Ron Paul effectively tied in 1st is better than leading with 1st

[sailingaway]

Considering she get the "hometown" bump and we were still only 152 votes behind this is perfect!

And we have the only Texan who didn't work for Al Gore.

Winning.

lol at the hometown bump! Politico tweeted during her speech that all that over the top 'I'm from Iowa' stuff would make a perfect commercial for a challenger to run in her next congressional election.

 

[libertybrewcity]

I think anything Ron Paul does is going to be spun like crazy. There is no way around it. A win would have been nice. It would have given us some energy, but I think we can still definitely win the Iowa Caucus.

People that don't live in Iowa must call people that live there and spread the word. If we can get this many votes, then we can definitely activate supporters to win the Iowa Caucuses in FIVE MONTHS from now.

 

[TRIGRHAPPY]

A few things to keep in mind:

Ron Paul not only beat Romney's 2007 total, but actually got the 4th highest votes.....for anyone, EVER.

So lets just keep that in perspective.

 

[Aliangel]

We don't have to win the cuacus, we just need to get a decent number of delegates in IA!!

 

[Slimdude20]

lol at the hometown bump! Politico tweeted during her speech that all that over the top 'I'm from Iowa' stuff would make a perfect commercial for a challenger to run in her next congressional election.

Wait. Did she say she was from Iowa? She should have mentioned it more.... I dont know where she would have fit it in her speech though with all that valuable information on how she planned on running the country if she won. really interesting her views on the war(s), monetary policy, job creation, etc.

Oh wait. She didnt mention that stuff at all.

In fact Ron Paul IS saying what he would do to get us back on track. People want solutions.

 

[trey4sports]

We don't have to win the cuacus, we just need to get a decent number of delegates in IA!!

no, we need to win. Everyone already thinks we're a fringe campaign. Unless we get a first place showing early on, we simply aren't going to gain the momentum we need.

 

[hueylong]

This is a decent bit of analysis. A big RP win would have been dismissed as another 'Ron Paul Straw Poll Win"... This way, we are definitely in the mix. Plus, it keeps Bachmann strong enough to split the votes of Romney and Denethor Perry.

 

[Airborn]

I think almost winning this will be the gasoline for our fire. 2007 was the spark and the fire has been burning ever since.

 

[libertybrewcity]

We don't have to win the cuacus, we just need to get a decent number of delegates in IA!!

We WILL win the caucus and many more states after that.

 

[pauliticalfan]

Amazing result.

Bachmann was supposed to have won in a landslide with 6k+ votes. Instead, she barely wins and will still be attacked.

Ron Paul is now a top tier candidate.

 

[pauliticalfan]

Another thought: this result creates complacency for Bachmann supporters come caucus time. This will light a fire under our ass come caucus time to not want to repeat a close 2nd place finish.

 

[bunklocoempire]

lol at the hometown bump! Politico tweeted during her speech that all that over the top 'I'm from Iowa' stuff would make a perfect commercial for a challenger to run in her next congressional election.

And this race.

Bachman: I'm from Iowa

American1: I'm from Hawaii

Bachman: I'm from Iowa

American2: I'm from Oregon

Bachman: I'm from Iowa

American3: I'm from Texas

Bachman: I'm from Iowa

American4 (perturbed): I'M from Iowa

Bachman: I'm from Iowa

American5 (resolved): I'm from Minnesota *click* (turns off MB) fade to "Ron Paul for individual liberty, and America"

-run it in MN, play up the MN vs Iowa rivalry.

Yeah, it's rough -maybe someone can run with it.


Bunkloco

 

[Jingles]

Who the hell is Randy Travis and why is everyone complaining about him!?

 

[dusman]

Let's also keep in mind most of us here were perhaps more confident in a 1st place finish, because of all the activity that was going on. However, we are probably a minority of the Ron Paul support.. so to a lot of our support who hasn't gotten active yet, they are going to be quite surprised by a 2nd place finish. This will awaken a part of our base that wasn't really on-board again yet. Most of them have no idea what we've been doing in Iowa. Come around this next time, we'll have twice the activity with this stuff.

This keeps us under the radar and crucial to us. There is no opportunity now for the MSM to downplay anything. There is perceived dirt on Ron Paul that would have been slung all over the place if he won. They'll do that to Bachmann now.

1st place would have resulted in nothing but negativity, but now they are forced to give our placement a positive spin, because of how close it was. Ultimately, this shift in the dynamic of the "mood", perception is extremely important and it's kind of odd to think 1st place wouldn't be better for us.. I can't help, but think it just might be. But, the positive spin will have surprising influence among the voting base, as up to this point everything they have been exposed to has been mostly negative for Paul, with exception to perhaps Freedom Watch.

Going into this with 10-16% support nationally, let's see what the poll numbers say afterwards. I think non-supporters will be more impressed than we are on this board. We aren't so bad to set high expectations! When we don't meet the mark.. I don't know about you all, but it puts some more fire under my ass.

Edit: Also wanted to add that it might be that Michele Bachmann is an ally to us right now. By that I mean look at this result. Over 50% of the voters today, voted for a Constitutionally-Conservative position. This is a really important shift, because it might establish the theme of the 2012 election. If that is the case, I don't believe Michele Bachmann is a strong candidate, but she will certainly help us make the message popular. The only shift we need to make in her support is their understanding of the Patriot Act and why that is bad.

 

[harikaried]

Who the hell is Randy Travis and why is everyone complaining about him!?

He's a Grammy Award winning country singer where people had to vote first before being allowed to attend his performance in the Bachmann tent.

 

[New York For Paul]

I forgot my main point before hitting submit and edited it in:

For those that agree with Ron Paul but didn't actively support him, this will still be a big win in their eyes, and they will now come out to help.

There are many people on the fence because they claim that Ron Paul cannot win. They don't need to be convinced of Dr. Paul's positions. Their argument of him not winning is effectively thrown out the window with this 1st place tie.

I agree that the national media won't give Ron Paul as much attention as Bachmann, but who is to say that they would have if he came in first?

We need to let everyone know that Ron Paul Can Win! We are grassroots, and we can make that happen.

Close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades. We need a win to prove that Ron Paul can win. MB just got huge boost.

 

[New York For Paul]

He's a Grammy Award winning country singer where people had to vote first before being allowed to attend his performance in the Bachmann tent.

Ron Paul had Sara Evans sing at his event in minnesota. Maybe the campaign should have done that again.

 

[rich34]

Hank Jr would have been better than gold!!

 

[gyrmnix]

Yeah!!! I am excited at the results Ron Paul received. I would much rather have him in second than outright first place. This way the MSM can't dismiss the results as irrelevant and the odds are in Ron Paul's favor to get the GOP nomination.
President George Bush Was the only president EVER to win the Iowa straw poll, the Iowa caucus, the the GOP nomination, right?

RON PAUL 2012!!!!!!!

1979: Bush won the straw poll, and Iowa. Reagan won the nomination and presidency.
1987: Robertson won the poll. Dole won the Caucus. Bush won the nomination and presidency.
1995: Dole and Gramm tied in the poll. Dole won Iowa and the nomination.
1999: Bush won the poll, Iowa, the nomination and the presidency.
2007: Romney won the poll. Huckabee won the caucus. McCain won the nomination.

Ames only predicted the caucus winner 3 times (if you count '95) and the nomination 1 time.

 

[angelatc]

Bachmann is not perceived as establishment.

But Perry and Romney are going to view her as the one to beat. Those three are going to beat the living hell out of each other, while we pretty much will be stuck dealing with the media.