Invasion of the Paul People

You have to wonder whether the Ron Paul posse really understands the kind of damage some of its members are inflicting on their candidate with their often crude, pushy, even bullying tactics. Advocacy is one thing; theirs can be another.

Fellow Republican Mitt Romney traveled to East Lansing, Mich. Saturday to do a little retail politicking (and pose for scores of snapshots) at the annual Michigan-Michigan State college football game, the kind of bragging-rights showdown UCLA-USC fans can appreciate (Michigan won). Romney dutifully made his way to a pre-game tailgate party hosted by state Republican chair Saul Anuzis, and then a nearby gathering held by the MSU College Republicans -- both within sight of Spartan Stadium.

But every time Romney turned around, there was a Paul supporter trying to barge into the picture. One tall guy in a U-M bathrobe grabbed Romney's hand, then whipped out a Paul lawn sign and asked Romney what he thought of his rival. Three or four other Paul volunteers waved lawn signs behind Romney's head until Romney supporters blocked them with their own signs, sparking a campaign-sign aerial dogfight as Romney gripped and grinned.

Yet another Paul supporter grabbed Romney's hand and asked him what he thought about the "news media blackout of Ron Paul." Which makes you wonder whether some of these folks are so caught up in their paranoia that they ever look at the media coverage (exhibits A, B, C and D).

The key here is that as the Paul people pressed, the frowns on the faces of those gathered at these two Republican events spread. These were not Romney campaign events but local Republican tailgate parties that Romney stopped by. So there were plenty of uncommitteds the Paul posse could have won.

But judging by the crowd's cold reaction to their antics (one guy swore menacingly at a Paulite behind him because the volunteer kept dropping his sign in front of the guy's face as he tried to snap a picture), the Paul posse didn't win their candidate much respect.

Which isn't what a smart campaign would be doing less than three months before it wants local voters to decide their guy is ready to lead the nation.

-- Scott Martelle

Comments

[Nash]

Paul supporters are grassroots volunteers with no connection to the official campaign. The organization is totally grass-roots and many of them skew younger. Their behavior sounds unjustified here but there is frustration in the Paul grassroots about the constant marginalization by the media. You cite 4 positive articles but I can point to ten times as many that throw around the terminologies "long-shot", "no chance to win" and "nowhere in the polls". On top of this his overall coverage is dwarfed by the so called "front-runners". He gets this treatment despite out raising John McCain and polling ahead of Fred Thompson in New Hampshire.

I think it's a cheap shot to attack a campaign because of the actions of a few supporters. Do other campaigns not have supporters that sometimes exhibit poor behavior? Maybe the media could give Ron Paul a little bit more respect and start covering his ideas and his policy positions and why they might be needed in this country right now and stop focusing on the actions of a few volunteers with some signs.

[Lisa]

Heh. The tailgate party sounds like, well, a tailgate party. Ever been to one? I can imagine a bunch of rich snooty politcians standing amongst all the college-aged partying-it-up crowd. Romney should be glad that this is all he encountered. I do hope he got to witness the standard "smashing a beer can on the forhead" trick. And what's wrong with waving signs behind his head if it is a party gathering and not a Romney one? Just asking.
Paul supporters should have avoided these guys anyway. Anuzis is a jerk and now he has more reason to do his moan and whine dance about Dr. Paul. As for the "uncommitteds," yeah I bet they are if they're hanging around Romney and Anuzis.
Which brings me to another point. Why is the LA Times even at this event? It's in Michigan. Just happening by or are you following Romney around? Probably never been to one of the Ron Paul rallies, have you?
Anyway, interesting piece.

[Jon perez]

I'm sure there are MANY Ron Paul supporters who are aware that such antics reflect very poorly on their candidate and deeply regret it.

One can only hope and pray that it is Ron Paul's message that shines through and not the juvenile, shameful attitude of a very visible portion of his supporters.

[John]

A few over-exuberant (and probably drunken) Ron Paul fan college kids at a football pre-game tailgate party are a sorry excuse for political news. How comparing Romney's positions on war/empire, taxes or social issues instead reporting of the rowdy behavior of a few of Dr. Paul's (manifold) young fans?

