Quietly, persistently, fans spread the gospel of Paul

(UPDATE: Note to Readers, Nov 8, 2007. Click here or www.LATimes.com/topoftheticket

Ron Paul supporters will be out in full force this weekend online and in Fort Worth for the Texas straw poll, where they will cite any success whatsoever as proof that their grassroots grassfire rebellion is taking off again. The fact that no top-tier Republican candidates and even some second-tier ones are skipping the symbolic vote will not douse their enthusiasm one drop.

The fact that their savior, an elderly Texas congressman and former doctor who once ran for president on the Libertarian ticket, doesn't register in state or national polls doesn't register with passionate Paulites. At all hours of the day or night they constantly scour the Internet for Web polls to vote for their man repeatedly, making his support appear far stronger than the single digit he usually gets in scientific polls. Two weeks ago they had minor reasons to celebrate for Ron Paul's 72d birthday.

They jump into Comments sections and discussion boards to proselytize for Paul in messages FULL OF CAPITAL LETTERS AND EXCLAMATION MARKS !!!!!! They chastise those writers who don't take seriously the candidate with two first names. And they're always uploading new videos of Paul onto YouTube and running up the numbers of viewers.

If their activities had anything to do with political organizing, the Paulites might have a chance of gathering some serious votes. But that does not faze these amateur hardcore conservatives one bit. They are convinced that if they spread the gospel of Paul enough, enough people will see the light.

On their own websites, they chatter and exchange gossip about writers who have mentioned Ron Paul's name, always referred to reverently as Dr. Paul. And, because earlier this year many were overbearing and aggressive, they offer each other tips on how to make the best impression with their online comments, using jokes and self-deprecating humor.

It's an admirable brand of do-it-yourself campaigning using few funds and lots of duct tape and heart. "Google Ron Paul" is their motto, trying to draw more people to become admirers of the strict constitutionalist and ultraconservative isolationist who never saw a government dollar he did not want to not spend. A recent Associated Press feature on Paulites noted the Google phrase painted atop a Manhattan apartment building in huge letters in case any air passengers overhead looked out their window.

When you do Google Paul, you get  RonPaul2008.com where he is hailed as "the leading advocate for freedom in our nation's capital." But what about the rest of the country?

"Dr. No" is Paul's congressional nickname for his predictable "nay" votes, a nickname that Paul himself says with a smile is really "Dr. Know." Google Dr. No and you get a James Bond movie. Google Dr. Know and you get the Health Channel's Dr. Paul Trotman, who debunks medical myths.

--Andrew Malcolm

 

Comments

[Matt Davies]

Good to see we have left the ignore phase and are now in the attack phase.

The mainstream media makes me laugh. No wonder less and less people buy your rags every day.

(Ans: This is the web, Matt. And our blog numbers are doing fantastic. Thanks for helping--and confirming so quickly our point about the dedication of grumpy Paulites.-AM)

[Cascadian]

You'd think the LA times could afford better than this.

[Wallace]

Your article is quite to the point. But maybe Dr. Know is too old to run for presidency.

[Scott]

"doesn't register in state or national polls doesn't register with passionate Paulites"

I don't believe the same thing registered with Jimmy Carter's, Bill Clinton's, or John Kerry's supporters either. All were polling just as Pual is now before each won their respective nominations.

Telephone polls, the way they are run, are useless in measuring Paul's apeal. Such polls typically only include registered Republicans who bothered to vote for an incumbent Bush in the 2004 primary. Said primary had an anemic 6.6% turnout. The very last people to support Paul would be those who supported Bush's well-established aggressive foreign policy strongly enough to make that primary. Paul's support will be coming out of the 93.4% who didnt bother in 2004.

[Scott]

"When you do Google Paul, you get RonPaul2008.com where he is hailed as "the leading advocate for freedom in our nation's capital." But what about the rest of the country?"

Looks like you completely misread this statement. Being the "leading advocate for freedom in our nation's capital" means being the leading advocate for the freedom of all US citizens among federal legislators... who happen to do their work in Washington, D.C. Last I checked, that was the capital of this country.

[Oscar DeGrouch]

We thank you and Fox News for your support!

We're actually a very friendly bunch when we're given the chance.

[David McLeod]

This is perhaps one of the most amatuer pieces of journalism I've ever seen from the LA Times. You can do better than this I'm sure.

