preferred to stay C4L, but the crazy Ron Paul supporters who got all mad when Benton told you we did not win the nomination
continuously bitched at Benton, making it difficult for Benton to continue in that position.

Response deleted for lack of clarity and over the top snarkitude

 

[parocks]

why less appropriate on a grass roots forum?

I don't think people should take careless pot shots, but there were differences of opinion on the goals of the campaign and people have strong feelings about it. Why should they not be able to discuss this? Is there a primary right around the corner we need to worry about?

And why in your view is attacking the grass roots as fringe and crazy and irrational perfectly ok?

more vs less appropriate. gradiations. if this is a grassroots forum, then correcting errors of the grassroots is something that should be done.

 

[sailingaway]

Boo hoo...poor wittle Jessie....we bitched him out LOL

OK, that wasn't your most erudite post.

 

[parocks]

Boo hoo...poor wittle Jessie....we bitched him out LOL

By doing that, that's the result you get.

 

[sailingaway]

more vs less appropriate. gradiations. if this is a grassroots forum, then correcting errors of the grassroots is something that should be done.

But you set yourself up as the all knowing one to 'correct' them to the 'true' path. There are varying opinions.

 

[ninepointfive]

My understanding is that the guy in Maine was just a great guy. So it was likely spotty based on the people involved, as well.

yep

 

[georgiaboy]

After all of this, I really do hope this means the r3volution has just gotten a seat at the head of the big boy table.

Just gotta keep watching closely to see if it's really true, or if the food is cardboard, the table is in the alley, and the seat gets pulled right out from under us as soon as we try to sit down.

Gotta see some real action to replace all the indigestion, poisoning, and scraps tossed our way.

Otherwise, I ain't showing up to eat.

 

[orenbus]

Well, Orenbus, I was working with DAS on ronpaulcountry until you came in.

That's funny considering the ronpaulcountry concept was one that Dave and I had in 2007 but we didn't have time to implement along with the other sites we were working on back then. DAS was pushing the concept of putting ads in college newspapers and was looking for someone with technical and design skills to work with, but that is something completely different and that's how we got together.

But you should've known that already. Because you were busy badmouthing joomla because you're more proficient with drupal. And you took on too many projects and you needed to be bailed out by a chip in.

I do remember him mentioning that you had a joomla site and were looking for a designer to help you work on it with (I'm not a designer by the way), and I don't know anything about joomla, Dave and I felt if we were going to work on a volunteer project we would want to handle both the development and the design. As far as chipin goes as you know they are very common in grassroots projects. But really if you felt you had something to contribute you should have just been positive and done it, or asked if you could help, instead of being negative about someone working on something they felt they can contribute to on a Ron Paul project.

 

[Carlybee]

OK, that wasn't your most erudite post.

It was sarcasm in reponse to Parock's assertion that we bitched about Jessie so much that it drove him out...which is asinine. Jessie is responsible for what happens to his own career.

 

[Havax]

The notion that Benton would get ANY credit for Ron Paul's grassroots movement is insane.

 

[parocks]

The main thing parocks wanted the grassroots to do was to organize small free music concerts around campuses. He did not organize any, though, and neither did anyone else. So, perhaps he's bitter no one took his good advice.

Including himself.

No, that's just what I put in my signature. It was an option. You probably didn't see me pushing that. I was simply providing an option for others to choose from. The structure as I saw it relied on people WITH MONEY who were willing to spend that money on bands. I wasn't going to do much of anything (except putting it in my sig) to get these shows to happen. And they didn't happen, and there were no embarrasing failures. No broken down vans. No lying about KRS-One. No emergency chip-ins because the people in charge don't know what they're doing, and are taking on more than they could accomplish. It was just a thing that people didn't want to do, which was not harmful in the least, and not embarrassing to Ron Paul. 0% facepalm. More than half of the grassroots efforts this time around, the publicized ones, had a healthy amount of facepalm. I was not interested in the slightest in pushing pushing pushing to make something happen that was not feasible. If someone wanted what I could put together, I'd be able to put it together. But if that wasn't what happened, no harm no foul.

My sig did not specify colleges. It could be anywhere where there were people that could be voter IDd, or GOTVd. But I will say that we didn't do anywhere near enough of the Voter ID, voter registration, brute force GOTV around colleges. But the colleges idea that I talked about had more to do with actually having bodies on college campuses on election day, getting random people out to the polls.

There were 100 things that I thought that people should be doing. The free show in my sig was just one.

I was in Maine. Maine was a clean sweep 21/21. So, I'm sure that the results could have been any better at all. 22/21. Not possible. So, clean sweep in my state.

But helmuth - yes, things would've been better if people just did what I told them to do. If I was to have done a show, it would've been in Maine, and Maine is the one and only state where it couldn't have gone better. 21/21. And in Maine, freelance grassroots crazyness was frowned upon, and discipline, structure, training and order were the words of the day. There was actually a "stealth" strategy in Maine. It was believed that not jumping up and down on street corners reminding people about the caucuses would be the best way to go. And those people turned out to be right.

But yes, we can look back at all the posts I made and all the predictions I made, and all the warnings I made, pointing out the likely failures beforehand, and watching the failures take place exactly as I predicted, and yes, I do believe that people should've avoided the failures by implementing the detailed remedies that I often typed out in great detail.

My state was the only perfect state though - all the delegates.

 

[Allan Bartlett]

The better angels of my nature say he did this to infiltrate more into the establishment, but my gut tells me that he did this just to further his own career and get paid. It is Ron Paul's ideas that got Jesse to where he is today. Not the other way around.

 

[RickyJ]

I wonder how Ron feels about one of his family members that he trusted running campaigns for guys that want to destroy the movement he's built. Such a shame.

Yeah, where are Jesse's defenders now? I wonder how many still think he wasn't trying to sabotage the campaign.

Enjoy your money that you took from the grassroots Jesse, it will lead to your total destruction. Money can't buy you happiness.

 

[parocks]

Well, the 2007 thing might explain why he switched over to you so quickly when you got on board.

He wanted a designer. I can design, but he really seemed to want something pixel perfect, especially with the initial sign up, And when you put up yours, it took weeks to get the signup working right. DAS should've just embraced all the functionality that was right there (and there was, and is, a lot of functionality there), instead of his vision of a sign-up screen just the way he wanted it.

But that doesn't matter. The point is, you're the one who said that I didn't do anything, and you were the person who stopped me from working on that project. (not saying any of that mattered though, just that I was working on a project that you took over, and knew that you were doing that, so you shouldn't have accused me of not doing anything because you knew that I was doing something.)

That's funny considering the ronpaulcountry concept was one that Dave and I had in 2007 but we didn't have time to implement along with the other sites we were working on back then. DAS was pushing the concept of putting ads in college newspapers and was looking for someone with technical and design skills to work with, but that is something completely different and that's how we got together.



I do remember him mentioning that you had a joomla site and were looking for a designer to help you work on it with (I'm not a designer by the way), and I don't know anything about joomla, Dave and I felt if we were going to work on a volunteer project we would want to handle both the development and the design. As far as chipin goes as you know they are very common in grassroots projects. But really if you felt you had something to contribute you should have just been positive and done it, or asked if you could help, instead of being negative about someone working on something they felt they can contribute to on a Ron Paul project.