What most influenced our 5th place finish in Iowa?

[IHaveaDream]

Ok, let's see if we have a consensus as to what we need to focus on the hardest at the point.

 

[RickyJ]

Hard work. Congratulations everybody!

We exceeded expectations and will do better in NH.

Super Tuesday is our big day. Ron Paul needs to win at least half the states to stay in the race. He can do it.

 

[IHaveaDream]

I have to think it was the demographic that was most influental.

 

[Bruehound]

Poor GOTV. Research everything that involves and do better.

 

[braumstr]

People in Iowa agree with Tencredo on Foreign policy, and with Edwards/Obama/Clinton on health care.

Thats my guess. Call that demographic if you want, but thats the two issues I get brought up with I have a serious discussion with a Republican or a Dem concerning Dr. Paul.

 

[fireworks_god]

First off, it is clear that Ron Paul has a great support base, solid and strong, and impressive in numbers, but we CAN'T do this alone.

I think that we simply have been too involved with the forums and not involved nearly enough in reaching people. We have a GREAT candidate but he is too un-status quo to make it easy, and we have a lot of support and enthusiasm, but we don't have the best organization on the ground to get the votes in.

However, we are talking about Iowa here, which is probably the state slanted agansit us the most, and we didn't lose third place by much! This is inspiring. Granted, the fact that McCain and Thompson slid in, in front of us, makes it more challenging for us to topple them in New Hampshire....

BUT again! The vote is still SPLIT. If we would have taken higher in Iowa, I honestly believe it wouldn't have been the best for us. The only real question is how we do in New Hampshire. I have a feeling that Obama taking Iowa is going to pull independents towards him more.

I really think it depends on what we can pull of in New Hampshire, regarding John McCain especially, but also Fred Thompson. The fact that I'm assuming he will stay in through means that his support won't go to John McCain, making it EASIER for us to take John McCain and Thompson.

The question remains... What can we do to take third place in New Hampshire?

We need to think hard on this, but not long, because we don't have time. This is a test, but we shouldn't be discouraged, because we are STILL capable of pulling this thing off. The window of opportunity is STILL there.

 

[fireworks_god]

We exceeded expectations and will do better in NH.

Are you sure? I think it was pretty damn clear that our expectations for Iowa, and the expectations others had for us in Iowa, was third place.

Super Tuesday is our big day. Ron Paul needs to win at least half the states to stay in the race. He can do it.

Let's start being honest so we can realize what we need to do to actually win. Optimism is a wonderful motivator but I think we got too full of ourselves about the polls being inaccurate (they weren't) and what our money meant.

We did great, but the fact that we did not get third makes it even more difficult to build momentum, which is what we need. Our margin for victory is thinner. John McCain and Thompson, while not ahead of us by much, have more of an edge agansit us in New Hampshire, ESPECIALLY McCain, and if Thompson DOES decide to make a deal with McCain and endorse him, considering that his support would go to McCain even without an official endorsement, Ron Paul's chances are finished.

If we want this, we have to work HARD. Time is short. Do we want this or not? We HAVE to take McCain out in New Hampshire in order to have our chance. The idea that we will just somehow take a lot of states on Super Tuesday is not grounded in reality in the slightest, unless we actually do something to make it happen.

We lost the battle but we will not lose the war, if we do indeed go to war! We have a status quo dragging continuously agansit our efforts.

What do we each specifically need to do to make this happen?

 

[MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2]

I voted "demographic," but the establishment matters just as much. We can still overcome the establishment, but we have a lot of work to do. All of us.

 

[leglock]

demographic followed by the campaign.

 

[freelance]

NOT GETTING VOTERS TO THE POLLS!

We lost third place by less than 1000 votes.

With 96% reporting:

http://www.politico.com/iowacaucuses/iowamap-popup.html

 

[GunnyFreedom]

Poor GOTV. Research everything that involves and do better.

+1

 

[Greg in VA]

Iowa posed a problem due to the large evangelical base, plain and simple, just like the Hucksters fake folksy persona. This was Huckabee territory. New Hampshire and then South Carolina are the key states.

