All I Want for Christmas is a Straw Poll

David Weigel | December 5, 2007

Here's a novel way of preventing Ron Paul supporters from notching up straw poll wins: Cancel the polls when they arrive. Paulblogger BlueEagle gave this account of the San Francisco Republican Alliance poll in the Ron Paul Street team forums.

I arrived at 7:00 for dinner, speeches by representatives of each candidate and then a straw poll.

Unfortunately, at around 9:45pm when the straw poll was about to take place, Gail Neira of the SF Republican Alliance, announced that she was cancelling the straw poll because it was unfair. She was referring to the approximately 40 Ron Paul supporters that were standing in the back of the room with Ron Paul signs. She went on to say that she was overwhelmed by the number of Ron Paul supporters that showed up, but by that time the crowd was in an uproar.

I was outraged and so was everyone else. It was very difficult to hold back the emotions and remain calm. I can only imagine what will happen in the primaries, when too many Ron Paul supporters show up. Will they just cancel the elections?

To be accurate, the dinner was $33 and Gail allowed people who didn't want to eat or couldn't make it in time for dinner to pay $5 to participate in the straw poll later in the evening. This wasn't really the issue, since most of the people that showed up would have paid the $33 and said so, when she used money as an excuse.

Special bonus feature: Neira made the decision while wearing a Santa hat.

|12.5.07 @ 2:56PM|#

Cancel the elections? Don't give them ideas.

|12.5.07 @ 2:59PM|#

Ron Paul supporters freeping a straw poll is different from Mitt Romney supporters freeping a straw poll, I guess.

TLB|12.5.07 @ 3:00PM|#

OT: RonPaul wants you to vote for AchillesLastStand:

http://www.nme.com/news/led-zeppelin/32956

adrian|12.5.07 @ 3:04PM|#

joe: not following you on this one man..

|12.5.07 @ 3:04PM|#

I'm just surprised that there is such thing as the "San Francisco Republican Alliance." I suppose this sort of behavior explains the legendary success of the local party.

"Ron Paul supporters freeping a straw poll is different from Mitt Romney supporters freeping a straw poll, I guess."

Yes. Big difference between 20 people voting 800+ times and 80 people voting 80 times.

|12.5.07 @ 3:06PM|#

I guess we're not really welcome in the Republican party. Big tent, my ass.

A Yalie|12.5.07 @ 3:06PM|#

Gail Neira was censured by the San Francisco Republican Party earlier this year:

http://www.sfgop.org/press/index.cfm/ID/38.htm

drawnasunder|12.5.07 @ 3:06PM|#

Um, yes. If somehow it looked like Ron Paul was going to win the primary, the primary would be canceled. And if he somehow still managed to get the nomination and looked like he would win the election, the election itself would be canceled. Can you imagine anything else happening?

Fluffy|12.5.07 @ 3:08PM|#

I think there's also a difference between Romney paying for straw poll tickets and transportation and Ron Paul meetup groups arranging for people to show up and pay their own way.

Although on one video I heard some guy offer to pay the $28 difference for everybody, if they were going to make it a big deal.

I can't understand why they didn't just let them win. Nobody is paying any attention anyway. By definition, only straw polls that Paul doesn't win are newsworthy now. They could have let them win here, have their little moment of cheering, and never heard of it again. It doesn't really make any sense to me to have the event melt down, because nobody benefits.

|12.5.07 @ 3:08PM|#

The Republican party needs to hire Chavez and Putin for some campaign advice on how to keep the natives from voting.

This is one of many low points in the current Republican tailspin - and it will not be the last.

|12.5.07 @ 3:09PM|#

Ya know, this was posted on Drudge this morning, and has already been removed.

