He Who Pawns
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1. The Ads
2. The Ads
3. Campaign Management
2. The Ads
3. Campaign Management
What were the biggest mistakes of the RP 08 campaign?
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John of Des Moines
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The biggest mistake the campaign made was the following:
The Monday after the August 07 Iowa Straw Poll three members of the Iowa campaign staff and one from national met with WHO AM 1040 radio talk show host Jan Michaelson and was immediately offered (without asking) one hour every two weeks and ten minutes the opposite week for Dr. Paul to call in and discuss his positions. My quick calculations makes that 15 or so hours of FREE airtime on the most listened to radio station in Iowa. Michaelson was a supporter and would not have bit Paul like he did Mitt whose front runner status waned after he ran out of a Michaelson interview. The afternoon drive guy Steve Deace basically ran an Huckebee infomercial from September to the caucus. If you overlay a coverage map over a map of the vote it shows where WHO signal is strong Huckebee won and where is the signal is weak Mitt won.
And since Paul made the decision to obey his oath and limit campaigning while Congress was in session it became real hard to go to county Republican meetings and such and when asked when they could meet Dr. Paul all I could do is shrug my shoulders and say "I don't know." But if he did the radio offer a lot of people would have heard him explain why he wasn't in Iowa that often. (Or we would have had cd's available of the radio interviews.)
Had Paul came in a good top three position then the MSM would have been forced cover him more.
And I think a blimp floating over Iowa with an electronic message board would have been cost effective.
The Monday after the August 07 Iowa Straw Poll three members of the Iowa campaign staff and one from national met with WHO AM 1040 radio talk show host Jan Michaelson and was immediately offered (without asking) one hour every two weeks and ten minutes the opposite week for Dr. Paul to call in and discuss his positions. My quick calculations makes that 15 or so hours of FREE airtime on the most listened to radio station in Iowa. Michaelson was a supporter and would not have bit Paul like he did Mitt whose front runner status waned after he ran out of a Michaelson interview. The afternoon drive guy Steve Deace basically ran an Huckebee infomercial from September to the caucus. If you overlay a coverage map over a map of the vote it shows where WHO signal is strong Huckebee won and where is the signal is weak Mitt won.
And since Paul made the decision to obey his oath and limit campaigning while Congress was in session it became real hard to go to county Republican meetings and such and when asked when they could meet Dr. Paul all I could do is shrug my shoulders and say "I don't know." But if he did the radio offer a lot of people would have heard him explain why he wasn't in Iowa that often. (Or we would have had cd's available of the radio interviews.)
Had Paul came in a good top three position then the MSM would have been forced cover him more.
And I think a blimp floating over Iowa with an electronic message board would have been cost effective.
max
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damn right!...aravoths stuff kicked ass
Lovecraftian4Paul
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1. The weak campaign ads, as everyone else has pointed out. RP needed ads that hit the economy and the war hard. These were the real issues in the 2008 election.
2. Talking uncertainly about whether or not he was open to a third party campaign, and then shutting the door on it in February. This created kind of a buzz kill. And I know some think otherwise, but all signs pointed to Ron Paul being open to a third party run, at least up through Super Tuesday. He admitted he left the door cracked open a little for it in the Tim Russert Meet the Press interview. I honestly think he would have considered it if he had won a state or reached higher percentages in the early primaries. I don't blame Dr. Paul totally though. He would have only done it if he thought he could reach the threshold needed to be in the debates. This seemed doubtful to him as his performance in the primaries rolled in and the donations decreased hugely.
3. The rest of the campaign after Super Tuesday. I understand he was saving some money for the CFL. However, there were a couple mistakes here. Things were practically shut down in February and his staff made a big deal about Chris Peden being a threat to RP's congressional seat. This was never the case. They should have used some of the money to run ads and campaign in the remaining primaries. No, he couldn't have won, but he could have spread the message further.
I also still don't see why he dropped out about a year ago in June. The CFL didn't do anything for most of last year until the fall rally. It didn't seem like there was a need to roll the money over until after the convention and officially kick off the group. Though his chance at the GOP nomination was next to nil at this point, he should have stayed in until the convention and contested McCain's coronation.
