Ron Paul supporters: Do NOT read this. Please!

READERS' WARNING: Supporters of Ron Paul should not read this item. Perusing the following paragraphs may cause dizziness, nausea, vomiting, disappointment and renewed anger at political polls, the mainstream media, all institutions holding financial power and anyone not terribly concerned about that mysterious planned highway across Texas that somehow threatens national security.

O.K., now that they're gone to their chatrooms or one of their impressive 1,200 meet-up groups, for the rest of you some background: The Ron Paul Conspiracy has received more news coverage and made quite an impression online in recent months for its followers' persistence, pervasiveness and, to put it politely, outspokenness in favor of their Republican candidate, the 72-year-old, 10-term Texas congressman with the libertarian ideals and the numerous books. He's even been on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and this Sunday is scheduled for an hour-long grilling by Tim Russert on "Meet the Press."

With fundraising persistence, dedication to "Dr. Paul" and admirable political energy in recent days their growing numbers made a huge name for themselves by raising more than $6 million online (more than $18 million for the quarter, they say), a new one-day political record.

Yet these Paulites have always dismissed polls, hated them, even despised them. They have many reasons besides the fact that no polls have given Paul much chance of winning anything. Polls, some suggest, are fictitious summaries of the mainstream media designed to suppress the Ron Paul Revolution. Polls are fake because no Paulite can remember ever being phoned for a survey. Many Paul supporters are new to the political process, so not on voter rolls to be polled. And they mostly use cellphones, not landlines. So they'd be somehow under-represented.

They maintained this stand even when Ron Paul's polling numbers in New Hampshire, for instance, increased geometrically from 2% to 4% to 8%, twice the support of better-known Fred Thompson.

Now, here's the news that would drive Paul supporters berserk if any had kept reading down to here, which they haven't: Ron Paul's polling numbers are now plummeting. Yup, going down, down. Once, he got the money to afford TV advertising in the Granite State, his support as measured by these no-doubt fraudulent polls began crumbling.

The new CNN/WMUR New Hampshire Primary Poll out today shows Paul's support falling from its high of 8% in early November to 7% at the start of December and 5% last weekend, when he had his big fundraising success. (The phone survey of 411 random, likely Republican primary voters was between Dec. 13 and 17.)

Of course, if Paul supporters believed in polls, they would point out that....

with a margin of error of +/- 5%, Paul could theoretically be at 10%. That also means, naturally, he could be at 0% too.

Belief in Paul's ability to handle terrorism held steady at 3%, to handle the economy fell from 7% to 3% and to handle taxes from 9% to 5%. His support for handling illegal immigration was steady at 4%, to handle abortion up from 4% to 5% and his ability to address the Iraq war (he's the only GOP candidate who favors withdrawal) was steady at 5%.

Now, in case anyone cares about the non-Paul candidates who have a chance of winning, Mitt Romney's percentage jumped from 32% to 34% from the beginning to middle of December, with the endorsement of the Manchester Union-Leader and Boston Globe John McCain increased from 19% to 22%, Rudy Giuliani fell from 19% to 16% and Mike Huckabee went from 9% to 10%.

Thompson and Tom Tancredo, who will announce the end of his candidacy Thursday, according to an Associated Press report tonight, held steady at 1% support while California's Congressman Duncan Hunter went from 0% to 1%.

On the poll's Democratic side, 469 likely primary voters produced a margin of error of 5%. After some troubled weeks when her support faded from a high of 43% in September to 31% at the start of December, Hillary Clinton's numbers surged back to 38%, while Barack Obama's slipped somewhat from 30% to 26% and John Edwards from 16% to 14%.

Bill Richardson went from 7% to 8%, Dennis Kucinich from 3% to 2%, Joe Biden from 1% to 2% and Chris Dodd from 1% to 0%.

If they were still reading down to here which, of course, they're not because they don't believe in polls, Paul supporters would say that none of this matters because only real votes count come Jan. 8. And, you know what, on that they would be 100% right.