If our candidate does well in New Hampshire and if we can build up a strong base in South Carolina then the sky is the limit. Look at Bush in 2000, he basically won in South Carolina and from that point on pretty much stomped McCain. Our best bet is for Romney to tar and feather McCain with attack ads. Huckabee does not stand a chance in New Hampshire, New Englanders will have none of that folksy baptist preacher manure, period. New Hampshire is where the RP message should resonate, and I believe it is where the campaign and grassroots have spent the most time.

Lastly, since RP did not practically live in Iowa our 10% showing is not bad, granted not as good as many would have liked, myself included I really hopped for a 3rd place showing. Fred Thompson's campaign is on life support and most likely he will bow out of the race. We should hope that he sticks it out in NH just to split the McCain vote, a fractured vote works to our advantage.

NH has many pluses, no idiotic caucus, it is a primary and secret ballot. Just think if you were in Iowa sitting on the fence at the caucus and you really wanted to vote for RP, but your boss on some other powerful figure is there in the room for Huck, McCain, or Romney, if you were just marginally leaning toward Paul, it would be hard to go against established interest in such a scenario, in particular if someone could impact your overall welfare (i.e. job). Personally, that is why I despise the caucus system for it pretty much ensures a political machine, establishment type politics, secret ballot is and will always be the way to go. NH leans libertarian, and there are large numbers of independents, we need to keep in mind that we did will with independents in Iowa.

 

[Bradley in DC]

Not the demographic

This was Dr. Paul's state to lose. It is the most anti-war of the Republicans state in the country. Non-interventionist, skeptical of entangling alliances, pro-life, anti-tax, pro-gun, etc.

Making excuses for the official campaign staff will only bring more disappointment.

 

[MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2]

Are you sure? I think it was pretty damn clear that our expectations for Iowa, and the expectations others had for us in Iowa, was third place.

What others? MSM is probably frightened that Paul was within 3 percentage points of 3rd. We pretty much proved their polls to be inaccurate. Their coverage of Paul has been non-existant or vile for the most part. CNN had a giant chunk of their pie chart missing just so they wouldn't have to display his name. They're becoming more and more frightened.

Think about it... what sort of an idiot would turn a pie chart like that in to an employer, use it in a presentation, or turn it in for a grade at an educational institution? Not even the biggest of idiots would do that. They're running scared. We've consistently beaten their expectations.

 

[jeremycobert]

here are a few things i learned in my first iowa caucus (cr-26)

1. old people do not know ron paul. one guy who was helping verify the count for mcain was surprised we got 7 vote as he had never heard of RP.

2. people tune out the TV ad's after getting bombarded with them and RP's ad do not stand out. the HQ needs to go negative NOW !!!

3. Gun owners are easy to convert

4. young people (under 35) were in the hucksters camp much more then our side, this is unacceptable ! we need to be the "cool" candidate.

 

[jeremycobert]

no idiotic caucus, it is a primary and secret ballot. Just think if you were in Iowa sitting on the fence at the caucus and you really wanted to vote for RP, but your boss on some other powerful figure is there in the room for Huck, McCain, or Romney, if you were just marginally leaning toward Paul, it would be hard to go against established interest in such a scenario, in particular if someone could impact your overall welfare (i.e. job).

the iowa republican caucus is a secret ballot, the democrats have the open voting caucus, so we cant use that as an excuse.

 

[ronpaulfollower999]

4. young people (under 35) were in the hucksters camp much more then our side, this is unacceptable ! we need to be the "cool" candidate.

Whats so cool about Huckabee?? Fascism must be popular.

 

[RPDelegate]

I picked other - from what I saw it looked like the campaign did nothing to ensure there were precinct captains in every precinct, and in turn there were was a huge lack of RP delegates to vote for. And when this was noticed by RP supporters at the caucus, most of them just sat around and didn't do anything. No speeches to promote RP at their caucus, and no one saying I'll be a delegate when they noticed no one there was a RP delegate.

 

[jeremycobert]

Whats so cool about Huckabee?? Fascism must be popular.

my point is that lame ass huckster had a lot of young people there for him, we didn't. someone need to make our campaign hip or cool or even a rebel type outsider .. anything to attract more young people.

 

[ProtusMose]

I voted campaign. I live in Omaha/Bellevue, just across the river from Council Bluffs, IA, and our tv stations are pretty much what feeds a good portion of the western part of Iowa. I never saw a single Paul commercial leading up until yesterday.