Who Is Ron Paul?
and, more importantly, can he bring traffic to my website? Presently, I can (briefly) (sort of) answer the first question; the second one, I cannot … yet. More on that later, but for now let’s (appropriately) handle first things first:
Who is Ron Paul?
Ron Paul is a US congressman from Texas running for President of the United States of America; he is seeking the Republican Party’s nomination. He also looks a little bit like the late, great chicken restaurateur Frank Perdue.
Ron Paul, like a number of the other so-called "third-tier candidates" on both the Republican and Democratic sides, is polling in the low single digits (or, as in the case of the most recent USA Today/Gallup poll, the zero digits) when it comes to national support for his campaign.
I gather he’s kind of nutty, and kind of funny, but no more so than Dennis Kucinich and almost certainly less so than Mike Gravel, two other candidates with similar or slightly better (read: ’still brutally awful’) numbers about whom I have never thought to write anything except at this very moment, in this very sentence, and only now in the context that I had not heretofore considered them thusly.
So why write about this also-ran with few supporters instead of about any number of other also-rans with few supporters? Because this also-ran’s supporters are fucking crazy.
OK, ‘crazy’ isn’t the right word (it’s just fun to write), but Paulites are irrefutably a wacky bunch.
What the hell?
The previous graphs - but two plucked from countless others of their kind - are the handiwork of Ron Paul’s supporters: they represent the tallied online responses to poll questions regarding Republican primary candidates and they demonstrate an overwhelming support of and preference for Mr. Paul.
"But didn’t you just write that Ron Paul has zero percent of the American public’s support?"
Indeed I did, but I also failed to mention this important caveat: that that zero percent spends one-hundred percent of its collective time online trying to make it look like its candidate is more popular than he actually is.
If there’s an MSNBC vote, Paul supporters will be out e-stuffing the ballot e-boxes. If Pajama Media (the fuck?) is conducting a straw poll, Ron fans will be there feverishly grasping at those straws. And if CNN decides to investigate YouTube penetration
GOOD NIGHT!
YouTube has been so thoroughly Paul-penetrated it feels patently unclean.
Now I’m all for fucking around online, but with these guys it’s like a sickness: one can hardly go onto any reader-participatory political blog, news site, or anywhere else even tangentially related to anything even tangentially related to Ron Paul without the content quickly devolving into five guys with fifty screen names each pimping Ron Paul like he has seven holes.
And I guess all that is fine, but the part that just comes off as absurdly silly is that Paul’s soldiers tout his e-stats as if they actually MEAN anything.
Check out how Ron stacks up against the other Republican candidates in these "Key Stats" taken from the Ron Paul wiki:
- #1 in MySpace friends at 48,806
- #1 in YouTube subscriptions at 22,011.
- #1 at Meetup at 581 groups
- #1 in Technorati search terms since May 9, 2007 Search for “Ron Paul” to vote in this poll!
- #2 in Eventful demands, less than 4,800 more demands to hit #1 Demand Dr. Paul right now!
- #4 at Facebook 7% of the vote. Just 709 votes to hit #3 (#2 on Republican ticket, 3,359 more to hit #1)
Wow, Ron Paul has 48,806 MySpace "friends" – not too shabby. But, then again, do you know who has 1,982,925 MySpace friends?
If I wanted to vote for an Internet President, I would have last election.
So why devote the better part of my evening writing about a candidate that has no chance? Well that brings us (back) to my original second question …
Can Ron Paul bring traffic to my website?
I sure hope so.
Look, I have nothing against Ron Paul, and I get why some folks are chomping at the bit to canonize the man. Some of Paul’s (non-racist) ideas and the passion with which he espouses them are fun and sound appealing in the way a person telling you there is a dead simple method to drop fifteen pounds will pique your interest until you find out it involves losing a leg.
But I’m not writing about Ron Paul because I do/not like the man, I’m writing about him because I hope it brings readers to my website.