2. Talking uncertainly about whether or not he was open to a third party campaign, and then shutting the door on it in February. This created kind of a buzz kill. And I know some think otherwise, but all signs pointed to Ron Paul being open to a third party run, at least up through Super Tuesday. He admitted he left the door cracked open a little for it in the Tim Russert Meet the Press interview. I honestly think he would have considered it if he had won a state or reached higher percentages in the early primaries. I don't blame Dr. Paul totally though. He would have only done it if he thought he could reach the threshold needed to be in the debates. This seemed doubtful to him as his performance in the primaries rolled in and the donations decreased hugely.
3. The rest of the campaign after Super Tuesday. I understand he was saving some money for the CFL. However, there were a couple mistakes here. Things were practically shut down in February and his staff made a big deal about Chris Peden being a threat to RP's congressional seat. This was never the case. They should have used some of the money to run ads and campaign in the remaining primaries. No, he couldn't have won, but he could have spread the message further.
I also still don't see why he dropped out about a year ago in June. The CFL didn't do anything for most of last year until the fall rally. It didn't seem like there was a need to roll the money over until after the convention and officially kick off the group. Though his chance at the GOP nomination was next to nil at this point, he should have stayed in until the convention and contested McCain's coronation.
The extremely late start. Mitt Romney and others were already organized in Iowa for a year. By the time we picked up in the polls, Iowa was over.
People in the grassroots wanted to run a national campaign, instead of targeting Iowa and NH first. This was the Giuliani strategy, and a losing strategy. At least Giuliani had name recognition to run a national campaign. We didn't. It made no sense.
Heck, even Mitt Romney understood he was not well known enough to run a national campaign. Huckabee realized this as well, and basically lived in Iowa, interacting with the local people every day. His poll numbers soared. When McCain won NH, he rest of the states were his. His national poll numbers went from 10% to 40% overnight.
By the time we realized that we should target locally, it was too little too late. More time spent in Iowa and NH by staff, grassroots, and Paul himself would have gone a long way.
I think that when you begin at 0% and end up being the top fund raiser, setting and then breaking records while garnering millions of supporters and educating many millions more in the most corrupt, rigged process...
You did everything right.
I learned what Congressional District I'm in. I met my Congressional Rep and both of my state's Senators as a delegate. I met and spoke with : Mike Huckabee, Tancredo, Tommy Thompson and Gilmore. I participated in the GOP conventions and learned how the system works. I logged over 10,000 miles in 6 states. I met and befriended great Americans from all walks of life. I met and spoke with Congressman Paul several times, once at length. I met and spoke with Mrs. Paul many times. I learned who are the good guys and who are the bad guys, and how to remove the bad guys.
I learned so many new things about the country I was born in, they're too numerous to list.
Thanks to Ron Paul, who kicked serious ass, day after day after day.
When I took My NH debate RP sign to have RP sign it, I wrote the date and the fact that that trip put me over 10,000 miles on the sign and handed it to him.
He said, Gee Dave, it takes me a whole day to do that"., then he smiled and punched me in the arm...HARD!
No way he lost anything in my book.
There was no chance to win and I sure wish people would just deal with that and stop finding fault with the historic run by a 70 year old Patriot who has beaten the same drum tirelessly for more than 30 years.
To quote JFK: "The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans".
Take it and run.
Bosso
You did everything right.
I learned what Congressional District I'm in. I met my Congressional Rep and both of my state's Senators as a delegate. I met and spoke with : Mike Huckabee, Tancredo, Tommy Thompson and Gilmore. I participated in the GOP conventions and learned how the system works. I logged over 10,000 miles in 6 states. I met and befriended great Americans from all walks of life. I met and spoke with Congressman Paul several times, once at length. I met and spoke with Mrs. Paul many times. I learned who are the good guys and who are the bad guys, and how to remove the bad guys.
I learned so many new things about the country I was born in, they're too numerous to list.
Thanks to Ron Paul, who kicked serious ass, day after day after day.
