Jennifer Reynolds
Gambling 9/11
Friday, January 18, 2008
Can Ron Paul's supporters make the difference in this race? According to news sources, "All of the Republican candidates, with the exception of Romney, are broke." Well, not quite. Ron Paul still has 8 million dollars left, but then, you wouldn't expect most media outlets to include Dr. Paul in their discussion would you? Sorry, mainstream media you bring these digs on yourself by your continued blackout of Ron Paul's achievements.
According to Jesse Benton, a Ron Paul spokesman, Dr. Paul still has between eight and nine million dollars left in the coffers. This was aired during an interview on the Internet. If that is so, then the upcoming Money Bomb to be held on January 21 could mean a lot for Ron Paul. In the past when supporters held these "money bombs" he was able to raise $4.3 million dollars on one day and $6 million dollars on the other.
If Ron Paul's supporters are still able to donate, and haven't maxed out yet, there is room for Ron Paul to be the best funded man going into the Super Tuesday elections with the exception of Mitt Romney, whose bulk of donations have come out of his own pocket. Part of this will depend on how much of his personal fortune Romney is willing to spend.
So far, the field is still wide open for the GOP nomination. Despite the fact that the Boston Globe falsely (er, excuse me, mistakenly?) printed the results of the recent Michigan primary, Ron Paul received fourth in that contest, not fifth. It was media darling Fred Thompson who actually took the fifth place spot with the man who was polling as the frontrunner for most of this season, Giuliani behind him in last place.
By now it is no surprise that Ron Paul's quite respectable fourth place finish was ignored while the media still treat Mr. Giuliani as a front runner. In Iowa, Ron Paul came in fifth, and Giuliani came in sixth. In New Hampshire the two were nearly tied, but Giuliani did beat Paul by one percent coming in fourth to Paul's fifth place finish. In Wyoming, CNN simply reported by amount of delegates received and neither Giuliani nor Paul received any. As noted above, in Michigan Paul took fourth place and Giuliani took sixth, or dead last. So by all accounts, Ron Paul is actually leading Rudy Giuliani, and yet no one has called Mr. Giuliani an also-ran, or a fringe candidate, no these labels are reserved for Ron Paul.
People seem to forget that all of these early primary states were sanctioned for moving up their state's primaries and as a result they lost half of their delegates as punishment (except Iowa because their results are not binding on their delegates). What does all this mean? It means that even though the early states are doing wonders for the candidates in the media, these states have so few delegates that winning them means very little in the big picture. For example, the winner in Wyoming took 8 delegates. There are 2380 delegates up for grabs. The person who gets 1190 or more wins the nomination. Getting 8 delegates doesn't affect that total very much. Ron Paul, despite these early losses, still could easily win, at least mathematically.
Ron Paul just received his best finish yet and that is not newsworthy. All the other candidates are broke and Ron Paul still has 8 million plus and that is not newsworthy. Ron Paul received nearly 20 million dollars in donations last quarter (most likely beating the others by a huge margin - but they are all mum on the subject for now) and that got barely a blip. With all the other candidates broke, another large donation day could put Paul is better shape than all the other candidates (again, except Romney with his own money to donate).
Ron Paul supporters, now is the time to really dig deep for your candidate. No matter how high or low you are in the polls, it is difficult to continue a Presidential run when you are flat broke. Monday, January 21 is the next big donation day drive. That is this Monday, the one in a few days. The day after Sunday. Get it? This day is for all donors large and small. Give as little as ten dollars or the maximum $2300, but if you support Ron Paul, now is the time to give all you can.
This may be your last chance America. Senate Bill 1959 includes the finding by Congress that "The Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens." You don't have to have too much imagination to see that a free and open Internet where a man running for President can get his ideas out to the public may be in jeopardy. Ron Paul's type of Internet driven campaign may be the last of its kind.
Monday, January 21, 2008, make your voices heard. Vote with donations at www.RonPaul2008.com. That is the website of the official campaign. The money goes directly to the campaign. For any poker players reading this, if you haven't been living in the desert for the past year, you will know that Ron Paul is the ONLY Presidential candidate who actually cares about you getting back the right to play poker online. He voted against the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act when it was in the House and he supports a free and open Internet. No wonder so many are trying to stop him.