[vwcat]

I use to not mind the paul supporters as they seemed passionate but, as time went on it is more and more annoying.
They turn up at others campaign events and upset people and they have become out of control. I've read they even are hacking into computers now to either change polling and other problems.
I am a democrat and people who are Kuncinich supporters (I am not one. I support Obama) are as passionate but, are fun, polite and work within bounds so, many people are receptive to his ideas and are beginning to form respect for him. they may not support him, like I don't but, at least we are open to his ideas and welcome discourse with his supporters.
But, Ron Pauls' are obnoxious and I agree, they are doing alot more damage to him than helping him. People hear Paul's name and they automatically pull away.
I hope for his sake, Rep. Paul finds a way to rein them in before they completely damage his candidacy.

[Paul]

LoL, you linked the "ferrygate" story... that was the biggest joke of a "story" the media could ever come up with; there were two truthers on a ferry of about 100, so therefore, the boat was full of 100 truthers. As of today, we've raised $1.3 million in about 11 hours. So, to the media, nice try at attempting to sink the campaign with a made-up story, but we're still here.

[Rob Johnson]

I was there AND I was on the Ferry Giuliani rode in Mackinac Island. At both events virtually all of our supporters were courteous but respectful. There was a police officer present who observed our actions in East Lansing and he thanked us for being respectful and non-inflammatory. We simply held up signs, and we nearly outnumbered the number of Romney signs present. So much for "Youtube supporters," we're real and we're everywhere. What this article fails to mention is that we had a banner flying overhead before the game and visible from the Romney tailgate reading "Ron Paul for President '08." Mitt Romney didn't have one of those. He also didn't have many supporters there either; they tried and failed to get one of Romney's convoluted cheers going before the game due to lack of people. We had about a dozen people at their tailgate, but had a TV truck and over 50 people at ours.

If we can nearly outnumber the number of signs at a Romney tailgate, what does that tell you about the actual support of the 2 candidates?

For a difference account of the same event, check out the article on the Michigan Daily's site.

We're also going to have footage of the event posted at the Michigan4ronpaul.com/umich site, so you can judge for yourselves how the event really went.

[Wallace]

I don't see what all the fuss is about. I think Ron Paul would make a tremendous ... Secretary of the Interior.

[vark]

Those wacky Paul supporters.
Like today, when they celebrated Guy Fawkes day (Nov. V)
by donating $3.2 million (last count, it's not midnight yet) to the Paul campaign.
That's more than Romney's best day ever.
Who knows what they'll do tomorrow.

[Adam]

This is a pretty sad statement about how irrelevant the mass media has become. Because apparently there isn't any other news to report, they busy themselves gossiping about polls, which candidate has the best haircut, and now, what they think about college students.

Romney himself had barely a dozen supporters' hands to shake; his staff outnumbered his supporters. Where does this reporter get off, suggesting that there is not a media blackout of Ron Paul because he found four articles? The blackout is there, and it is proven: http://tinyurl.com/379k99

That 100% of the articles written by mainstream "journalists" include derisive language about Paul's chances shows the overwhelming bias against the candidate.

[Mike]

A Gallup poll in October found 72% of *Republicans* didn't know enough about Ron Paul to have either a favorable or unfavorable opinion. I think obscurity is a greater threat to the Paul campaign than annoyance. A lot of people say things like "I'd have considered voting for him if it weren't for his supporters," yet the truth is they'd never even have heard of him without his supporters.

[Chris]

I was that "big guy" who was allegedly holding a sign in front of some guys face. In all actuality, i am a foot taller than him, and my arms were outstretched, making the possibility that I shoved the sign in his face impossible - it may have been above his head, but it was not in front of his face. He got upset, so i backed off a little, and then he flipped out again and started shoving me. After i told him that he was committing assault and that I wasn't going to take it, he backed off but later told me "you know what, you're a pussy!"

So, at any rate, if you all want to believe that we were there bullying Romney supporters, go ahead, but in all reality we were just there showing a peaceful presence for our candidate of choice. There was no shoving on our parts, and it was the Romney supporters who were jostling to cover up our signs, not the other way around. I agree with the previous poster who said that we are much less harming paul's reputation by wielding signs then we are garning attention for his campaign that obviously is slighted with reduced coverage in comparison to candidates with much smaller chances for success than he.

[Adam]

I was there and we were very respectful. The real question is...why was the L.A. Times reporting on an obscure story in Michigan involving a few Ron Paul supporters. Is this really noteworthy political news? Search "Ron Paul Tailgate" on youtube and you will see what really happened.