Reporter inquiry: How do you win so many straw polls?

[hazek]

Hey all,

I am a Politico reporter working on a story about Dr. Paul to coincide with the CPAC Straw Poll on Saturday. I'm trying to answer a question I've had for a long time myself: Why does Dr. Paul win or do will at so many straw polls? (Our story will also look at Dr. Paul's presidential ambitions and whether he will run in 2012.)

I've taken a look around the forum and I'm going to include some things like your chip-ins, etc., but I'm really interested to talk to folks about why straw polls are a priority, what sets Dr. Paul's supporters apart from others, how you organize, etc.

My deadline is 2 p.m. today (Thursday). If you'd like to chat, drop me an email: [email protected].

Cheers
KH

Wow a real investigative journalist, aren't you guys extinct?? Mucho props!

Anyway to answer your question: It's a fairly simple answer. People are sick and tired of career politicians spewing lies and saying just about anything to get elected. When you listen to Ron Paul and his rhetoric and then check his voting record you quickly realize you are listening to a principled statesman who not only talks the talk but also consistently walks the walk however unpopular the issue. And a person like that energizes all the apathetic people to volunteer and invest their free time in order to help him spread his common sense message on various forums and social media, collaborating on spontaneous fundraising.. you name it.

EDIT: Btw, I'm from Europe.

 

[hazek]

Now that I've read the thread I have to agree with the rest.

Straw polls specifically are our way of fighting the media bias. He is being constantly marginalized and smeared.

I mean here, take a look at this video montage:


Even if we show up and win a poll, look how he is treated.

 

[dbill27]

Are there huckabee forums or romney forums online with thousands of followers? Don't think so, that should tell you why he wins so much, peace, truth, and freedom breed passion.

 

[Agorism]

This will be an insulting article no doubt.

 

[Hurricane Bruiser]

When politicians continually spin half-truths and we see the results of their actions are running this country into the ground, it is discouraging. Ron Paul is different and inspires us to do all in our power to assist in changing this country in a positive direction. That includes spending time and money (many don't have much of) to promote Ron Paul and more importantly, his ideas.

 

[CAKochenash]

You might consider adding into your article the countless examples, well documented on youtube and other places, of Paul supporters attempting to maintain the integrity of the polls by limiting themselves to a single vote in the straw polls . Evidence proves that supporters of other candidates were not interested in this by jumping back in lines and casting multiple votes at once.

 

[Bryan]

Remind me again why we should help them write an article that seems likely to crap all over us and Dr. Paul?

Politico is a bit diverse, and I see it as illogical to group all the writers in together. Find something that Kasie wrote that is problematic then the case is stronger.

I'll defer a response- lots of good answer, but I did find this related video:

 

[georgiaboy]

This movement has always, always been about ideas, not people. Ron Paul himself has said that. His biggest goal has always to get people to understand and agree with his ideas, regardless of who is saying them. His ideas are the ones America was founded on - a small central government overtly constrained by the constitution to only do a few things, protecting the sovereignty and rights of the individual as the centerpiece of a prosperous republic. It's a message of peace, freedom, and prosperity.

The thing about Ron is that he's one of a tiny handful of legislators who has actually voted, mostly alone, on bill after bill, year after year -- for decades -- in support of these most high of ideals. One can only imagine how prosperous our country's citizenry would be right now if all others had done the same.

How to win a straw poll is pretty simple - show up in numbers and vote. How to get and keep those numbers, and keep them rising, without paying off anyone to do so, without 'padding' the ballot boxes or 'spamming' online polls? Be a man of real principle, backed up by decades of living by and acting on those principles, and simply ask those who support you to begin doing likewise. And continue being the humble gracious man of your word that you are.

More simply put, we're returning the favor to a man who has tirelessly and steadfastly stood in the gap for us, even when we didn't know it or appreciate it.