And please, no comments about my foil hat needing adjustment - I have a chinstrap.

|12.5.07 @ 3:13PM|#

San Francisco Republican Party
PO Box 475520,
San Francisco, CA 94147

Phone: (415) 989-1259
FAX: 415-989-1259
Email: contact@sfgop.or

|12.5.07 @ 3:21PM|#

This website has Gail's phone number.

http://cra0115.tripod.com/SFCRA.html

|12.5.07 @ 3:29PM|#

I have never been to a Straw Poll, I am not sure if you have to announce your candidate or not, but maybe it would help if the Ron Paul Voters would stay quiet about their vote till after the polling results? Believe it or not, guilty ones, there are MANY of us out here..First you said we were somehow spamming the internet and now you see us and tell us to go away..NOT!

I don't understand why you think Ron Paul Voters are not genuine and worthy voters? We are the only ones standing up for our USA and what was fought for us..EVERYONE of us should stand up with the good Doctor, Congressman, Ron Paul! The UNCORRUPTABLE!!

Isn't there a law against oppressing votes?

Just strange how bias the public voting places are and that is what we are getting from our Government..just a trickle down from the big WACKED house on the hill..That place has really gotten creepy over the years and that house is filled with filth..
Time for TRUE change!
Ron Paul 2008 to mop up!!!

Dude the revolution is happening!

|12.5.07 @ 3:30PM|#

It is really outrageous when people show up to vote in polls and elections. Have they no shame?

|12.5.07 @ 3:35PM|#

What is freep9ing a straw poll. RP supporters showed up to vote. Thats all.

They did not vote over and over and over again with tickets that were bought for them by the candidate or the cadidates staff.

Get your story straight. Romney people cheated. Ron Paul people, all they did was show up.

|12.5.07 @ 3:39PM|#

I've got an alternate theory as to why there were more Ron Paul supporters than right-wing Republicans at the, um, SAN FRANCISCO straw poll.

Let's see if I can convey my message using psychic powers.

Did anyone get that?

Jozef|12.5.07 @ 3:39PM|#

Without watching the video (being at work, in a meeting right now), I'm wondering: Did all people get their money back or was this a bait-and-switch scam? After all, SFGOP did not honor their part of the bargain...

Chris Larson,

Actually, I was thinking more of internet polls for the Paul voters.

RDNZL|12.5.07 @ 3:39PM|#

Poor biddy was wrong footed. I almost feel sorry for the current Republican party apparatchik class. They're used to it being a gathering of cronies, where everyone's on the same (albeit slightly fascist) page. Now, they have to deal with the unwashed masses, who attempt to make up for their lack of savvy regarding party decorum by, well, chanting and waving signs.

It's a r3VOLution, and the party isn't sure what it can do to stem the tide.

|12.5.07 @ 3:40PM|#

So, did anybody get they're money refunded?

Just kidding.

Skip|12.5.07 @ 3:40PM|#

"Ron Paul supporters freeping a straw poll is different from Mitt Romney supporters freeping a straw poll, I guess."

It's what's known as a Weigelism.

|12.5.07 @ 3:44PM|#

All hell is going to break loose when the districts with "open" primaries all of sudden close them because too many "Democrats and Independents" showed up. They can close formally open local primaries on the drop of a hat if they want to. CA just closed its primary, probably because they are running scared of the rEVOLution.

Also, Ron Paul can win the primary, but that doesn't mean that he is going to win the nomination. It will be all out chaos if Paul wins the popular vote in the primaries and the delegates don't honor it and vote in someone else at convention.

|12.5.07 @ 3:47PM|#

RDNZL,

It's always fun to watch the D.F.H.s crash the gates.

Fluffy|12.5.07 @ 3:49PM|#

You are correct, Joe.

It might also interest you to know that this year, the Republican primary delegates for California are not awarded on a winner-take-all basis, but by congressional district. The primary candidate with the highest vote total in each congressional district gets X% of the total California delegates.

That means that if Paul does in fact have the support of the "crazy liberal" San Francisco Republicans, such as they are, he will get the delegates for that area.

