By the Time We Got to Ronstock

With the Paul campaign at the Iowa Republican Straw Poll

David Weigel | August 13, 2007

(Page 3 of 3)

At four o’clock some Paul volunteers came up with a solution, the doomed nature of which epitomized their problems. Rumors were swirling about a new fleet of buses arriving in the parking lot. Paul people were going to go and try to practice emergency baptisms as new voters shuttled in. The candidate himself would make a speech if the evangelists could bring them down to the tent.

It was a stillborn effort. The busses were actually there to pick up Romney’s legions, fresh from voting, tuckered out, and ready to plan their next rounds of Florida condo-hunting. The Paul people mosied back, dejected, as the rest of the campaigns packed up their white tents, giant fans, and bouncy castles. Some of them walked around with signs and some of them stretched their scorched bodies in the shade.

Richard Green of U.S. Christians for Truth lounged in one chair chatting with Paul people on the way out of the parking lots. Earlier in the day he’d handed out a flier from his mystery-cloaked, possibly-phony group (no address, no phone number) savaging the “Mormon cult values” of Mitt Romney and warning Republicans not to vote for any candidate who’d had multiple marriages or an affair. Only if the party nominates a candidate who’s remained faithful to his first wife (and doesn’t wear “special” underwear) can they attack the Clintons from the high moral ground. Green voted for Paul.

“If Ron Paul is elected a lot of things will change in this country,” he said. “But I hope [former Arkansas Gov. Mike] Huckabee doesn’t get knocked out today. I would have voted for him if I thought he needed it.”

He didn't need to worry, and in any case the Paul people have gotten over the bus debacle. They prepped for one last victory: dominating the Hilton main hall. Hummer-sized “Hope for America” signs were hauled into the room and pasted on the far walls. Brownback and Huckabee fans had already crowded the front of the room but the Paul crowds dwarfed them, eventually making up half of the space. There was no support for Romney or the Straw Poll-boycotting Giuliani and McCain: It all looked a bit like the victory platforms at the 1980 Olympics.

There was nothing left to plan, or to forget to plan: The Paul people were going to savor this. During a 90-minute delay in the vote count, thanks to those electronic machines the Vote in Sunshine crowd were angsting about, they started singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” and some of the other campaigns’ boosters joined in. Then the votes came in. John McCain scored barely 100 votes and got Wicked-Witch-is-Dead belly laughs. There was a huge cheer when Giuliani placed eighth and a bigger cheer when Tommy Thompson chimed in sixth. Thompson had promised to quit the race if he bombed that badly, and now there’ll be three or four more minutes of TV-debate time for Dr. Paul.

And in fifth place: Ron Paul. The Paul crowd went wild. They overlooked the smaller cheers for Tancredo’s fourth place finish and the loud cheers—from a smaller crowd than theirs—when Mike Huckabee won second place. Precious little excitement was left for when Romney won it all and his gleaming Bryl-creamed visage materialized on the giant screams. He was expected to win this the moment Rudy dropped out. The story of the day was Huckabee.

Some of the Paul people were disappointed—none of them were crushed. The truly happy supporters were the Vote in Sunshine guys, who clustered in the middle of the room in front of the camera risers and excitedly chatted about the strategizing ahead. I pulled Fred Smart aside to ask him if he was disappointed in a fifth place showing. “I think you can see that Ron Paul has the momentum,” he said. He left and the rest of his group returned to buzzing about drivers’ licenses that didn’t scan, riggable voting machines, and mysterious computer delays.

That was in front of the cameras risers. Right behind them, a few steps away, the beaming Mike Huckabee had arrived into a five-man deep reporter scrum. He smiled into an array of cameras, boom mics and tiny Olympus recorders. “For all intents and purposes, we won the Straw Poll,” he said, credibly. Meanwhile the fraud-watchers, all of them Ron Paul voters, were bragging about how they’d stood out in the sun verifying votes.

There wasn’t a better symbol of how the Paul campaign fell short in Ames. An anti-war Republican campaign was never going to win the straw poll outright. Measure the applause Paul got for saying “I stand for liberty, the Constitution, and peace” against what Tom Tancredo got for saying his foreign policy is “We win, you lose.” One sounded like a big outdoor bar welcoming the J. Geils Band. The other sounded like U2 at Madison Square Garden.

Still, there were more than 1,300 Iowans who could potentially back Paul. This is a state with zero tradition of third-party voting (it gave 3,000 votes to Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik in 2004). Eleven years ago the state would have given its caucus to Pat Buchanan if a few thousand Alan Keyes diehards had switched their votes to Pitchfork Pat.