[Mark Twine]

Wow, I could be wrong, but it sure sounds like you're trying to belittle this Ron Paul fella.

[Johnnyb]

Lets see the Dow's off 560 points over the last 2 days, the dollar is breaking a new record low. $100 dollar oil is here! Bernanke is saying that we are going to have a recession, and you are writing an article about the goofy things that folks do to generate name recognition for the good Dr.?

Ron Paul supporters are scared out of their minds, and for good reason too! Global Warming is not going to happen for at least another 100 years, if it happens at all, terrorists are never going to take over America or even get competitive with lightning strikes or rattlesnake bites as a cause of death. The only real concern of any relevance is the fact that our economy is headed in a very bad direction which can cause a complete financial collapse if left as is.

We supporters of Ron Paul are not important, and yes anxiety has driven a few of us nuts. What is important is stabilizing our currency and our economy, and from what I see only Ron Paul is talking about doing that.

[Cody]

Wow, I read it once and scanned it again. Not one mention of a political issue. Is this the gossip column?

[Joe]

The GOP sees the Paul voters as 'fringe' voters. What they fail to realize is that this 'fringe' is actually a huge block of young Republican voters. The young vote might not be the major party voting block today, but in a few short election cycles, as the older generation of GOP loyalists dies off, it WILL be a majority of their voting block. By ignoring and mocking that 'fringe' today, they are turning off the future voters of the Party.

The Republican party needs to take notice that they have gotten progressively less and less conservative and have now reached the point where an ultra conservative candidate, such as Ron Paul, can take away quite a few votes from the front runners. This needs to be a wake up call to the party. Get back to your roots or lose a giant group of your future voters.

[litcigar]

On the one hand, I find the debate about any candidate's supporters as being largely an irrelevent issue and so I chastise this story on that account. Of course, on the other hand, there is fanciful writing on this article that makes source-less assertions about the actions of some Ron Paul followers and uses this to hastily generalize about all of his followers as whole.

I really don't know where to begin in picking apart this story.

[Dave]

Hi, just curious as to how he is labeled an ultraconservative isolationist. Does being anti-war and removing troops from all over the world mean you are an isolationist? Thanks.

[James Adams]

Sadly, your information is rather inacurate. I won't waste keystrokes refuting it point by point. Still, the media polls are quite simply becoming irrelavant. Their methodology is out of date, and to be frank they are starting to look manipulated.

Of course, if you cared about more than page hits, you wouldn't be writing poorly supported slander pieces aimed at citizens intersted in the election. How regretable that our country has come to a time where Americans have to fight just to vote for who we prefer. Rather than have some media annoited canidate rammed down our throats.

[Ira Kaur]

"'Google Ron Paul' is their motto, trying to draw more people to become admirers of the strict constitutionalist and ultraconservative isolationist who never saw a government dollar he did not want to not spend".

Can you explain you double negative here? It was the cause of some confusion for myself and I am sure for others.

Thanks

PS. Ron Paul is one of the best candidates I have ever had the priviledge of voting. I won't vote for someone I believe is not the best candidate. That is why even if the ballot come election time has only Guiliani and Clinton, I will still vote for Ron Paul, even if I have to write him in.

[Andrew Camacho]

You know, the last time I checked, elections weren't conducted by calling random people and asking who they would vote for.

In real elections, you actually have to leave your house, go out and vote. So if Ron Paul is winning most of the straw polls, that should show that these random polls are actually scientifically inaccurate.

If you ever took statistics you would remember that a poll is only as good at determining the opinion of the target population (in this case US citizens) as it is in determining the sample.

So if the samples being used are outdated (which I believe they are) they these polls no longer represent Americans, these scientific polls aren't worth anything.

An example would be that a lot of Ron Pauls supporters have never voted before, so they won't be on this sample list. Again, not all voters have line phones, that is an inherent bias. A lot of Ron Pauls supporters are old republicans who have left the party, they won't be on that list. A lot of his supporters are previous independents and democrats, they will not be on that list.

So if the sample list is not random sample of the general population (current US republicans) then the poll is useless. That is what I believe is going on.

[Matt Moeller]

Veiled insults and condescension are all this article offers. Ron Paul supporters had a record shattering fund raising campaign proving they are willing to put their wallets alongside their keyboards and all you can do is vaguely reference it?

You are right, however. This is the web, where truth (and journalism apparently) is limited only by your agenda and imagination.

How about some objective analysis next time?