The Paulosphere is, of course, alert to the possibilities this creates for their candidate in CA, and they are organizing a non-Southern-CA-centric outreach movement as a result.

|12.5.07 @ 3:50PM|#

The Virginia Straw Poll was much more welcoming and professional:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfpzqf3XQfo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt9OhYOBabc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXm3FNDIVeM

Fluffy|12.5.07 @ 3:52PM|#

By the way, when the expression "Paulosphere" goes mainstream, I want credit for inventing it. Thanks.

|12.5.07 @ 3:56PM|#

sage,

Just called the number you posted, it appears to have been disconnected...

|12.5.07 @ 3:59PM|#

Fluffy,

the tag for trademarking is

& # 1 7 4

without the spaces, of course...

Reinmoose|12.5.07 @ 4:00PM|#

Sweet! Thanks Taktix

You mean like THIS®

|12.5.07 @ 4:01PM|#

Shocking, Taktix. That number was on digg shortly after this story broke. They probably yanked the phone out of the wall like they do on the movies.

|12.5.07 @ 4:04PM|#

This is one of many low points in the current Republican tailspin - and it will not be the last.

The sad part is, Ron Paul is about the only success story in the Republican party these days. How many voters are changing their registration to vote for a Romney or a Huckabee?

To the extent that people are coming in to the Republican party, rather than fleeing it, Ron Paul is the only attraction they have going for them.

I am a Republican, always have been. But this sickens me! Ron Paul is the only candidate that is saying what the Republican party stands for: limited government, low taxation, a strong military defense without invading other countries, a strong economy, the protection of civil liberties, and following the Constitution and all the Republican leaders try to stomp him down! This is yet another perfect example. They all try to promote all of the other Republican candidates who are for more taxes, a weak economy, unwarranted wire-tapping, invasive wars, and an American empire!
Why would they all of the sudden not want to act like true Republicans? Is it because we have a president and congress who are more concerned about themselves and about their pocketbooks than they are about the people of this great country? And is it because the president is a "Republican" and therefore, even if he is wrong, they feel like they must continue his legacy just because he is a "Republican" and anything against the president's words must be anti-Republican? I would suggest that those who support the President Bush legacy, which is almost the same thing as the former President Clinton legacy, should not call themselves Republicans any longer, for they truly do not support the issues that true past Republicans have stood for. Ron Paul is just like Ronald Reagan, isn't it time we return to those principles?

www.ronpaul2008.com

Reinmoose|12.5.07 @ 4:05PM|#

I almost feel a little sorry for her, that she is so out of touch with the outside world that she didn't realize that allowing Paul to win her insignificant little straw poll would be a lot less meaningful than her cancelling it because it wasn't "fair." If she thought she had a lot of Paul supporters around before, just imagine what she has now.

Fluffy|12.5.07 @ 4:10PM|#

Yes, Reinmoose. She must be feeling the wrath of the Paulosphere® so much today that it was time to shut off the phones and go home.

|12.5.07 @ 4:10PM|#

It will be all out chaos if Paul wins the popular vote in the primaries and the delegates don't honor it and vote in someone else at convention

If Paul wins the primaries, then the Paul campaign will choose most of the delegates. It's only the "at large" delegates that would be a problem.

|12.5.07 @ 4:11PM|#

sage,

As if these people answer to their constituents anyway...

This is just the neo-cons frantically sticking their fingers in dike while a tidal wave approaches.

Viva la r3VOLution!

Fluffy|12.5.07 @ 4:11PM|#

HA! It works. Thanks Taktix®!

|12.5.07 @ 4:13PM|#

You can also use standard named entities. Like ® ® and ™ ™.

Reinmoose|12.5.07 @ 4:14PM|#

ooh ooh!
teach me how to do the little "tm"

|12.5.07 @ 4:15PM|#

Ack! How embarassing! Here's another attempt...

"You can also use standard named entities. Like ® ® and ™ ™."

Mike Laursen|12.5.07 @ 4:18PM|#

I'm just surprised that there is such thing as the "San Francisco Republican Alliance."

Yeah. Just going by their name, I would have naturally assumed they are a leftist, parody theater group.