The Paul Straw Poll efforts couldn’t match any of that, resembling at times some of Howard Dean’s botched gambits in the 2004 Iowa Caucus, when clueless undergraduate volunteers stood out in the cold and waved signs for an event for which people didn’t even drive to polling places.

But Paul’s campaign isn’t comparable to that because, unlike Dean’s, it’s not positioned to win a nomination. There are people who sign up for “the Revolution” fully aware they aren’t electing a president. Paul’s shifting focus onto social issues or his stabs at real ground organizing don’t matter to these voters. They’re looking for a social network and a traveling carnival, and some chances to wave the middle finger at reporters or the rest of the Republican Party.

This is counterproductive, it’s silly, and it’s easily laughed off by the leading Republican campaigns. It’s also the most fun these people have had in years. That was obvious on Saturday. And it was also obvious that unless the Paul campaign is headed for a few more headlines than a flameout, the shambolic synergy of the grassroots and the official campaign is going to have to coalesce into something serious.

That was crystal clear after the auditorium emptied out and the winning candidates spoke to the media. In front of his campaign bus and flanked by his wife and sons, Mitt Romney gloated about the victory he’d more or less bought, and photographers snapped pictures for Sunday’s front pages. A few steps away you could see a sign that had been hoisted by various Paul people then taped to a lamppost in front of his busy tent: “Ron Paul: 1^st Place Winner in Every Debate Poll.” It was broken in half and sitting next to a trash can.

David Weigel is an associate editor of reason.

Comments

thoreau|8.13.07 @ 12:22PM|#

Weigel was somewhere around Dubuque, on the edge of the Great Plains, when the drugs began to take hold...

|8.13.07 @ 12:26PM|#

....and the flying lizards, led by a shreiking Tommy Thompson, were in full pursuit.

|8.13.07 @ 12:26PM|#

I think Reason should send Edward on the Ron Paul beat. He's the only person capable of Telling It Like It Is!

Stephen the Goldberger|8.13.07 @ 12:29PM|#

That was a great article. I watched Paul's speech online and his WWEesque entrance and crowd support. It was thrilling but and powerful but i couldn't help thinking it was not going to get it done. This straw poll is a sham anyways hopefully Paul made some noise.

Stephen the Goldberger|8.13.07 @ 12:30PM|#

i didn't proofread that last comment and i wrote it in the middle of a phone call. sorry for it's utter grammer suckitude.

|8.13.07 @ 12:35PM|#

Thank you Dave. That was the only account I've found regarding the strong, albeit largely out of state, support for RON PAUL in Ames.

Thanks for including a passage regarding me and my peace flag. A couple of Tancredo supporters came up to me while I was marching with it and, I kid you not, actually asked me "where in the constitution it authorized what my flag stood for".

seer|8.13.07 @ 12:50PM|#

Unfortunately, you're right that Paul's supporters are generally contemptuous towards other Republicans. Some Paul supporters really campaign smart, but others are just plain kooks that are as happy saying "fuck you" to GOP insiders as they are with the idea of taking over the GOP.

Any news on Ed Thompson running for President yet?

|8.13.07 @ 12:57PM|#

FTA: The busses [sic] were actually there to pick up Romney's legions, fresh from voting, tuckered out, and ready to plan their next rounds of Florida condo-hunting.

Wow, politically AND financially stupid. What a great combination. I suppose they'll want the rest of them to bail them out when they lose all their money in the ongoing Fla. real estate crash.

|8.13.07 @ 1:00PM|#

BTW, this article brings it all home as to how ugly retail politics is. And we seem to be subjected to more and more of it. That would be a big benefit of limited government--getting these blow-dried assholes off of our TV screens for a few minutes.

thoreau|8.13.07 @ 1:02PM|#

JasonC-

Yeah, they should definitely send Edward on the Ron Paul beat, but they should send DONDEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! with him.

|8.13.07 @ 1:15PM|#

ChrisO:

No [sic] required

Um. Guess I'll go RTFA, now.

|8.13.07 @ 1:18PM|#

Wait a minute, I didn't realize that the "peace flag" was a defaced US flag. That's not cool, Warren. Ay, big blunder there.

|8.13.07 @ 1:25PM|#

True, Thoreau. Also, HeWhoWillNotBeNamedNorUseAppropriatePunctuation should tag along.

|8.13.07 @ 1:39PM|#

...proud frat boy in a Team Romney shirt. "What country is that from? I don't think I know that country." He smirked and looked around for someone to high-five...