You see, Keith and I have been typing out silly little things for a few months now, but I think only like ten people (MAX) ever read them. So I figured I’d dip into something topical and at the same time pose a friendly challenge to the Ron Paul faithful out there.
So Ron Paul Revolutionaries, how about it? Let’s see what you’ve got. Because if you can’t mobilize to drop a comment or fifty on some random guy’s blog, then no quantity of ‘10′ ratings on hotornot.com or whatever will save Rep. Paul’s candidacy from ending up Really Simply Screwed (RSS).
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41 Comments
Ron Paul kinda looks like Wesley Clark… and actually kinda sounds like Wesley Clark… but what actually comes out of his mouth sounds more like Ayn Rand, which is to say, not quite as crazy as Jeff Dahmer, but at the same time, not quite as sane as Charles Manson. Politically speaking, of course.
Well, he’s going to be president, so get used to him
I have a Ron Paul blog and I have gotten over a hundred visitors and I don’t advertise or get on Wonkette or anything. It must work.
How about this new fake Ron Paul blog that just started. I bet that brings in the traffic. http://www.newsgroper.com/ron-paul/
wow brian, seems like your idea really worked. if i’m already the 6th comment, you must have reached over 10 readers! congrats!
yes, this is highly encouraging - and I hope, more so than just a cheap trick to attract eyeballs (which it is), this post will lead the Ron Paul fans (or non-fans) that end up here take a few moments to look around and read a few articles - I also hope it generates some feedback - from people on any side of the RP movement - as to how well I did/not describe the man’s mystique
This Ron Paul blog is better. No one cares what you random people think about Ron.
It’s about what Ron thinks.
Your article was pretty funny and to the point. I liked it.
I suggest that you support Ron Paul and his campaign for president so you can continue to enjoy first amendment rights on the internet. He thoroughly supports an unregulated internet and is a constitutionalist so you would only benefit in doing so. You might also have more of your earnings to put into this site since the IRS would also not be there to enforce income tax laws against you. Regardless of how one feels about the ubiquitous Ron Paul his message is failproof for Americans who desire freedom.
Shamelessly using the Name of Paul to promote your site will indeed increase your site traffic in the short term but might provoke the ire of his supporters, as well. I think Dr. Paul would admire your entrepreneurial spirit, and free-market capitalist ideals, though.
Legalize the Constitution! Vote Ron Paul for President 2008.
(BTW, your comments thingy is messed up.)
I support Ron Paul simply because he is honest and he is a constitutionalist. Washington is run by corporate America and I am sick of it. It is that simple. If the constitution is silly well then, I guess Ron Paul is too.
valerie - messed up how ….?
Ok, this would have been better if you had not *totally* smeared Ron Paul in the process.
But since it gives me another chance to talk about my favorite candidate, I’ll bite.
Yes, I spend nearly every waking moment online in one form or another. I am a self-employed work-from-home programmer. Some of that time is spent searching for people talking about Ron Paul, and adding my $0.02
I live in a small town in the middle of the SD prairie, and don’t have a whole lot of money, so this is hwat I do to help my candidate.
Now to the point by point.
“Ron Paul, like a number of the other so-called “third-tier candidates” on both the Republican and Democratic sides, is polling in the low single digits (or, as in the case of the most recent USA Today/Gallup poll, the zero digits) when it comes to national support for his campaign.”
Ron Paul is not a third-tier candidate. He is at the top of the second-tier. (arguments could be made that he and Sam Brownback are tied for top of the second tier. Arguments could also be made that Ron Paul has moved into the top tier, with the self-destruction of McCain.)
And while some landline telephone polls have Ron Paul at 0%, others have him at 3%, and show a steady improvement in the last 2 months. Pollsters only talk to form GOP, and Ron Paul’s supporters come from all across the political and geographical landscape.