Reinmoose|12.5.07 @ 4:24PM|#

Why doesn't the Republican party just close all of its primaries and then kick out everyone who donated money to Paul? Surely that would help make sure that the people voting in the primaries are REAL conservatives.

|12.5.07 @ 4:24PM|#

Yeah. Just going by their name, I would have naturally assumed they are a leftist, parody theater group.

Yeah, they'd feature plays like "Shock and Awe: A Love Story" or "Auschwitz, Shmaushwitz"

|12.5.07 @ 4:27PM|#

How utterly pathetic. Throw out all the talk about a "big tent" party when Ron Paul supporters are treated like this. The most noticeable difference Ron Paul has with the current GOP is on foreign policy and the GOP lost big time in 2006 due in large part to failed foreign policy. There are of course other areas regarding personal freedom and Constitutional government that Ron Paul and the GOP differ on as well.

My disgust at the GOP is now complete after voting Republican straight party for many years.

Dirty Fucking Hippie|12.5.07 @ 4:31PM|#

It would (will?) take a surprisingly few number of people to effectively seize the Republican party. The party has been so intent on concentrating their primary get-out-the-vote efforts to include only those with high probabilities of blind obedience to the party. They've shucked the fiscal conservatives in favor of welfare and warfare nanny staters, if only because fear is an easy motivator to achieve, especially when compared to the difficult task of attaining a viable financial policy.

Now, they're bumming because they lack the vote count necessary to defend what they thought they owned.

Hybrid vigor strikes again.

JT|12.5.07 @ 4:31PM|#

IF Paul won the primary elections, the fix would be in at the convention.

|12.5.07 @ 4:41PM|#

Paul supporters 'spam' by voting in all the online polls they find, but Romney supporters truely SPAM by voting many times each in the Florida straw poll. The press reports it as a Romney win but says nothing about the spamming they were so quick to label Paul with. A video from Florida:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDjPY_ngxNU

Diana Moneymaker|12.5.07 @ 4:42PM|#

I'm nervous to see what they'll do during the elections. Will they "cancel" voting stations when large amounts of Ron Paul supporters come rushing in?

It's a disgrace and goes to show that government is NOT for the people. Why aren't people, who aren't even Ron Paul supporters, outraged by this!?

-Diana Moneymaker

|12.5.07 @ 4:44PM|#

Gail Neira could have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express and avoided this brouhaha.

CR|12.5.07 @ 4:45PM|#

I think that one of the biggest things Paul has done so far is to keep the Mainstream Media from labeling Guliana as Libertarian. I remember a few months ago the WSJ gave him that label but I haven't seen it since. This is a very very good thing. If not for Ron Paul I think a lot more mainstream media outlets would be labeling Guliana as the libertarian candidate among the GOP field.

|12.5.07 @ 4:46PM|#

... which is almost the same thing as the former President Clinton legacy, ...

With the added bonus of 3K+ war dead. Such a humble foreign policy.

|12.5.07 @ 4:48PM|#

Will they "cancel" voting stations when large amounts of Ron Paul supporters come rushing in?

I don't what part of the country you're in, but in NY,you cannot come within 75 feet of the polling place entrance with so much as a politcal button on your jacket. So leave the signs in the cars on primary day, guys. They'll know you were there soon enough.

highnumber|12.5.07 @ 4:49PM|#

Why aren't people, who aren't even Ron Paul supporters, outraged by this!?

Because it's a straw poll.

Y'all need some perspective.

|12.5.07 @ 4:58PM|#

PEOPLE! I know its hard to contain your enthusiasm for Ron Paul... but wouldn't it be better strategy to lay low, pretend your a typical Republican and then vote RP? The way its going we're making it very easy for the Party to spot the RP supporters and devise strategies to stop them.

|12.5.07 @ 5:00PM|#

What sixstring said.

Edward|12.5.07 @ 5:01PM|#

RON PAUL/AARON RUSSO IN 2008!