Dude, my dad owns a dealership.

Dave Weigel|8.13.07 @ 1:40PM|#

Dude, my dad owns a dealership.

Points for the Aqua Teen reference. Was that Patton Oswalt doing one of the voices?

rho|8.13.07 @ 1:43PM|#

Good article. It demonstrates quite well the hard slog in front of the Paul campaign. Much more work will need to be done to harness the strength, but such efforts are hampered by campaign finance laws. The Paul campaign can't direct anything too closely.

|8.13.07 @ 1:49PM|#

I've been to the University of Iowa, but I've never been to Ames. When did it move?

|8.13.07 @ 1:55PM|#

This was a fun story but it missed the most important mark.

the revolution failed to herd angry cats into giving the GOP $35 per vote.

We had Iowan's there that refused to vote because they know this is a GOP fundraiser first and for-most. Fortunately you can vote in the caucus without donating to the chicken-hawks.

CLS|8.13.07 @ 1:58PM|#

yea, but wouldn't it be nice if a there were a Libertarian in the race?

Dave Weigel|8.13.07 @ 2:01PM|#

I've been to the University of Iowa, but I've never been to Ames. When did it move?

D'oh, I reminded myself like seven times not to screw that up and I did anyway. Fixed.

Episiarch|8.13.07 @ 2:15PM|#

Points for the Aqua Teen reference.

Dave, what kind of points? Are they redeemable for any prizes? Because I can do ATHF references all day.

Carl|8.13.07 @ 2:19PM|#

9% is better than 2%. This was not a win for Ron Paul, but it wasn't a lose, either.

The campaign is going to need more help from outside the Republican Party in order to have a ghost of a chance to win. Fortunately, I detect a lot of positive vibes for Paul from the hippie left. They just need to be recruited.

http://www.republicantakeover.org

A start.

|8.13.07 @ 2:26PM|#

crimethink,
It wasn't a "defaced" American flag. It was a Peace flag, based on the American flag. Thus symbolizing that peace and patriotism belong together. Glad I could clear that up for you.

|8.13.07 @ 2:32PM|#

A couple of Tancredo supporters came up to me while I was marching with it and, I kid you not, actually asked me "where in the constitution it authorized what my flag stood for".

A) The Constitution does not authorize me to do anything (a duh if you post on H&R a lot, but worth mentioning).

B) I would have responded, "I don't know, they just paid me a lot more for this than I was paid of the Romney shirt."

|8.13.07 @ 2:36PM|#

Warren,

Then fly a peace flag (ie, a flag with just a peace symbol) alongside a US flag. Altering the US flag to promote your political viewpoint is pretty low, IMHO.

What would you think if pro-lifers flew a flag with a fetus in the blue part, or feminists flew one with a Venus symbol, or NRA members altered it to include a rifle?

|8.13.07 @ 2:55PM|#

crimethink,

Sorry you don't approve. I can't agree with your view though. Nothing was "altered". The design is actually quite prestigious with a long and glorious tradition.

|8.13.07 @ 2:58PM|#

What would you think if pro-lifers flew a flag with a fetus in the blue part, or feminists flew one with a Venus symbol, or NRA members altered it to include a rifle?

I'd want to know who made them so I could get a flag with the FSM in the blue part.

|8.13.07 @ 2:59PM|#

What would you think if pro-lifers flew a flag with a fetus in the blue part, or feminists flew one with a Venus symbol, or NRA members altered it to include a rifle?

I'd think, "Wow, look at those morons that think a flag is going to change someone's mind." And then I'd go back to not giving a shit what kind of flags people make.

lunchstealer|8.13.07 @ 3:31PM|#

From crimethink's description, I thought they'd taken an American Flag and smeared a peace sign onto it with their own feces or something.

Just making something that looks kinda like an American flag isn't defacing an American flag. I'm not sure if you're aware of it or not, but the American flag has lots of five-pointed stars on it. Their flag doesn't, so it's not an American flag. Therefore, they can't possibly have defaced an American flag.

Oh, and for some reason I'm dying to see somebody make one with that sillouette of a naked chick that you see on mud flaps of 18-wheelers.

|8.13.07 @ 3:45PM|#

lunchstealer,
Close enough?

Twainist|8.13.07 @ 3:58PM|#

During the war on the Phillipines, Mark Twain recommended a truth-telling US flag, with little skulls & crossbones replacing the stars.

|8.13.07 @ 4:03PM|#

Twainist,

50 state version hier

lunchstealer|8.13.07 @ 4:06PM|#

Warren, huh. God I love a free market.