--Andrew Malcolm

Comments

[Jim]

West Virginia has a very high percentage of delegates committed to Ron Paul.
He may still be in the lead there. There are still plenty of uncommitted ones however.
Apparently SOMEONE is counting them..

[David]

This is really sad piece of work. A very clueless person who doesn't understand what is going on and seems to be lost in their own little world.

[Rob]

watch the vote!

watchthevote2008

put 3 w's in front of it:
watchthevote2008
put a dot and spell com then you/ve got it!

WATCHTHEVOTE2008!

[tokyo boe]

Why do the neocon and their symbiotic media enablers rage? Because they're scared. I'd rather have Hillary than have them tell me how to vote. The Ron Paul revolution is here. Deal with it.

[Debra]

Maybe I'm nuts but I thought the article was a compliment. What I see the writer saying is "no way can the polls be real", that's what I read.

[Michael Toth]

With Ron Paul winning most online polls and after debate voting, does this mean only Ron Paul supporters use the internet and text messages? Are the other's supporters to busy to vote this way? What makes you think they will turn out to vote? Let's just wait and see. They may be laughing at Ron now but remember if the underdog never wins then there wouldn't be a point spread in Vegas. Seems the 69 Jets and Mets were laughed at too.

[Paul Green]

The polls are skewed. The aren't a true representation of the voters. The polls asked "likely GOP voters". Well, this year, there is an entirely new group of "likely GOP voters - first time voters, former dems and independents, and people who never voted before, but realize this time its important.

So, you story is no different than the rest of the MSM. You'd have the reader believe that since Paul's numbers are low, that he's got no chance, and that they should vote for the suposed "front runner". You're no different than CNN, Faux, and the rest. You think that we need to be fed who to vote for instead of doing research on our own. You're wrong, sir. "Paulites" have done their research, and they know the truth about you, the MSM, the GOP, the NEOCONS. We're going to suprise you all when we win and smash you fascists into the ground.

[DaveF]

After I had a brief 30 second political conversation last week with my grocer - who explained that he was a democrat who would be voting for the republican Ron Paul, I decided to google “Ron Paul”.
Up to that conversation, I had heard nothing about him. Never in the press, never in the media, never on the radio. This was the day after his 6 million dollar campaign drive. After looking at his website, and listening to all of his videos and his debate responses, I knew I had finally found a candidate I could vote for. Dr. Paul cured me of my apathy. I also did something I had never done before – using the power of the web and some of the fine websites out there, I reviewed the positions of each candidate on each of the issues - something I had never done before. I finally found someone who I can agree with on most of the issues. Even though there are a few I don’t totally agree with, like a woman’s right to choose, I finally feel like I’m not rooting for the lesser of two evils. I urge everyone and all the people I come in contact with to learn about our government. Learn how the Federal Reserve works (something that really opened my eyes). Learn all you can about your candidate and vote.

[Henry]

Plain and simple they are afraid of change. They see both republicans and democrats supporting him like never seen before with any other candidate and that scares them. People are waking up and finding out it isnt a fight between the left and the right it is what is best for there country. Most Ron Paul supporters will tell you that both the dems and rep candidates will only lead us down that same road. Ron Paul is different and people are drawn to that.

[Dr. Joseph Rude]

Fellow Paulites,

Please ignore this writer as the only reason he even talks about Dr. Paul at all is because he knows that by having his name in a search result for news will drive tons of people to his site, to show advertisers " look!!! we're relevant!!" and drive ad dollars. And he's not the only one whos picked up on this. Please ignore this guy and others who use the good Dr. as a gimmick to drive traffic. My guess is that he's never had this much response before and is playing it for all its worth.

Dr. Joseph Rude

[Mike]

You don't like Ron Paul? Well have fun filing out tax returns on April 15th. Also, enjoy that national ID card.

[Retrocon]

I challenge Mr. Malcolm to thoughtfully critique Ron Paul's positions, or at least do a fair side-by-side anaylsis with those of the other candidates. The people know that Ron Paul's message means change, and the desire for change in this country is what fuels the flames of the Ron Paul revolution.