The constitutiton's full of God
And income tax is one big fraud
Ron Paul's quick and Russo's dead
They will stick it to the goddam fed!

No more taxes, no more wars,
No more immigrants on our shores
No more gays rasin' kids
The federal government's on the skids

Who planned and carried out 9/11?
Sons of bitches aren't goin' to heaven
Ron Paul's quick and Russo's dead
They will stick it to the goddam fed!

|12.5.07 @ 5:11PM|#

joe-

Did anyone get that?

Yup...

(shorter joe): "All you fags absolutely must support 'gay marriage'- despite your disagreement with every other part of the Dem platform... otherwise you're a 'self-hating' homosexual."

How'd I do?

Edward|12.5.07 @ 5:18PM|#

IF Paul won the primary elections, the fix would be in at the convention.

Right! THEY will never let the MAN OF THE PEOPLE win! If nothing else, Ron Paul's candidacy will uncover the vast conspiracy that makes it unwinnable (except in the hearts and minds of the PEOPLE). THEY say: Fuck the PEOPLE! THEY want to turn the country over to immmigrants and gay adoptive parents. THEY are everywhere!

RON PAUL/AARON RUSSO IN 2008!

Seer|12.5.07 @ 5:20PM|#

As bad as that was, I feel even worse for her over the hell she's going to get from Paul supporters.

toadie|12.5.07 @ 5:21PM|#

So can someone please plant a toad in Edward's pad and call the feds?

Edward|12.5.07 @ 5:24PM|#

Seer,

Are we talking Nazis? Is that the secret weapon that can be unleashed? Good thing he didn't give the money back!

|12.5.07 @ 5:29PM|#

wow i am in shock

|12.5.07 @ 5:30PM|#

It's always fun to watch the D.F.H's crash the gates.

Unless you're among the majority of Dem's that ran away from Dean (and all those "DFH's") and towards a "traitorous pig" like John Kerry as fast as they possibly could after Iowa 2004!

Edward|12.5.07 @ 5:31PM|#

Tumbling Straw Polls

See them tumbling down
Pledging their love to the ground
Lonely but free I'll be found
Drifting along with the tumbling straw polls
Cares of the past are behind
Nowhere to go but I'll find
Just were the trail will wind
Drifting along with the tumbling straw polls
I know when night has gone
That a new world's born at dawn
I'll keep rolling along
Deep in my heart is a song
Here on the range I belong
Drifting along with the tumbling straw polls

|12.5.07 @ 5:43PM|#

The current Republican party may well have many nefarious aims, but somehow I think the immigrant/gay adoptive parent angle isn't one of them.

Edward|12.5.07 @ 6:21PM|#

drlemaster,

So you don't think Ron Paul's issues have legs? How about the war on religion? That should get people riled up, don't you think? How about claiming that atheists took all the references to God out of the Constitution?

Fluffy|12.5.07 @ 6:35PM|#

Edward -

Every last Democrat candidate has pandered much more on the issue of religion in this campaign than Paul has.

And I bet if you polled atheists only, including all candidates from both parties, Paul would win with a large plurality of the total vote.

Your continual harping on the religion issue would have more credibility if Paul's base of online activists didn't line up with the most atheistic demographic in the country pretty much one to one.

Edward|12.5.07 @ 6:49PM|#

Fluffy,

You're such a true believer. The only reason Ron Paul's goofy bromides on religion--he has committed them to writing, remember--aren't hurting him is that he's a nobody. If his campaign started to get real traction, not just traction in straw polls and his supporters' heads, rivals would be rubbing his face in the shit he spewed. How many of his anti-war supporters do you suppose would embrace his nativist stand on immigration if they knew about it? He's a loser, so nobody really cares. In politics, personality cults make people stupid, although how a cult grew up around Ron Paul's personality is a mystery to me. Maybe it's libertarian desperation. You so want a viable libertarian candidate that you can't see the warts. Ron Paul is covered with them

Fluffy|12.5.07 @ 7:11PM|#

Actually, I have studied his "goofy bromides" on religion in some detail, and they mainly seem designed to appeal to fundy sentiment in order to help torpedo public institutions that I would like to see destroyed.