KingHarvest|8.13.07 @ 4:09PM|#

Where does this flag fit into the is-it-proper-to-alter-or-not-alter-a-flag,-depending-on-your-opinion argument?

JBinMO|8.13.07 @ 4:20PM|#

What does the author have against the J. Geils Band

|8.13.07 @ 4:22PM|#

I'd want to know who made them so I could get a flag with the FSM in the blue part.

Sign me up, I would want all to know I was touched by His noodly appendage.

lunchstealer|8.13.07 @ 4:37PM|#

King Harvest, since they've got an Adidas logo there, which is a french company, I don't know.

nebby|8.13.07 @ 4:58PM|#

"He smirked and looked around for someone to high-five..."

It must be nice to just make shit up and then attribute it to someone else's unrealized thought pattern.

|8.13.07 @ 5:08PM|#

Shouting down opponents?

Waving defaced American "peace" flags?

Are you sure this wasn't the YearlyKos event you guys attended?

Wierd. Voters run like scared children from scary campaigns, and candidates. And I was being kind not mentioning the 9/11 conspiracy theories and virulent anti-government and anti-Jewish rhetoric.

lunchstealer|8.13.07 @ 5:08PM|#

Dave, yeah, Patton Oswalt does the voices for both of the frat aliens.

Deborah|8.13.07 @ 5:27PM|#

"They're looking for a social network and a traveling carnival, and some chances to wave the middle finger at reporters or the rest of the Republican Party."

Wrong. I am working for Paul to win the presidency. You watch.

|8.13.07 @ 5:40PM|#

I'm a meetup volunteer in Boston...there are 218 of us...although I have only met 10 at the two events I've been too.

That leads me to believe that about 25 of us have done anything besides internet related activies...the 5 most active appear to have done about 90% of the "work". I'm not one of those 5.

Anyway, out of all the people I've met it appears that less than 10% of us voted for Bush in the last election. Half of the people are too young or didn't vote. About 35% of us probably voted libertarian. Most of us have always been for smaller government so it is natural that we would feel inclinded to give the GOP a big FU. Your right, I don't care that much if we lose, I just want libertarian ideas to get spread.

If the number of people in this country that get a praxeology reference increases by 10% I'd be thrilled.

I grew up interested in politics well before I was of voting age. As I came to realize that nothing I did was going to change things and the most logical thing for me to do was not even participate, a part of me grew darker. I focus on my career and kids and don't try to change many peoples minds. Now that a liberty oriented campaign is on the fringes of mainstream....it is a bit cathartic to give the FU to big government hypocrite republicans.

"if you want smaller governemnt then here is your chance!!! otherwise just swear on this communist manifesto for me so we can get the creeping socialism over with you m****r f****r!"

lunchstealer|8.13.07 @ 5:42PM|#

"They're looking for a social network and a traveling carnival, and some chances to wave the middle finger at reporters or the rest of the Republican Party."

Wrong. I am working for Paul to win the presidency. You watch.

But you're not going to turn your nose up at a chance to wave a middle finger at reporters or the rest of the Republican party, are you? I mean, as long as you're there.

|8.13.07 @ 5:46PM|#

This was a fun article for those of us who couldn't make it.

I can admit David is right about several things. When I read aarticle this weekend that said romney's supporters walked in orderly and that ron pauls stumbled in like crazed geurillas I got excited and relayed the info to my wife (a unlikely to vote libertarian) with glee...she cyncically commented that "you really like being a part of a team"...this wasn't the enthusiastic answer I wanted but it was the truth...I'm pro choice and want open borders..two things ron paul is against....doesn't matter, he is far superior to the other choices.

I'm gonna keep campaigning.

Dave Weigel|8.13.07 @ 6:40PM|#

It must be nice to just make shit up and then attribute it to someone else's unrealized thought pattern.

Are you really that stupid, Nebby? I have this on tape - it's around 3:26 in the video I blogged today. You can hear the Romney kid and see him make a lame gang sign. You can also see him standing alone. As I turned back to film the march he smiled smugly and then walked away.

Go ahead and criticize my analysis, but don't accuse me of making up a scene when I have video of it.

|8.13.07 @ 8:33PM|#

Dave,

Thanks again for the coverage. I sorry I didn't recognize you as the cameraman, but I think every lens on campus was pointed at me somewhere along that march.

|8.13.07 @ 8:35PM|#

If we ever get within spitting distance again, lets sit down over a hot dog and an icee

Doug|8.13.07 @ 8:37PM|#

But Paul's campaign isn't comparable to that because, unlike Dean's, it's not positioned to win a nomination.

