What is to be done? A message from Phil Blumel

From: Phil Blumel, Palm Beach Ron Paul meetup coordinator

Friends,

We are running in a GOP primary and have to reach GOP voters. It is helpful, and easy, to have sign-waving events on busy street corners -- and they are worth doing! -- but they are not enough, as a minority of the people who pass in cars are NOT going to be voting in the primary.

The most influential primary voters attend local GOP meetings and/or belong to their county Republican Executive Committee and, of course, 100% of the people at such meetings are both interested in the election and will be voting in the primary. We need to be a recognized and respectable part of the Republican Party if we are to win a Republican primary. If we act like a marginal third party, we will get the vote total of a marginal third party.

Here are my specific recommendations in this regard:

1) Register Republican right now if you are not already.

2) Bring change of registration forms to every planning Meetup. We always get new GOP voters in the South Florida Meetups when we do this.

3) Encourage the more presentable Meetup folks (you know what I mean) to join their local GOP clubs and attend meetings and socials wearing a Ron Paul lapel pin and armed with some Ron literature. Go to the meeting, participate, get to know people.

You don't need to be pushy or dogmatic, as this will be resented. Have you ever been active in a charity and some realtor or other salesperson joins trying to network to generate business and it is clear they don't really care about the charity? They do not succeed in generating business that way; this kind of networking only works when the realtor is *genuinely* interested in the goals of the charity. Watch how the Rudy and Mitt folks are working the crowd and learn from them. Because of the pin, discussions about Ron will spring up. But even when they don't, these important primary voters will recognize intraparty support and we will earn respect. The key to networking is to make genuine connections with people, not to harangue or give speeches. It requires attending meetings regularly and establishing real relationships.

4) Join the Republican Liberty Caucus network (www.rlc.org). Ron was chair of the RLC in the 1990s and this is the existing libertarian network in the GOP. This will help you locate fellow travelers in the GOP. You are not alone!

May 25: Ron Paul on Bill Maher's Real Time on HBO

After his big splash in the GOP debates, Bill Maher has declared Ron Paul "my new hero." Ron Paul will be on Maher's show once again on Friday, May 25, this time with libertarian humorist P.J. O'Rourke and actor Ben Affleck.

On Ron's first appearance on Maher's show, Maher was somewhat dismissive of him and even disrespectful. Apparently he has changed his opinion, and is offering him as an example for other politicians to follow (click here to see Maher haranguing establishment sop Chris Dodd while throwing Ron's name out there).

2nd GOP Presidential Debate: Tuesday, May 15 - 9:00 PM EST

From the SC GOP website:

The 2007 First-In-The-South Republican Party Presidential Candidates Debate will be televised live by FOX News Channel at 9:00 PM from the University of South Carolina’s Koger Center for the Arts on Tuesday, May 15, 2007. FOX News Channel Washington Managing Editor Brit Hume will moderate the debate and FOX News Sunday Anchor Chris Wallace and White House Correspondent Wendell Goler will ask questions of the candidates.

You can submit questions here:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,271356,00.html

Ron Paul wins MSNBC post-debate poll

Last night, MSNBC held the first GOP presidential debates at the Reagan Library in California. Ron Paul was the most surprising and refreshing of the candidates. We're not just saying that because we're big supporters here at electronpaul.blogpsot.com ... it is because he clearly seperated himself from the others by staking out firm, principled positions. When he came out squarely against any kind of national ID card, the others who endorsed it (Giuliani, Romney, et cetera) then backtracked and said they only wanted it for aliens. His staking out of the libertarian quadrant is already having an effect on the others. Chris Matthews used the word libertarian twice and linked Ron Paul to the "Barry Goldwater wing" of the GOP. It's nice to see him finally get some respect from these guys.

As of now, Ron Paul leads in the MSNBC interactive poll - 32% positive, ahead of all the others. And Ron has the lowest negatives - 29% as opposed to Huckabee's 37%. If you toggle the before/after ratings, you'll see Ron had the biggest increase.