I have challenged you in the past to produce the policy impact of Paul's views on religion. Because the sole policy impact I can find is that he wants to remove the ability of the state of put time, place and manner restrictions on the religious expression of the citizenry on public property, the better to help destroy the public school system. I don't see the theocratic downside to that, frankly.

Again, I don't see Paul campaigning in churches the way Hillary does. So the probable Democrat nominee is much more of a panderer to religion than Paul is. Frankly, the entire side of Hillary that nannies on issues like video game content is a great big pander to so-called values voters, so BY DEFINITION she is a bigger panderer on policy than Paul. Paul's abortion opposition does not appear to have a religious basis, but is essentially medical, so that doesn't count.

Edward|12.5.07 @ 8:48PM|#

Right, Fluffy. But's all rather academic because Hillary has a real chance, and Ron Paul doesn't. His goofiness will never be tested, and we'll never know what he might have done.

Edward|12.5.07 @ 8:49PM|#

Ron Paul/Aaron Russo--The quick and the Dead

That's the ticket for 2008!

|12.5.07 @ 8:57PM|#

Two posts in a row from special ed. This thread is now closed.

|12.5.07 @ 9:03PM|#

I used to live in San Francisco, and am a recent Past President of the local Log Cabin Republicans chapter.

I was also elected to the Republican County Central Committee in 2002, and know Gail Neira up close and personal.

I can honestly say that neither she nor the California Republican Alliance represents the "mainstream" Republicans of SF.

Gail is indeed an incomprehensible, extreme conservative, and has been a candidate for State Assembly twice. She is an embarrassment to the Party.

DMM|12.5.07 @ 9:06PM|#

Ron Paul Rəvoﻟution!

Emmett|12.5.07 @ 9:11PM|#

Edward - Did you just say Hillary has a real chance? Dude, she is tanking worse than Guiliani at the moment. Hillary will not get the nomination, just as Rudy wont. I love Dr. Paul, and will vote for him and try to get as many others to do the same, but Im not sure if he will get the nomination on Rudy's stead, but one thing I am sure of: Hillary has less chance of becoming the next president than Paul does. Period.

GRS|12.5.07 @ 9:16PM|#

Do these supposed "mainstream" Republicans have no shame? I was eyewitness to the shenanigans at the Florida straw poll. Even with these outrages, Ron Paul has already won 50% of the straw polls. The GOP isn't mainstream. Without Ron Paul it is a stagnant swamp.

Wake up conservatives. Wake up libertarians. Wake up constitutionalist. Wake up believers in the freedom of the marketplace and the liberty of the soul. This is your last chance to restore the dream that is America. Do it for yourselves. Do it for your children. The time is now. Seize the day!

Ron Paul in 2008!

Edward|12.6.07 @ 1:00AM|#

Emmet,

Ron Paul has less chance of becoming president than George Bush has of becoming smart. But the late Aaron Russo would make a fine VP.

Fluffy,

Since you've studied Ron Paul's religious stuff in detail, do you think he really thinks the Constitution is replete with references to God? If so, it wouild mean he has never read it. If he doesn't really believe such ninsense, why you you think he lied about it?

Effeminem|12.6.07 @ 1:02AM|#

At this point, I want RP to do well just to spite people like that.

|12.6.07 @ 1:10AM|#

Ron Paul has less chance of becoming president than George Bush has of becoming smart.

You may live to eat those words.

|12.6.07 @ 1:11AM|#

Does anyone suppose that Ron Paul would be doing so well if it weren't for Iraq?

I wonder a lot. Not that I'm voting for anyone else. But I wonder.

|12.6.07 @ 1:21AM|#

If yesterday's NEI about Iran wasn't a political move I'll be amazed. It was basically an announcement that Iran and the US are about to kiss and make up. Or maybe they already did.