I am drawn to Ron Paul's message because I am worried about the state of our nation, we soon won't need an "isolationist" president as the policies of this administration have already began to isolate us internationally.

Our economy is under attack, in large part due to our dependence on oil, and our war spending. We are borrowing money hand over fist from our biggest strategic competitor(s) to finance our adventurism in the Middle East and Southwest Asia.

We deplore China's record on human rights, yet we borrow billions from them. They artificially manipulate their currency to keep the trade deficit growing. What would happen if the Chinese decided to call in our debts and demand payment? We are mortaging our future to our biggest competitor. We need to wake up!

The Russians are turning the tables on us, seeing us bogged down in these wars, they've begun to tout newly developed weapons, resumed flying long range bomber patrols in the Northern Atlantic, and are now talking about deploying a carrier group in the Mediterranean again. Aside from these maneuvers, their tone has become increasingly bellicose and anti-US. Again, when will we wake up?

The problems in with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been discussed ad-nauseum, so I will only ask, at what point do any potential "gains" in these countries outweigh the amount of American blood spilled, and American treasure squandered? Let's give them their countries back, and take ours back.

As Americans, we deserve better. How can we talk about spreading democracy and freedom abroad when we support dictators? How can we expect people to believe in the American Dream when there are 36 million Americans described as food-insecure? 46 million without health insurance? The list could go on and on. I believe that we need to take care of business at home and make ourselves a good example before we strut around trying to force people to accept "American-style democracy". We need an American patriot willing to change things here at home while re-building sound relationships with the other nations in the world.

Again, Mr. Malcolm, I challenge you to critique the candidates on policies, let's stack them up against each other. The stakes are too high in this election, our nation is at a critical juncture in its history not to choose the right person to lead us. Let's all do our part to make America great again.

Ron Paul for President in 2008!!

[Mike]

This isn't a game. American Foreign Policy is the real world and in this real world, PEOPLE DIE. Our lives are in danger because of blowback, including yours.

In the real world people's lives are ruined because of the drug war, the IRS, Patriot Act, etc.

If you think this whole thing is about winning and losing(I do think Ron Paul will take the White House anyway as he has the most money and passionate supporters) then you may as well just be a sportswriter.

[Scott]

Not a single vote has be recorded yet for the 2008 Primary season. When the votes are counted, it will be very interesting to see how the Polling companies and the media excuse the polling results of the previous months.

[Urbanmom]

Wow, is this sarcasm really being passed off as journalism? Another LA times masterpiece.

[MpM]

I don't know why I feel the need to chime in, Malcolm has shown repeatedly that he is a biased 'reporter'. But, I love how when Paul's numbers were 3-4% the media constantly said he was "within the margin of error" of pretty much not existing, now that his numbers are realistically fluctuating the same amount in a poll of 500-1000 (a truly pathetic number to call a poll) previous primary voters he's REALLY plummeting? You've got to be kidding me.
I won't claim that Paul is 'really' in the lead in this country, but most news outlets have at least recognized the fact that these polls, while in previous elections had some sort of small relevance don't apply to big tent candidates. It really shouldn't take a whole lot of brainpower to see that. Does this mean that only 5%-9% of those polled like Paul, sure, just do the numbers on how many people even voted in the last election, or worse yet, voted in the GOP primary last election and you'll find that even if every single one of them were polled, it still wouldn't be an impressive number or any more an indication of a big tent candidates real numbers in the same way a stacked straw poll is (at least no one claims the straw polls aren't designed to be stacked).

[Dann]

Thank You ,

Now that I know that Dr Paul has no chance.... We can all go home , oh well fun while the revolution lasted. Now Neo Cons and Crooks can lead all Americans into a Police State and Ruin of The American Dollar and Economy.Global enslavement and Death to the Human Race under the New World Order.

Thanks for Telling me How to Think . Wow I feel so much better.

[lucas]

They maintained this stand even when Ron Paul's polling numbers in New Hampshire, for instance, increased geometrically from 2% to 4% to 8%, twice the support of better-known Fred Thompson.