“I gather he’s kind of nutty, and kind of funny…”
There are those that would like to protray him as such, but actually, he is very intelligent, and very principled, and he sticks to those principles, no matter what. Lobbyists don’t even bother stopping in his office on a close vote, because they know he will vote the way he is going to vote, no matter what.
“So why write about this also-ran with few supporters instead of about any number of other also-rans with few supporters? Because this also-ran’s supporters are fucking crazy.”
Yes; we are. Crazy over the idea that finally here is a man who will uphold the Constitution, and reign in a federal governmnet gone mad with power-lust. It isn’t just GWB, it’s all the TSA employees, and the IRS agents, and all the other petty bureaucrats in the executive branch that need a good smack-down. (in terms of power that is, not advocating any violence or nothing.)
And the number of supporters isn’t so few. There is a good 20,000 hard-core dedicated volunteers (just online). What other campaign, of *any* tier or party, can say that? What’s more, we don’t need the campaign to tell us what to do.
“spends one-hundred percent of its collective time online trying to make it look like its candidate is more popular than he actually is.”
No. we are trying to get his message out, so everyone else will notice him, and consider the message of freedom and smaller, limited government. the poll results are real, the money is real. the people who show up at rallies are real.
Usually, the only people who object to his message, either have a financial interest in big government (defense contractors, welfare cheats, etc.), are working for some other campaign (Fred Thompson has been paying people to blog nice things about him, you should check it out.) or have a political objection to some aspect of the constitution (either they imagine some right they don’t really have, like a right to be paid a “living wage” or they wish to deny some right to others that is actually there - Right to own guns for example.)
Not accusing you of any of this, I’m just saying….
All his numbers are going up. The others are Holding steady or going down. Once people really dig into Julie-Annie, or Romney, or Thompson’s platform, these guys lose support. Romney has spent so much money trying to buy this campaign, it isn’t even funny.
“five guys with fifty screen names each pimping Ron Paul like he has seven holes.”
I know it may seem that way, but hopefully after your little experiment you will see that all the IP addresses are different, etc. If not, please post the evidence.
Fox news ran a text message poll, and Ron paul got 25% of that vote (only slightly behind Romney with 29%) to capture 2nd place, and I don’t really know of any way to stuff a text message poll - they get you with that caller id.
Anyway, enjoy your traffic bump, and thank you again for talking about Ron Paul.
Later,
Kevin
i will leave it for other Supporters to address the rest of your post, and to highlight Ron’s positions.
yeah, brian, it’s totally messed up. The javascript that manages the textbox, and posts the results further down doesn’t let me see the very bollom line, once the post gets to a certain length.
Also the text box changes width in a very annoying way.
Later,
Kevin
P.S. We Ron Paul supporters should not be angry at this shameless attempt to make money. It helps us. Now they can’t say we barged in on a thread that wasn’t related.
If you enter Ron Paul in Schpoogle, you get directed to Sushi the cat. If it doesn’t let you enter anything, then it detects you are a moron and should be exterminated by Yellow Masa
I’ve disabled another plugin - I wasn’t getting any errors, so don’t know if doing that will correct the ones you were/are, but hopefully it will do the trick - I have to read the comments to respond to the content of your replies, just wanted to let people know I may have fixed the site errors
Welcome to the revolution.
Libertard Ron Paul thinks private companies should be free to discriminate by race, sex, and religion. If Wal-Mart decided to ban gay black men like me from applying for employment, Ron Paul would side with Wal-Mart.
If Ron Paul is so supportive of the Constitution, how come he is against net neutrality? Isn’t right to privacy and freedom from arrest is supposed to be guaranteed by the Constitution.
His supporters call him “Doctor,” but you know who else was a doctor? That’s right: Joseph Mengele.
Next time a RonPaulBot says he knows family and friends who also support Ron Paul, feel free to call him out on his bluff and expose him for what he really is — a minimum wage campaign staffer paid to use anonymous proxies to Google for internet posts about Ron Paul and leave pro-Ron comments.