Maybe all the heavy petting will only happen out behind the wood shed. But I predict it's going to happen. And that NEI was a really brilliant way for King George to go about it.

The US has to kiss and make up with Iran because, there is no other way to settle things down in Iraq. And there is no other way the Republicans are going to survive if they don't get The Iraq Albatross off their neck.

I predict Bush is about to cut the Albatross loose, and the NEI was the announcement. And if this is what's going on, then for once I've got to say that GWB is actually a pretty damned shrewed politician.

Of course, if GWB instead continues to play his proverbial Bull in The China Closet role, then I'll have retract this little praise I'm giving him.

But I don't think I'm going to have to retract it. I predict we're going to get along much better with Iran, now that we've diffused Public Anxiety Nuclear 1, and Iraq is going to settle right down.

Just in time for the '08 elections.

|12.6.07 @ 7:57AM|#

George Bush was quite smart, I would say. George W Bush, on the other hand,...

|12.6.07 @ 8:36AM|#

Did you know that Ron Paul came in second in the Democratic straw poll in SF?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c_V9a1nTKg

Fluffy|12.6.07 @ 8:37AM|#

In other words, Edward, you have no argument. I suspected as much, because you're a worthless cunt.

T|12.6.07 @ 9:51AM|#

You so want a viable libertarian candidate that you can't see the warts. Ron Paul is covered with them

But what we all want to know is: Do Ron Paul's warts secrete psychoactive substances?

|12.6.07 @ 10:35AM|#

I couldn't have asked for more from the SF GOP. Another win would not have been news. By cancelling the straw poll, they just add to the Revolution! I hope the primaries and elections are cancelled. That will spur a revolution like we haven't seen in over 200 years. Won't happen, though. Even W isn't that stupid.

So, we give credit to "Fluffy" for coining the Paulosphere phrase? Fluffy Smith, Fluffy Jones, Fluffy McNutty? Help me out here, Fluffy.

Kevin Parker|12.6.07 @ 10:39AM|#

I wonder what Edward & Co. would be doing with their time were Ron Paul at, say, 1% in the polls (like Duncan Hunter) instead of 9% and if he had raised, oh, a $1 at this point instead of $16 million. You know, what almost anyone who gave it any thought probably figured would be the case.

Kevin Parker|12.6.07 @ 10:41AM|#

whoops, change "$1" to "$1 million." Or not. Your choice.

|12.6.07 @ 3:03PM|#

Ron Paul won the Virginia straw poll, but look how the Richmond Times Dispatch spun it:
http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/search.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2007-12-02-0258.html

The critical excerpt:
-----------
Republican officials dismissed the poll's outcome, noting that Paul has been concentrating on winning straw polls all over the country.

"He brought people in here. What is more critical to look at is who finished second and third. That is a more true indicator of the feelings of the Republican Party of Virginia," said Tucker Watkins of Randolph in Charlotte County, a former 5th District GOP chairman.
-----------------

|12.6.07 @ 3:57PM|#

"Did you know that Ron Paul came in second in the Democratic straw poll in SF?"

SF Democrats are catching on faster than the Republicans, good for them.

|12.14.07 @ 1:57AM|#

> PEOPLE! I know its hard to contain your
> enthusiasm for Ron Paul... but wouldn't it be
> better strategy to lay low, pretend your a
> typical Republican and then vote RP?

What makes you think Gail would have reported the actual winner in that case?

She canceled the straw poll when it became obvious that Paul was going to win, and only because of that. It was obvious Paul was going to win, I was there.

Now, if she's willing to cancel the vote to prevent Paul from wining, what makes you think she wouldn't lie about the results, to keep Paul from wining?

If it wasn't for all the signs and the obvious support for Paul, not only would Gail not have known how the vote was going to turn out, nobody would have. I wouldn't be questioning the results either, I would just be thinking "wow, I am disappointed there aren't more Paul supporters here in Silicon Valley".

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