 

[PatriotOne]

Easy. RP supporters are not your average voter's. We are better educated on the issue's and because of that, fearful of our future, which makes us more motivated to engage in the political process. We could care less if he has good hair like Mitt.

 

[georgiaboy]

BTW, this week's Patriot Act reauthorization vote is a perfect example. Most so-called conservatives voted to keep the surveillance measures in place. How does that square with the constitutional role that the federal government is supposed to have? It. does. not.

Ron Paul was right on this issue from the get go -- he opposed the Patriot Act from the beginning, still is, and is right. It's an intrusion into the private lives of citizens without probable cause, the violation of several of the amendments found in the Bill of Rights. It's not listed in Article 1, section 8 of congress's limited powers. A government with that kind of authority and ability is exactly what our founders fought to prevent, not enable.

 

[pacelli]

Hi Kasie,

Thank you for asking the question.

I know that I am posting past your deadline, so I'll refrain from repeating what has already been said.

Could you please give us the courtesy of providing a link to your story once it has been posted on your company's website?

Thanks in advance.

 

[mello]

Wasn't there a couple youtube videos of Romney supporters stuffing the ballot boxes.
It was the only place you could see it since no mainstream news programs would report it.

 

[hotbrownsauce]

In the most simplistic terms.

RP supporters truly and deeply believe in (small L) libertarian ideas. With all the Federal Government involvement in unconstitutional laws it has caused us libertarians to grow a huge disdain for current politicians and government. Just as the Tea Parties say they are absolutely FED UP so are us RP supporters. We feel so strongly in our ideas and so inspired that we finally have a voice and a force to be reckon with that we are launching a philosophical battle on every front engaging in an all out battle against those calling us crazy or marginalizing us. We fight because it's a battle of big government vs small government and we'll be DAMNED if big government thinks they can win.

 

[Captain Shays]

As to the question about age, I am going to be 52 in July. My wife is two years younger then me. Both us of and two of our children ages 27 and 29 are Ron Paul supporters.

I was a RP supporter since reading an article he wrote back in `1999 which knocked me over. I didn't even know what he looked like back then but watched for anything he wrote or said and the more he wrote and said the bigger fan I became. Now I consider the man my hero.
My wife wasn't very active and she heard me talking about him a lot. Her first real exposure to him was the first Republican debate in 2007 which by the voters numbers he won handedly. It was an MSNBC hosted debate and we went to their website and cast our votes. It said that Ron Paul had 63% of the vote. It stayed like that until the end. I don't think he still had 63% but he won that poll by a lot. There was also a Yahoo poll which we voted for him in and a Politico poll as well. He won them all according to the number of votes. But the next day when we went to look at the final results, the MSNBC page had a big picture of Mitt Romney as their headliner and declared him the winner even though they still had the numbers posted which Ron Paul got the most. Yahoo's poll also had his winning numbers up but declared Romney the winner as well. On Yahoo's page they had a head shot picture of all the Democrat candidates with their names under it on one side and all the Republican candidates with a head shot and their name under it. But where Ron Paul's picture and name were previously, they had a darkened out head and "undecided" where his name was. They had the number of votes he got for sure but instead of going to his name it went to undecided.
The same thing went on with every subsequent debate and poll where we were accused of voting 100 times each which deeply offended both me and my wife.

So in the second poll they had both a internet poll and a phone text poll. So we both voted for Ron Paul of course but then as an experiment she tried to vote for Ron Paul again and I tried to vote for Duncan Hunter just to see what would happen. Neither the internet poll or the phone text poll would allow us. The winning numbers were real and we knew it.
That didn't stop all the political pundits from accusing us of voting 100 times each though.
Then we had a money bomb where we raised $4.3 million in one day. That got Ron Paul a lot of attention and caused a lot of them to admit that maybe there is some real support for Ron Paul out there. Glenn Beck accused us of being terrorists because we had our money bomb on Guy Faulks Day.