When I took My NH debate RP sign to have RP sign it, I wrote the date and the fact that that trip put me over 10,000 miles on the sign and handed it to him.
He said, Gee Dave, it takes me a whole day to do that"., then he smiled and punched me in the arm...HARD!
No way he lost anything in my book.
There was no chance to win and I sure wish people would just deal with that and stop finding fault with the historic run by a 70 year old Patriot who has beaten the same drum tirelessly for more than 30 years.
To quote JFK: "The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans".
Take it and run.
Bosso
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AuH2O
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You have said in the past that you believe the main purpose of centralized campaign management is to produce convincing television advertisement.
This is -- to me at least -- clearly the complaint of a very adamant and committed grassroots supporter who is only willing to see and acknowledge the effect of the very visible blanket mass marketing without understanding all of the other subtler intricacies of running a national campaign (or a statewide or districtwide campaign, for that matter).
There is far more to campaigning than the blanket "beat everyone over the head with a single message" marketing that is so clearly visible.
ingrid
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Yes, it would have helped him to keep his message short and simple, instead of going off into theory.
& also with his war message...I don't think it was enough to get most liberals to vote for him.
Dave
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- Ron Paul not spending enough time on the ground in Iowa, especially since it was a caucus instead of a primary.
- Some Ron Paul supporters acting like paranoid screwballs and/or frightening the very people we were trying to bring on board.
- Too many supporters thinking that waving signs and being right would give us the win and not being willing to do the hard work in their own precincts.
Cap'n Crunk
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Aravoth's videos along with a New Hope, were the easiest way for me to sell Ron Paul to people. We need videos like these to go even more viral next go around. I'm ashamed with myself that I didn't demand more people to watch these videos. They work!!!! Especially at waking up apathetic people who really think all the candidates are the same.
james1906
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RP needed to play to the base more. He should have kept name dropping Reagan, Goldwater, and Friedman.
RP needed to loosen up more. That's why Huckabee gained so much ground after being considered an also-ran at first. He's a baby doctor from the rural South; the charm comes prepackaged.
RP needed to loosen up more. That's why Huckabee gained so much ground after being considered an also-ran at first. He's a baby doctor from the rural South; the charm comes prepackaged.
MikeStanart
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Yeah, why didn't he bring up the fact that he was friends with Reagan!??
fr33domfightr
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1) To help bring in people to the campaign, Ron Paul should have mentioned Meetup.com at every interview he had. People needed to know where they could go to actively participate, early on.
2) Although Meetup.com was a good tool for the Grassroots, I'd really liked to have seen a more coordinated approach from the Campaign Managment, whereby they harnessed the grassroots to help out where help was needed. There was no connection that I could see. The Management did there thing, and the Grassroots did theirs, independently, but I think this hurt Ron Paul's effectiveness.
3) Ron Paul himself, stated many times, he didn't want to run anyone's life. Fine, we get that. At the same time, people want someone to understand what's going on, and LEAD!! DON'T RUN OUR LIVES, BUT HELP THE COUNTRY BY PROVIDING DIRECTION TO MAKE IT BETTER!! I think people didn't see the desire in him, to lead.
4) I heard this from a person who created one of the successful money bomb ads: They said campaign management didn't actively include the grassroots in the creation of advertising. I guess the feeling was, the grassroots Ad creators were in better touch with younger voters.
5) Ron Paul uses certain language, like "Empire," for instance, that is emotionally charged. He's speaking factually, however, using emotionally charged language, or something similar, which turns off older voters. They feel he was attacking the U.S.!! He needed to dumb things down a bit, and explain why he uses certain language. He and his staff have to remember, our country has been the way it is for many many decades. For older Americans, they feel threatened by shrinking our military presence (empire). Let me rephrase that, THEY FEEL THREATENED BY SAYING WE SHOULD PULL ALL OUR TROOPS BACK HOME. Do you think older voters would vote for someone they feel will make them feel less safe at home?!?!?!? He should have taken more time to explain WHY and HOW we should pull our troops back home. Saying, just pull them all back home, isn't enough. People want to see that he is reasonable (safe) in his approach.
