the eyes of Texas are on Duncan Hunter, Fred Thompson and Ron Paul
In the TownHall.com Texas straw poll (August 31/September 1), Duncan Hunter doubled up Fred Thompson (41-20%), who beat out Ron Paul (20-16%) for second place. The other six major candidates split 23% (with no one getting more than 6%).
Obviously, this is a nice moment for Duncan Hunter-- who, by all accounts, worked hard and smart for the victory. And it's a victory of sorts for the imminent candidacy of Fred Thompson.
Ron Paul did well, relative to the other candidates, but perhaps he expected more. One problem: only those who have been active in Texas Republican circles were eligible to vote-- and this would favor other candidates.
It's a mixed bag for Huckabee-- a downer after Iowa, but he crushed Brownback (the other candidate with the clearest claims on social conservatives who for some reason are not attracted to Ron Paul).
Romney and Giuliani did poorly, but Tancredo, Brownback, and McCain took a beating.
Any fall-out? Presumably McCain, Tancredo, and especially Brownback are another step closer to withdrawing from the race.
posted by Eric Schansberg @ 12:51 PM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
Ron Paul Delegates who paid to vote were not allowed in. See Tyranny in Texas on Youtube. The Results of the poll are not accurate. It won't ever make it to the news but citizens who were there taped it. What a sad place we have come when outright fraud occurs by the GOP and it never makes the news. Shows the agenda of the media. I wonder who actually won and what the real numbers would have been.
I was working the straw poll this weekend for the Ron Paul Campaign. I can tell you that there *were* people turned away, but they were at most 6-12 people, and we can't be sure they were even all Ron Paul voters.
They were turned away because they showed up *after* registration had closed. There are people who didn't understand this, and perhaps it wasn't communicated to the delegates as well as it could have been, but it was not a conspiracy or fraud.
I was told directly by the GOP early on 8am when asking an unrelated question that they would be closing registration at precisely 10am.
Obviously, this is a nice moment for Duncan Hunter-- who, by all accounts, worked hard and smart for the victory.
He should enjoy it while it lasts. He campaigned hard in Texas and spent at the very least lots of time. This is not something he's going to be able to repeat anymore than huckabee has been able to repeat Iowa. He won because he was the only reasonably conservative pro-war candidate who bothered to show up.
And it's a victory of sorts for the imminent candidacy of Fred Thompson.
Not really. Fred was the "none of the above" choice from what we heard at the poll. There was no option for 'undecided' or 'none of these' and so a lot of people voted for the undeclared candidate as the 'next best thing'. Further, in talking to people who did support him they are quite clearly living in denial. Most are unaware of his atrocious pro-gun record, and as of today he has admitted (unapologetically) to his lobbying on behalf of the abortion industry. Once he actually declares he's going to have to face up to these things.
Ron Paul did well, relative to the other candidates, but perhaps he expected more. One problem: only those who have been active in Texas Republican circles were eligible to vote-- and this would favor other candidates.
Yes, quite. The republican party of Texas regularly pushes forward other republican candidates against paul in his own hometown, and provides them lots of funding in an effort to unseat him. This may be where he is from, but that doesn't mean the GOP likes him.
He didn't expect more than this. More would've been nice, but most of us are actually really excited by his showing here. One of the most interesting things about the weeks leading up to this and the poll itself is just how much anger there is among Texas conservatives with the republican party.
We had a big phone campaign here in Texas to call the 14,000 or so delegates who were invited. Out of that only about 1,300 showed up. Many of those we talked to were angry, and had no interest in coming and barely wanted to talk to us. Others, (some of whom hold positions within the Texas GOP) flat out didn't want to give the GOP the $25 it cost to get in they were so angry.
The GOP is at least partly aware, and this showed up in the speeches at the poll. They pointed out just how badly they got trounced in 2006 here locally. They made repentant noises. They talked the talk of conservative politics, fiscal restraint, etc etc. They talked about how they'd gone astray and needed to go back to their roots. They preached Ron's message.
But then they mixed that with a strong 'we need the patriot act, illegal wiretapping, and to be at war with at least Iraq and probably Iran too' message. The smell of desperation filled the auditorium there.
These people are all rank-n-filers. Ron was there barely a whole day (from Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon) everything else was done by us. We still managed to get 16% of these hard-core party loyalists who bothered to show up to support Ron. That's not even the most disaffected portion of the party and we still got 16%!! That's incredible!
It gets even better if you consider the circumstances of his win. Before the delegates, there was a video to the song "Have you forgotten" with plenty of images meant to stir up support for the war. Shots of the 9/11 attacks, our soldiers in uniform and in harms way, etc. The speeches were filled with digs at Ron, like "Hope is not enough".
After the delegates spoke, they had someone who was not a delegate come out and speak before they went to vote. He was a highly decorated and very well spoken military man who was in the pentagon when it was hit. He was burned terribly. He recounted his story, including the maggot treatment, in excruciating detail complete with pictures. He spoke of his faith, and how it got him through. He spoke of his moments of weakness, when he wanted to give in, wanted it all to end.
And then he told everyone how to vote. He gave four points that had to characterize our next president. All four were centered on needing a president who will push the war forward, recognize the threat we're all constantly under, and push forward into other wars.
After the vote, they were treated to wallbuilders propaganda meant to scare them away from the democrats. This was also in the earlier speeches - but was typical "you don't want hillary to be your next president" type of scaremongering. This was "democrats hate black people" propaganda. It was a blatant deception. They showed how "democrats" in the south during reconstruction acted towards the black people who lived there, and how they tried to disrupt "republican" governments.
None of this with any recognition or admission that prior to 1968 the two parties had the opposite platforms they do now, so those democrats were actually todays republicans. Nor that the reason for this behavior was the horrible tyranny of the "republican" government at the time and its carpet bagging regimes. It was mind-boggling to watch, and to watch everyone take it in with such abject ignorance.
These are the people among which Ron scored 16% of their votes. Meanwhile we owned the room. We had a 300 person parade before the poll. Ron had a HUGE fundraising day on Friday. He completely packed out his Rally on Friday night, standing room only. And they stood - for a long time - to hear him speak.
We had more people than anyone else. Duncan Hunter had a rally on Friday, and the Ron Paul group had enough people to completely surround their rally. (Peacefully) They held signs and were respectful while he talked, and then joined in when Duncan led them singing God Bless America. After that, our booth was crushed by people wanting information and books and shirts and such.
In the poll itself, the room was clearly Ron's when he came to the stage. All of these reasons are the keys to why Ron was a real winner on Saturday. The GOP is frightened. They're desperate. And we're winning the war. Ron is the only one consistently placing at the top of nearly every straw poll in nearly every state. States he has never even campaigned in. This is the key. When people have to get up to go vote, when they have to even pay MONEY to vote, Ron wins.
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