But just one month later we had a money bomb on the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party Rebellion and shattered John Kerry's single day fund raising record with $6.5 million. Ironically not one media outlet in the country cared to mention it. My wife and me were proud of our personal effort and the effort of Ron Paul's supporters. It was a personal victory against the mainstream media who were trying to either ignore us/Ron Paul or marginalize him and us.
The response was that the Republicans hosted another debate just a few days later in New Hampshire and excluded only Ron Paul based on a lack of support even though the average contribution to the largest single day find raising effort in US history was $50.

So whenever I see a poll, I go out of my way to vote in it and I think all of us do because it's out only chance to show the world that we're here, we're informed better than the supporters of other candidates, and we're active. Most of all, we're not going away. I for one would willingly be the last standing Ron Paul supporter if it came down to it.

One thing you might want to mention in your article is that with me anyway, this isn't specifically about Ron Paul. It's about the principles. It's about the Constitution. Its about limited government, a non interventionist foreign policy, honesty, integrity, and courage. It just so happens that Ron Paul is the ONLY one I see who embodies all of those things.

 

[JK/SEA]

From the aceofspades site, there was this comment...is this Kasie?....

7

''Is there a "main" website/blog that the Ron Paul people use? I'd like to go mock the shit out of them.''

Posted by: Lincolntf at February 10, 2011 04:44 PM (xMT+4)

 

[yatez112]

From the aceofspades site, there was this comment...is this Kasie?....

7

''Is there a "main" website/blog that the Ron Paul people use? I'd like to go mock the shit out of them.''

Posted by: Lincolntf at February 10, 2011 04:44 PM (xMT+4)

Well, she posted early this morning at 9:01am. What is xMT+4? Wouldn't be logical if that's EST.

 

[Eric21ND]

Your question is wrong. It should be "Why did every story on Ron Paul during the 2008 election cycle refer to him as a quixotic, long shot, fringe, isolationist candidate when he had more military contributions than all the other front runners combined, supports free trade more than any other candidate, and won every debate according to the network's own pollings?"

When is the last time you saw a major network interview a presidential candidate and state to their face they have no chance to win? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-ywngi3i-0 Does that qualify as journalism?

A better question for you is "Why is the media so afraid of Ron Paul becoming president."

Not only that, but we raised nearly $20 million in the 4th quarter of 2007. We were the donation front runner, blowing several candidates out of the water in campaign cash and it got almost no play in the media.

 

[MelissaWV]

I hope the spelling and grammar get checked before the story gets published

Why does Dr. Paul win or do will at so many straw polls?

There was plenty already posted, and the deadline is long gone, so I won't wax poetic about the virtues of the movement.

I will add, though, that the establishment doesn't put as much effort into straw polls. Establishment GOP candidates network among themselves and know that any one of them will rise to the top, while Dr. Paul endures being mischaracterized as a racist kook once again by the media and voters with only a superficial impression of the candidates.

 

[satchelmcqueen]

ron paul tells the truth and thats THE very reason i support him. he blew me away in 2007 in the debates. i tried to catch him lying or going opposite of what he said, then looked at his history and his message. guess what....it never has changed. he is honest and speaks from the heart. he gives me real hope. i love the guy! he is real!

 

[ForLibertyFight]

Ron Paul is a man of integrity. He simply tells it like it is and he will tell it like it is anywhere, in front of any audience.
I respect him because he never votes against his principles which is almost impossible in the dirty game of politics.
I don't always agree with him on all issues but I respect the stances he takes on all issues because I know he won't abandon them.
This is what made me fall in love with Dr. Paul and support him.

His message is also a vital part of why he attracts so many people of different backgrounds. He is for freedom and liberty. If there is a message that will unite all different types of people, it's that. Freedom.

Us, Ron Paul supporters genuinely love freedom and liberty. However, we are not all the same. We don't always agree but the basic foundation of our bond which unite us together is freedom, liberty and Dr. Paul is the man who we look up to as a figure that reminds us that we can make a difference.

Ron Paul is Howard Roark. Men of integrity.