FF
2) Although Meetup.com was a good tool for the Grassroots, I'd really liked to have seen a more coordinated approach from the Campaign Managment, whereby they harnessed the grassroots to help out where help was needed. There was no connection that I could see. The Management did there thing, and the Grassroots did theirs, independently, but I think this hurt Ron Paul's effectiveness.
3) Ron Paul himself, stated many times, he didn't want to run anyone's life. Fine, we get that. At the same time, people want someone to understand what's going on, and LEAD!! DON'T RUN OUR LIVES, BUT HELP THE COUNTRY BY PROVIDING DIRECTION TO MAKE IT BETTER!! I think people didn't see the desire in him, to lead.
4) I heard this from a person who created one of the successful money bomb ads: They said campaign management didn't actively include the grassroots in the creation of advertising. I guess the feeling was, the grassroots Ad creators were in better touch with younger voters.
5) Ron Paul uses certain language, like "Empire," for instance, that is emotionally charged. He's speaking factually, however, using emotionally charged language, or something similar, which turns off older voters. They feel he was attacking the U.S.!! He needed to dumb things down a bit, and explain why he uses certain language. He and his staff have to remember, our country has been the way it is for many many decades. For older Americans, they feel threatened by shrinking our military presence (empire). Let me rephrase that, THEY FEEL THREATENED BY SAYING WE SHOULD PULL ALL OUR TROOPS BACK HOME. Do you think older voters would vote for someone they feel will make them feel less safe at home?!?!?!? He should have taken more time to explain WHY and HOW we should pull our troops back home. Saying, just pull them all back home, isn't enough. People want to see that he is reasonable (safe) in his approach.
FF
anaconda
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He needed to be more aggressive with calling out the establishment on it's ill deeds. He needed much slicker public relations and image consulting. On the other hand, I think his style in the campaign is resulting in bigger paybacks now and possibly for the future. He may have done everything just right, considering the long run.
anaconda
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Monstrous voter fraud in NH didn't help him. He may have actually won that state.
YouTube - NH Voter/Election Fraud? Secure Ballots? Clean Elections? P1
Not going all in for NH. He really should have spent every last penny he had in NH and left nothing for the later states. The only thing that matters is winning one of the first couple states. NH was his best shot and was second. He lost because people who would have voted for him said he couldn't win so voted for someone else to not waste their vote.
Saving money for later states is a bad idea. Spend it all on the first couple. If you do good then you will get lots of new money. People will suddenly think you can win and will send way more money. McCain was broke after NH. After he won people started giving him a lot of money. If you do bad you are going to lose anyway. If you don't get in the top 2 in one of the first 3 primaries all confidence in you is lost and it doesn't matter what you do after that.
People vote like they are betting on a horse race. They only want to vote for the person they think will win not who they want to win.
Saving money for later states is a bad idea. Spend it all on the first couple. If you do good then you will get lots of new money. People will suddenly think you can win and will send way more money. McCain was broke after NH. After he won people started giving him a lot of money. If you do bad you are going to lose anyway. If you don't get in the top 2 in one of the first 3 primaries all confidence in you is lost and it doesn't matter what you do after that.
People vote like they are betting on a horse race. They only want to vote for the person they think will win not who they want to win.
qh4dotcom
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Looks like everyone posting on this thread has forgotten that the biggest mistakes were not made by anyone in the RP '08 campaign...they were made by the millions of voters who heard his message of liberty and decided not to vote for him.
If you want to blame anyone, that's where you should start.
If you want to blame anyone, that's where you should start.
Lord Xar
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sure, I agree. But I only answered because the OP asked about the Ron Paul campaign. I also completely agree with Bosso. Ron Paul did some tremendous, absolutely tremendous things.. that are still resonating. I hear about him a couple times a week now here and there.
Like Bosso suggests, I don't believe Ron Paul could have won because our system is so corrupt and entrenched with special interests but most of us didn't care, we were blinded by Ron' message because it woke many of us up (me), or found a common soul in others.. so we didn't care who or how powerful the opposition was. Anything was possible.
but again, the OP asked the faults of the RP campaign.
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