[Brad Linzy, Evansville, IN]

WELL, i WAS GOING TO GIVE YOU AN INTELLIGENT RESPONSE, BUT SEEING AS CA CAN ONLY TYPE IN CAPS AND EXCLAMATION MARKS, I'LL JUST TELL YOU HOW FAR OFF YOU ARE AND HOPE YOUR READERS SEE THROUGH YOUR BULL!!!!

;D

PS: RON PAUL IS ABOUT TO SHOCK THE WORLD AND YOU'RE MISSING THE TRAIN.

[Bobby]

Ron Paul is not an isolationist; he does not support protectionist economic policies. He is a non-interventionist. Here's his foreign policy platform:

http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2002/cr090502.htm

Also, I am a Ron Paul supporter, and am not a "hardcore conservative". I am pro-choice, anti-war, pro-gay rights, and irreligious.

[James D]

This outrageous statement is close to libel:

'...vote for their man repeatedly..."? Where is your proof of that? Is this piece written by a journalist? Where is your W5? You are not quoting anyone here. You are making a statement of fact.

If this is a fact then back it up with evidence. Otherwise people would have good reason to believe that this reporter is not credible.

(Ans: We ran a webpoll of all candidates. Suddenly after several days Ron Paul began getting hundreds of votes from a small number of emails. That's the evidence.)

[Dan]

There is zero evidence that supporters of Dr. Paul vote multiple times in polls. This is a total fabrication. While it may have happened, it is just as likely to happen for any other candidate. Note that Paul won a Fox news debate poll that require a cell phone call and only only vote per phone number was allowed. Paul has also won 21 straw polls, which are polls conducted in person.

[Red]

Most, if not all, online polls only let you vote once, either by using browser "cookies" or based on IP address. Instead of admonishing Ron Paul supporters for voting in these polls, maybe you shoud admonish the other candidates for not having many active supporters on the internet. Also, do you have an opinion on the 4.3 million dollar he raised on the 5th of Nov. with aprox. 37, 000 individual donors?

[brian]

It really is just as Gandhi said, first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you(our current phase) then you win.

Seriously if you sit down and really hear Dr. Paul out, you would vote for him also. His views are brilliant, they sound a little drastic at first but if you really listen to the explanations they make a great deal of sense. He doesn't just say whatever his campaign managers tell him to so that he can win votes. He does the one thing every politician is supposed to do and that is defend the constitution. They all took the oath Paul is the only one who upholds it. What has this country come to if that is considered radical. Why can't the media just present the candidates and their views and allow the people to decide, stop trying to sway opinion to help yourself. If this man was given the airtime he deserved and people had a chance to truelly hear his explanations instead of 30 second sound bites he is allotted now, people would realize that he isn't the radical one, it's the war mongering, self profiting neo-cons and the communist democrats, both of which will bankrupt this country, the neocons with war and the dems with communist medicine and the other one million big government organizations. Wake up america, this country is going down the tubes fast. We need real change and the only one that can accomplish this is Dr. Ron Paul. Also did you see how this so called journalist even resorts to making fun of him because Ron Paul has two first names. Seriously, that is all he's got because he knows Ron Paul would win a debate on any issue and his record is perfect. There is nothing credible to attack him on. The attacks I see are usually just name calling and blatent lies. The main stream media is pure corruption, I don't know if there are any honest respectable journalists left.

[Jane]

So one of those so-called scientific polls called my brother. Do you know what they asked?
If you had to vote today, which candidate would you vote for? Then they give you a multiple choice.
Guiliani, McCain, Romney, Thompson, Undecided, Other

Those are your choices. When he asked why all the candidates aren't listed, the guy told him he could choose "other." He asked how that will show the support for other candidates if they are all grouped as other. The guy asked if he should put him down for Other or Undecided. He asked the guy again how this is a true polling. The guy hung up on him.

They results of the poll when published were
Giuliani 19%
McCain 8%
Romney 10%
Thompson 24%
Other 14%
Undecided 25%

Real scientific.

[Darrin]

"ultraconservative isolationist"

Dr.Paul is NOT an isolationist. That would require the inclusion of economic protectionism/nationalism which is anathema to liberty proponents like Dr.Paul.

He is a strong proponent of free trade, economic freedom, and all other applications of property rights. His strong opposition to wars to protect the economic interests of lobbyists is far from the pacifist/isolationist he is portrayed as.