I have it on good data that Ron Paul has copulated with various barnyard animals.
“Doctor” Ron Paul is wrong for the presidency, and wrong for America. Every breathless fanatical comment about the mainstream media trying to hide Ron Paul’s popularity is like a little Howard Dean Scream.
Ron Paul’s cult of spammers, with their long online trails of snivelling fanaticism, will be his own undoing, and the shame of his feeble run for office will be preserved on the internet for centuries to come.
Brownback in ‘08.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKKik8DVOsM The president of Hip Hop digs up the dirt on Ron Pauls’ racism
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2.....y_warning/ This is why Ron Paul voted against net neutrality. I disagree. Ron Paul admits he is not up to speed with the internet. ” Robert Kahn, the most senior figure in the development of the internet, has delivered a strong warning against “Net Neutrality” legislation”.
I also support Ron Paul. I’m here because I also find it interesting what others say/think/feel about his candidacy. I have noticed, though, that most bloggers that don’t like him for one reason or another consistently use the moniker “nutjob.” It’s almost as if they all came from the same school. I support him because individual liberty and respect for the individual is the best way to keep peace and harmony, not a centralized, power-hungry committee (i.e.- the Federal Government).
hell yeah - now we’re getting somewhere - try to respond to everybody …
nate: please have ron come by and bless me at some point with a comment of his own
rick: thanks for the love
sandman: I’d be surprised if any candidate out there is campaigning to shut down freedom of expression on the Internet, but it’s nice to know that Ron Paul is not
valerie: I like your capitalization of ‘Name of Paul’ - it connotes a lovely/creepy religious bent
David: I don’t believe the Constitution is silly (though I’m sure there’s some era-particular turns of phrase it in that seem funny now) but I’m willing to be disabused of that notion if I am in error
Kevin: I don’t think my piece in particular "smears" Ron Paul - if it paints an unfavorable picture of any group/people, I imagine it would be Ron Paul supporters, but I think the article is pretty good-natured in tone and am glad people (even big Paul supporters) seem to be taking it that way. As for Paul being a top second-tier candidate, I don’t know man - I mean, one of the great, democratizing elements of the Internet is that most any person/group can spread his/her message so that people can hear (read) it and then decide if they like/love/support it or not - so, it’s great that the Net is letting people who otherwise never would read much about Ron Paul read about it - but the issue with having the ability for your message to be heard is that you might find out/have to accept that once people hear it, they reject it - this poll vs. that poll vs. this methodology vs. that methodology - OK, I get it, we have to expect some variance - but zero to two percent eventually might just mean that people aren’t buying what you/Ron are selling - not saying that you’ve hit that point and it’s time to throw in the towel, just that it might get to that point and is something to ponder/have to accept later
Ron LOL - if you have any real dirt on the RP mobilization, then that would be some interesting reading - if you have any barnyard photos, I can set you up with an ftp account
David - the President of Hip Hop might be funny but he …. talks …. too …. damn …. slow(ly) - also, I didn’t vote for him but shit maybe I missed my chance and should have gone absentee ballot - oh, and, just as a general response - what the fuck?
Also, if Ron isn’t up to speed on the Net, then his e-soldiers aren’t doing their duty - maybe they can start him off with an aol account
Page - is that really how you spell your name? No ‘i’?
Just another Ron Paul supporter looking for something to spam . Ann
I thought this was really funny stuff, but why are people coming to B4B from here. That is a mystery.
Of course I did just trash him and immediately got three commenters in the wee hours of the morning trashing me for trashing him. Are Paulites all meth heads or what?
You may be on to something. Posting anything about Ron Paul brings the freaks. I’m not so sure that’s a good thing.
Blah, I meant to pimp our blog.
http://blogs4brownback.wordpre.....-finished/
Please do not hold a harm. Heh.
Witness above the jealous paid anti-Paul bloggers! HAHAHAHA.