This is very encouraging - and nothing short of amazing. Put Ron in front of larger audiences, and he wins them over.

A message from Ron Paul's District Political Director

First and foremost, the goals that we hope to accomplish are:

Bringing the message that liberty can be reestablished in American only by respecting the rule of law, the U. S. Constitution.

Saving America from bankruptcy, world war and a continued fascist regime by getting Ron Paul elected President.

What you can do:

Republicans need to get involved in the party. Become voting delegates at your precinct, county and state conventions. Support Ron Paul at all these events. Ask them to invite Ron Paul to speak at their state conventions! (1-800-RON-PAUL)

Republicans need to call the county chairs, executive committee and state chairmen of your individual state. Ask that they support and endorse Ron Paul. Tell them that it is imperative at this time in history that we have someone who in incorruptible and a true conservative because this country is going bankrupt - financially and morally.

Those of you who are not Republicans, hold your nose and take the plunge as Ron Paul is running in the Republican primary and believe it or not, most grassroots Republicans believe in limited government and want someone to believe in Ron Paul is that Republican.

Write letters to the editors of newspapers about supporting Ron Paul for President.

Continue to hammer talk show blogs and email commentary promoting Ron Paul for President. (you have done a great job at this) Ask them to invite Ron Paul onto their station. Tell them to call 1-800-RON-PAUL. Promote him and the issues of liberty and the U.S. Constitution.

Ron Paul has to win Republican primaries before he can get to the next step - the general election, so we need you to work in Republican circles to get that done.

Thanks so much. You don't know how much we love you as supporters. If it weren't for you holding back the tide of big government by supporting Ron Paul in all of his endeavors, we would have little hope for freedom.

So, because of you, there is....Hope for America!

Penny Langford-Freeman
District Political Director/Scheduler
Congressman Ron Paul
"The Taxpayers' Best Friend"
District 14, Tex.
1-800-RON-PAUL
837 W. Plantation Dr.
Clute, Tex. 77531

Ron Paul on HBO TONIGHT with Bill Maher

Tonight, Ron Paul will be on HBO's REAL TIME with Bill Maher at 11 PM EST. Also appearing on the show will be D.L. Hughley, Michael Smerconish, Catherine Crier and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. This ought to be a humdinger.

http://www.hbo.com/billmaher

MSNBC Under the Radar appearance 3-29-07

Ron Paul made a great appearance on MSNBC's Under the Radar program at noon yesterday (March 29, 2007). Have a look here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oWXbxgKbh0

Ron Paul expected to announce run on C-SPAN, 07:30 AM EST March 12

Breaking news! Congressman Ron Paul is scheduled to appear live on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal on Monday, March 12th at 7:30 a.m. EST, 6:30 a.m. CST. He is expected to officially announce his candidacy for the Republican nomination for President on the show.

In the AP story, Paul is described as "a strict constitutionalist and fierce anti-war critic" and "routinely ranked either first or second in the House of Representatives by the National Taxpayers Union."

For more information on Ron Paul's announcment to run, please see:

Small Government Times, Ron Paul to officially announce presidential candidacy Monday, March 11, 2007

Dallas Morning News, Rep. Ron Paul to run for president, March 11, 2007

Ron Paul on CNN 2/26

Ron Paul appeared on Lou Dobbs Tonight Monday evening, February 26.

You can view a clip here (disinter.wordpress.com) or here (direct from YouTube)

Who will rally the libertarians?

From today's Wall Street Journal Political Diary, 2/13:

+++++

Who will rally the libertarians?

It's a sign that some Republican primary voters are dissatisfied
with the current field of presidential candidates. Economist Walter
Williams, who often substitutes for Rush Limbaugh, has found himself
the object of a committee drafting him for president. Of all things,
it's headed by a cartoon duck.