G for instance the texan congressman dident fair well in that newengland poll...when did a good 'ol boy score well in that poll in them yankee parts?? maby u dont understand regions very well or u just hope the folks ur try'n to persuade don't.

i see a slew of bang on ron articals hit the press a few hours ago...checks finally cleared ah..u guys r a joke.

[Elizabeth]

Andrew,

Isn't it silly that we are even interested in polls? Instead of thinking, "Well, I am going to study these candidates and then choose the best person.", we say, "Let's see, who's winning . . . I just want to follow the pack and vote for the most popular candidate."

I have suggested to you recently, Mr. Malcom, that you choose an issue about which you might more nobly raise the consciousness of your readers about Dr. Paul, such as a review of one of his books (but thank for the mention of his numerous books!) or a review of an article from the huge on-line library of Dr. Paul's writings and speeches http://www.ronpaullibrary.org/ In other words, debate the ISSUES, man. You are not listening to me, Mr. Malcom, which is your right. You consistently seem stuck on one drumbeat: he can't win.

I have pondered your possible motives in regard to this:

1. You are a mega-troll who delights in inciting others.
2. You just like getting all this attention and know how to get it.
3.You are secretly a Ron Paul supporter, and this is your own unique way of encouraging us to keep fighting the good fight, as you know how hard it is going to be.

Which is it?

"When you're taking a lot of flak, you know you're right over the target." Dr. Paul is taking more and more flak.

[Jon Mangin]

This is yet again nothing more than a juvenile hit piece on Paul supporters. The authors fails to address the fact that the polls include multipliers, do not begin to adequately represent cell phone users, slant towards pro-Bush Republicans, etc. Instead, Mr. Malcom turns this legitimate issue into a joke.

Mr. Malcom, you are no journalist.

[Dan Warner]

It doesn't matter what the polls say. I will vote for Ron Paul even if I KNEW that I was going to be the only one doing it. If it is true that his support is falling then so be it, we get what we deserve, more of the same. Of course I will suffer like the rest of you and won't like it, but what else can you do?

At least I can say I tried to make a difference. And that is what matters, that we try.

[rhys]

Here's a poll for you:

3rd quarter campaign contributers:

Clinton -42,000 doners
Obama -38,000 doners
9iu11ani -28, 000 doners
Romney -24,000 doners

November 5th
Paul -38,000 doners

December 16th
Paul -58,000 doners

You can vote $2300 times for a 'front-runner' but you can only vote once at the poll. We'll see who wins the election poll.

[Carol Sweeny]

Patronizing, maybe even childish. But not journalism! Malcom, your writings show the country that you are on a mission to destroy Ron Paul. If only you had that power still. I think you and your cronies have not figured out that the more you try to defame Ron Paul, the more new supporters you create. You guys are becoming as transparent as Syran wrap. It must be the panic.

[Mark Watkins]

Way to sarcasticly dismiss all the suppporters of a candidate Mr Malcolm. He seems to take pride and glee in seeing a candidate intentintionally marginalized by the media that is trying to ignore and downplay him, further slip in the polls. You got what you wanted and see that as an opportunity to poke a stick at his supporters, rather than merely report the story.

Somewhere a journalism professor weeps.

[Nick]

I think many of the commentors above need to relax. Andrew will vote for Ron Paul, I'm pretty sure, and I think he was being sarcastic. The final line of his piece said it all. I do think, however, he thinks a lot of us are crazy and you're feeding that theory. Or maybe he agrees with us and he wrote his article so there would be a million comments debunking the polls, and maybe he was inciting us to work harder and not rest on anything we've done so far. Thanks, Andrew. Keep spoking the fire. It is required after everyone was so excited about the recent money bomb.

Also, every Ron Paul supporter needs to donate what they can on Dec 27th to his campaign. Huckabee is trying to have his own money bomb that day and he's using the word Freedom as his call to action. If anyone knows anything about him and his policies, then you know he's full of it. We need a moneybomb showdown on Dec 27th and embarrass him completely on that day. Dec 27th give a few bucks to ronpaul2008.com. I don't think it will take too much, since this is Huckabee and no one wants to send him any money, but let's blow him out of the water anyway!