Ron Paul is in it for the long haul. His message is refreshing and exactly what America wants and needs. It looks like you wily neocons will have to be dragged kicking and screaming to the Paul ideology if you’re serious about the GOP remaining intact.
For your perusal:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/sutton1.html
Now this is interesting - both the pro- / anti- Ron Paul comment posters accuse each other of being paid anti- / pro- Ron Paul comment spammers. Does anyone on either side have any actual evidence of their claims?
I don’t understand people that act like the Constitution is the most holiest of holy documents, that not even Buddha himself could wipe his mouth with it. That its the purest most perfect document ever put on paper by quill.
I mean yeah, it has some good things contained in it, but it also has some bad things…I mean seriously, it says black people count as three fifths of a person. There is a reason we have been adding amendments to it for 200 years, because it needed fixing (like, you know, letting women vote).
All political candidates are “constitutionalists” in the sense that they support the premise of the constitution.
So enough with this “legalize the constitution” crap, women (as far as I know) like voting, and black people (as far as I know) do prefer to be five fifths of a person.
Dr. Jeff, since when do you know anything about black people?
Dr. Jeff,
Ron Paul did not say he supports, and most constitutionalists I know do not support, the constitution as originally written. The 14th and 19th amendments are absolutely required to complete the document, to make it a better declaration of freedom and the inalienable rights of all human beings. But both amendments were passed by 3/4 of the states then in existence.
If you think the President should have the sole discretion to declare wars and spy on people without a warrant, or that Congress should have the authority to hand over their war-making power to the President, then at least have the decency to amend the Constitution properly.
This business where Congress and the president just pass some law that ignores the Constitution on a 51% vote is Bull$#!+
This is what Ron Paul (and others like myself) mean when we say legalize the constituion. Not the original document, but as amended.
–
Brian,
I knew it was good natured ribbing, and not a real attack. If it had been a real smear article, you would have had to lie
(the racist charge is old hat, and already answered - he didn’t write it; the guy who did was fired. Ron Paul took responsibility and appologized anyway.)
Regarding bloggers getting paid, Here is one link: (”consulting” appears to the new code word for blogging for hire.)
http://www.blogpi.net/blog-pi-2008-disclosure-form
At least these guys are being honest about it. Other evidence is hard to come by since most anonymous paid hacks would not advertise who is paying them or they might try to tag some other candidate with the blowback, by smearing Ron, and making a superficial appeal for Brownback at the end, or by linking to annother candidate’s blg.
Please consider the following as evidence that the rent-a-troll service exists (I’m sure the Dems have their own, but I’m also sure you will never hear about it on dailykos.)
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/7/17/9137/01266
“but zero to two percent eventually might just mean that people aren’t buying what you/Ron are selling - not saying that you’ve hit that point and it’s time to throw in the towel, just that it might get to that point and is something to ponder/have to accept later”
One might be tempted to think this if Ron Paul didn’t do so damned well in the Fox News text message poll after the second debate. (SC, May 15th) That shows that people who get to hear Ron Paul’s message like it. Julie-Annie got something like 15-16% in that poll, and Ron Paul got 25%. This was after Ron’s supposed “blunder” of saying what everyone knows is true, but no one ever has the guts to say.
And remember, this was a text message poll, virtually un-spammable; one phone, one vote. One assumes that most who watched the entire debate watched the post-game interviews as well (I did) and Sean Hannity looked like he swallowed a bug when he announced that Ron Paul was winning halfway through the post debate interviews. Even after that announcement, most Giuliani supporters could not be bothered to pick up a cell phone and send a text message. On the other hand, a lot of Romney supporters who may not have thought to vote earlier probably did after seeing Ron Paul winning, and so Romeny pulled ahead.
I have a suspicion, but cannot prove, that the so-called “scientific” polls are so thouroughly manipulated as to be completely unreliable. I can go into it if you want, but it’s long (like all my comments
If Julie-Annie is so popular (30%-35% at the time) with the Republican base, then why couldn’t he gather enough text-message voters to beat a guy who can’t get more than 2% in a landline poll.