It's true. The comic strip "Mallard Fillmore," which is drawn by
Bruce Tinsley, has used several installments to urge the 70-year-old
George Mason University professor to run for president. The
outspoken Mr. Williams has been flooded with e-mails and phone calls
from enthusiastic boosters.

For his part, Mr. Williams agrees that career politicians have
disappointed conservatives. "I personally think that if we chose the
president of the United States at random, we'd get a better
president than any president since Ronald Reagan," Mr. Williams told
the Washington Times.

Mr. Williams is flattered by the attention but says he already has a
candidate: Rep. Ron Paul, a Texas congressman and former 1988
Libertarian Party presidential nominee, who recently announced he is
forming an exploratory committee for president. Mr. Williams is
under no illusion that Mr. Paul is likely to win but he says Mr.
Paul's presence in the debates would be refreshing. "If the framers
of the Constitution were somehow to come back, Ron Paul is one of
possibly only three people in Congress that they'd even talk to," he
says.

The 71-year-old Mr. Paul, a physician, has been in and out of
Congress since 1976 when he was one of only four GOP House members
to endorse Ronald Reagan's challenge of President Gerald Ford. He
has assembled an army of 15,000 individual donors across the nation
who endorse his unwavering support for the flat tax, his call for a
radical reform of the Food and Drug Administration and his hostility
to overseas military conflicts like the war in Iraq and his
disapproval of any and all federal trampling of states rights.

Michael Barone, co-author of The Almanac of American Politics, once
noted in a profile of Dr. Paul that his agenda has marked him as
an "oddball." He concluded: "Of course, in Rep. Paul's view, it's
the rest of the nation's politicians, with their devotion to an
inherently inflationary currency and self-defeating government
programs, who are the oddballs."

-- John Fund

Ron Paul to appear in first Presidential debates in April

This is excellent news! The first Presidential debates have been announced, and Ron Paul has been invited:

CNN/WMUR/Union Leader to host first presidential debates
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- New Hampshire's two leading news organizations will partner with CNN to host two presidential debates in April, executives with the three media companies announced Friday.

CNN, WMUR and The New Hampshire Union Leader will hold the back-to-back debates on April 4 and 5, the first such events to be held of the 2008 presidential campaign. CNN's Wolf Blitzer will moderate the debates with questions coming from WMUR's Scott Spradling and Union Leader's John DiStaso. WMUR's Jennifer Vaughn will be moderating questions from the audience. The debate will be televised live nationally on CNN and throughout New Hampshire on WMUR.

--

The South Carolina GOP has announced it will be hosting a debate among the GOP Presidential candidates on May 15 in Columbia. Let's make sure Ron Paul is included in that debate as well!

--Tom

Let's lay the groundwork NOW for a Ron Paul race

Friends,

If we are serious about a Ron Paul campaign, we need to get started ASAP. Non-election years are the easiest time to secure seats on county Republican Executive Committees and of course we can always join our local GOP clubs. We need to get Ron supporters in as many GOP clubs as possible *before* the presidential campaigns get into high gear.

This is crucial, as these positions will be invaluable for setting up speaking events and fundraisers for Ron and they will also give us direct access to Republican primary voters. Through these venues we can participate in the crucial straw polls such as Presidency IV.

Here's what I recommend right away:

1. Join your local municipal or county GOP club, or run for a seat on the county REC. If you are under 40, join the Young Republicans. Attend their monthly meetings.

2. Plug in to the libertarian network in the GOP. Join the Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) at: http://www.rlc.org/Pay/Dues.asp?ref=RLCFL

3. Show Ron you want him to run. Send a nominal contribution to the

Ron Paul 2008 PEC, 837 W. Plantation Drive, Clute, Tex. 77531.

You can send more later if he officially announces.

This is a great opportunity for the libertarian movement. Let's make the most of it.

-- Philip Blumel, www.rlcfl.org

 

Bruce Bartlett Op-Ed on Ron Paul in NYT

http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/eg/paul-nyt.html