It's not? Then whose campaign is? The pro-choice, anti-Second Amendment Rudy Giuliani? The pro-surge, pro-amnesty John McCain? The Massachusetts flip-flopper Mitt Romney? The tax-hiking, pro-amnesty Mike Huckabee? The fish-or-cut-bait lobbyist Fred Thompson?

Ron Paul is more conservative across the board than any of the front runners. He's on the winning side of the Iraq war debate in the general election. The country is facing an unprecedented financial crisis and teetering on the brink of tyranny, and he's the only candidate offering anything close to real change on either front.

He has more volunteers nationwide than all of the other candidates combined on Meetup.com, and more grassroots enthusiasm than any candidate that anyone can remember, ever.

Iowa was a wake-up call for the campaign to start for real, and the clock is ticking to January, but I'm certainly not counting him out.

the innominate one|8.13.07 @ 8:39PM|#

crimethink | August 13, 2007, 2:36pm | #

Warren,

Then fly a peace flag (ie, a flag with just a peace symbol) alongside a US flag. Altering the US flag to promote your political viewpoint is pretty low, IMHO.

What would you think if pro-lifers flew a flag with a fetus in the blue part, or feminists flew one with a Venus symbol, or NRA members altered it to include a rifle?

I can't speak for Warren, but I'd think, "Hey, those guys are exercising a constitutionally protected right. Totally awesome!"

|8.13.07 @ 9:05PM|#

Well, someone who walks up to Ron Paul and calls him a traitor because he opposes the war is also exercising a constitutional right. That doesn't mean you have to think it's awesome.

In any case, the main problem is that you're not taking the audience into account. I was miffed by the idea, and I'm against the war myself; so I can imagine what deep red Iowa Republicans thought of it. Not a good way to win hearts and minds...

|8.13.07 @ 9:22PM|#

Well you know, carrying a peace flag at the Republican Straw Poll, is pissing in the punch bowl as Weigel so elegantly put it. I wanted to irritate the establishment. I'm for peace, I'm for Paul and I'm in your house. There were no hearts and minds to be won, only other lovers of liberty to inspire.

But I don't think I offended anybody because of the flags similarity to the national ensign. I really think you're out of touch crimethink.

|8.14.07 @ 12:35AM|#

What a great article. It's rare to read something over 200 words that isn't a complete propaganda for one candidate or interest. Well done!

|8.14.07 @ 1:23AM|#

I heard mitt had gay sex back in the 80's.

Marc Scott Emery|8.14.07 @ 2:02AM|#

At Ames, 31% voted for a Mormon, and 47% voted for a Creationist (Huckabeem, Tancredo, Brownback), meaning 78% voted for a religious extremist or irrationalist of some sort.

You think thats typical of the USA? I think not. Iowa Republicans are the tipping point when measuring the extreme social conservative vote, anyone who believes in science & reason in Iowa long ago departed to the Iowa Democratic Party.

But no matter. Ron Paul did wonderful finding 1300 Iowans who wanted to support science, reason and the US Constitution and the wonderfully decent man who is this unusual Republican messenger of peace & liberty.

If Ron Paul can do 9% in a place where a near majority of Republican "faithful" are willing to support white men who believe the world was made 6,000 years ago, imagine what Ron Paul could do in New Hampshire or Nevada or California with all voters (Independents, Republicans, Ron Paul Democrats) able to vote for him, and for no money down.

The first four candidates are religious freaks, lets face it. Paul the rationalist did pretty damn well considering the state and the Republican Party.

|8.14.07 @ 9:01AM|#

Hey Marc,
Nice to see you. Not many Canadians would take such an interest in US primary politics.

How's that extradition thing going?

Fluffy|8.14.07 @ 9:33AM|#

I don't think Paul is necessarily a "science" candidate, and I say that as a supporter.

I think the best that can be said is that he wants the state to be so emasculated that it isn't really relevant to questions of science or faith.

|8.14.07 @ 11:46AM|#

Excellent article! Do you think the Paul campaign realizes the problem? Do you think they have the will and the talent to get the grassroots effort under control?

|8.14.07 @ 12:20PM|#

Interesting comment above: "I'm for Paul and I'm in your house."