Is it reverse Ron Paul syndrome? Are Giuliani supporters more likely not to have cell phones? Or is it apathy. They know his name, but don’t really care if he gets the nomination or not, since he’s more or less a liberal anyway?
Or are the polsters lying to us again?
AOL Elections
And yeah, if Ron Paul doesn’t make a good showing in the Iowa straw poll, or his landline poll numbers don’t climb somewhat by mid-November or so, then - perhaps - it will be time for them to shift the focus of the campaign to something else - education, list building, outreach, whatever. Certainly, Ron Paul must win both IA and NH in Jan. ‘08 to be considered viable.
One thing is for certain. I will vote for Ron Paul in Nov ‘08 come hell or high water, even if I have to write in his name. The only other possible Republican I could have voted for was Gilmore, and he’s out now. Voting 3rd party is a complete waste of time - been there, done that, got the 3.5% to prove it - the game is too rigged.
Here’s another link for you: Consider Ron Paul’s google trend numbers, compared to the reference news volume.
google trends
Ron gets the lowest amount of news stories, but the highest amount of search traffic. And it’s not automated, since google will give you a captcha test if they think your computer is sending automated search requests. I know, I got 2 when I made my first few google news searches after the May 15th SC debate.
finally here are the alexa rankings.
alexa rankings
Again this is not spammable. Alexa uses a toolbar to gauge popularity. besides, if this is the work of the paul campaign, then why haven’t they been doing this all along? Why do the numbers only begin to spike in April.
So tell us, Brian. what are the results of your experiment? Are all these comments coming from the same IP? Looks like you got a boost in comments anyway.
Kevin Houston,
Did you know that Dr. Jeff puts his finger in peoples’ butts for a living? I think he suffers enough for his art that he should be left alone to simply believe what he wants to believe without people assailing him for it.
Kevin, I will try to find the time to write my important Ron Paul follow up today/tomorrow - I imagine Dr. Jeff hasn’t yet replied to you is because he’s up to his elbows in *something* - once he cleans up I’m sure he’ll come back to lay down the law
Update: finally wrote the follow up On Ron Paul, getting high, snorgling, and other nonsense
There are a lot more of us Ron Paul supporters than the mainstream media would ever admit.
The reason the opinion polls are so low is primarily due to the kind of accepted filtering techniques and accepted multipliers(including negative multipliers) that are used to keep the numbers within current “trends”. There’s a long list of BS they can do to opinion poll numbers.
He won another “straw poll”, whatever those really are.
http://www.mdgop.org/News/Read.aspx?ID=5992
I can’t wait to see the look on Ron Paul supporters when he gets like 1% in the REAL primaries.
I’m watching the Fox News post-debate recap (don’t ask) which includes the results of a text-message poll - right now Paul is stomping them all with like 35% and the next closest ones in the mid teens - wacky
I typed Ron Paul into blogscope.net (a blog search engine) and you were number 3. Quit acting like you didn’t mean to smear Ron, it’s really lame. Other than that, I’ve enjoyed my time on your blog. And don’t forget- freedom has two first names, Ron Paul.
ron paul and dennis kucinich are the only two candidates who aren’t complete corporate shills and completely corrupt. if that makes them wacko… then sign me up. huckabee believes the rapture is coming and thinks that aids can be spread by spit. and romney believes jesus visited america…
now thats logic i can get behind…
and kick off a fucking cliff….
and maybe if you weren’t so full of shit.
you wouldn’t need to write about ron paul to get hits.
how bout you go outside and live your life.
Kudos to you, You’re A Jerkoff, for knowing the difference between “you’re” and “your.” In this age where we must be constantly vigilant against ideas outside our worldview, it’s refreshing to see someone practice proper grammar while whining on the internet.
no offence but i think tila tequila is sexy
I’m not offended, except by your spelling.
BURN!