How telling. Ron Paul's minnions are largely disaffected liberal Democrats (socially and militarily, anyway) and Libertarian Party folks and they are flooding into the GOP like Mexicans crossing the Rio Grande.

Like them, they are aliens in the party, and are hell-bent on foisting their extremist, anarchist agenda onto it.

Message from the True GOP: It won't work.

The "Peace Democrats" sneaking into the GOP will be about as successful as they were in 1864 trying to undermine the Civil War.

And Ron Paul isn't even as good as McClellan.

|8.14.07 @ 1:14PM|#

James,

The neocons co-opted the True GOP easily enough, didn't they?

If you had told a knowledgeable person in 1995 that in less than a decade a Republican-controlled executive and legislative branch would be responsible for the largest domestic spending increases since LBJ and the biggest nation-building catastrophe in the history of the world, they'd think you were batshit insane. Sadly, they'd be wrong.

This new welfare-warfare predilection of the GOP is just a speed bump in the history of a party whose core tradition is one of respect for individual liberty. Unfortunately, it looks like there's no hope for 2008, since the Bushite lemmings are going to take all of us over the edge of the cliff. This sort goeth not out but by prayer and fasting, but it will goeth out.

|8.14.07 @ 1:44PM|#

I'm a life long Republican and I can't believe what Bush has done to my party. Hugh budget deficits,(Bush hasn't vetoed 1 spending bill) a nation building war that has no sign of ending and then there's the Patriot Act. This isn't Goldwater or Reagan's party.
Ron Paul is far from perfect but at least he'd stop the craziness.

|8.14.07 @ 2:29PM|#

Speaking of desecrating American flags, I'm often quite moved when I pass motorists with tattered flags waving from their cars, or sun-bleached flag stickers on the rear window.

What a truly poignant protest against our battered, faded American democracy.

That is what they're going for, right?

|8.14.07 @ 2:29PM|#

er, should have used the new handle.

(note to joe: I'm not R C Dean)

|8.15.07 @ 10:58AM|#

Hey, Crimethink, you're right. The neocons have ruined the party. But anarchists and conspiracy theorists can't save it.

There are several good "diamonds in the rough" in the race for president, and one batshit crazy nutball who has a band of followers as insane as he is.

Fred \'Purple Face\' Smart|8.15.07 @ 3:24PM|#

Nice job Dave! I remember you asking me about Ron's 5th place finish and you reported my response accurately which says a lot. I also appreciate your attention to my 'purple face' during the chanting-moshing. Great fun for everyone - witnessing and chanting.

The tenor and tone of the chanting-moshing was very positive and fun overall. I also know this is what turns the insides of the paid Paul staffers nuts - your writing about them as dressed in slacks and suits while sweating buckets was a real hoot.

You really did a nice job capturing the essence of the energy and spirit that was received, shared and celebrated in Ames. I really don't know how to describe this "Ron Paul Effect" - I have personally never been politically active so this is all really very new to me.

If you want to blame one person for coming up with that horrendous "Who you gonna call?....Ron Paul!" chant I plead guilty!

Hey, remember this...the "official" - ie. certified - 2007 Iowa Straw Poll Vote has yet to be counted. The Iowa GOP and the State Of Iowa election auditor have yet to examine or count the paper ballots. Now that's a story for you to write about!

Thanks again Dave!

Peace and God Bless,

Fred

|8.15.07 @ 3:51PM|#

If you want to blame one person for coming up with that horrendous "Who you gonna call?....Ron Paul!" chant I plead guilty!

Yeah, that was horrendous, but all is forgiven. By the time we got to the Coliseum you found the groove.

Liberty!
RON PAUL
Freedom!
RON PAUL
2nd Amendment!
RON PAUL
Constitution!
RON PAUL
Louder!
RON PAUL
Let em hear you!
RON PAUL
To the sky!
RON PAUL

good times, noodle salad.

|8.16.07 @ 11:15AM|#

Or how about this chant...

Pork spender!
RON PAUL
Hypocrite!
RON PAUL
Overthrow the government!
RON PAUL
Libertarian interloper!
RON PAUL
Hippie Peace Actvist!
RON PAUL
Anti-Semite!
RON PAUL
Unhinged!
RON PAUL
Conspiracy theorist!
RON PAUL
Michael Moore impersonator!
RON PAUL
Loud and obnoxious followers!
RON PAUL
To the Moon with the Leftist Moonbats!
RON PAUL

|8.21.07 @ 12:35AM|#

Heh, heh. James dislikes Ron Paul. Heh, heh, heh. He makes witty remarks disparaging him. Ho, ho.