Ron Paul's word-of-mouth appeal

[Update: see more Ron Paul word of mouth stories]

Ron Paul's message is more likely to spread by word-of-mouth to friends, relatives and acquaintances. Below are some Ron Paul word-of-mouth stories:

• Last night I saw a relative by marriage who only just this past summer couldn't repeat the neocon Bush/Hannity talking points fast enough. He bent my ear for hours on the necessity of perpetual war to stave off these 'terrists'. He was completely emotionally invested in the warfare state - and had been for years.
  Now he reads your blog for information on Paul. He can't get enough of the guy! Three months ago, this fellow wouldn't have known what the Federal Reserve was if it hit in the head. Now, he not only knows its history, its destructive role, etc, he knows the members and their biographies! (link)


• I go to Shippensburg University, and all throughout campus are signs and chalk drawings saying "Google Ron Paul" and "Who Is Ron Paul?" Its some good stuff. (link)


• My mother was born and raised in France. I showed her this and all of a sudden she wanted to donate to Ron Paul.. another ten bucks for freedom ;) (link)


• I was out to dinner last night with my wife, and we decided to sit at the bar instead of getting a booth as we always do. It was your typical scene for the week before Christmas, the bar was full, everyone was talking, and the TVs were on showing sports & news.
  
  And then it happened. The news had a brief spot on the Fed's release yesterday of $20B into the economy. The bartender stopped what he was doing for a moment to listen, and as he turned away to continue working he noticed I had been watching too. He asked me what I though about our economy, and whether or not I thought this meant trouble. Well, that was all it took.
  
  I told him that I thought anytime the Fed releases more money, it only means more inflation, more debt, and more money transferred to THEM in the long run. Well, much to my surprise, I happened to be sitting next to a retired economics professor. He couldn't resist joining into our conversation, and soon we were all talking about the general state of our economy, how debt is used by the central banks of the world, and how it is the root of most of the problems we face today.
  
  So as we were talking, I couldn't help but ask who the bartender and the economics professor were supporting in the Presidential race. Neither had made a clear decision, so that's when I suggested that they have a serious look at Dr. Paul.
  
  We talked for a good while longer about his positions on various issues, his voting record, examples of his personal character. It was extremely positive, and as we parted ways, they agreed that they would have to have a good lok at the man we all know is the right man for the job (link)


• my fiance was at 3rd street prominade when the supporters were out in full force. she managed to get her two friends (hillary supporters - just because she's a woman) to pick up flyers and become interested in ron paul. seems like we may get 1 or 2 more supporters there :) (link)


• Yesterday another Ron Paul supporter and I were canvassing a apartment complex here in Utah. He is a recently returned LDS missionary and very use to the door to door thing. As we were going from building to building we came across a couple people at a moving van. We offered to help carry up a couple boxes for them. While taking the final boxes up we gave them the Ron Paul speech and they were excited and impressed. They were also amazed with our dedication to be out in the twenty degree weather just to tell others of Ron Paul.
  
  Once in the apartment there were a few others, the two we had come up with instantly started telling them about Ron Paul. Well we left our flyers and moved on. About 15 mins later one of them comes calling for us to help with a mattress, so we of course did. After getting the mattress upstairs ( 3 floors ) We went outside and they then brought us to a car of a few more people, and now told them of our mission, and of our man.
  
  Next thing we know we are having 6 people fill out voter registrations ON THE SPOT! (link)


• I found out this week, an old friend of mine whom I havent seen in 7 years, is an all out Ron Paul supporter like me. I'm a meetup group organizer, and he's going to New Hampshire to do door to door campaigning for Ron Paul. I am blown away. (link)


• WOW! I just saw an old friend of mine back from GRADE SCHOOL's name pop up on the donation widget! Unless there was more than one person with the same name from the same town and the same state, that has to be the same guy I knew almost 10 years ago. To think, we're now both Ron Paul supporters...I need to get in touch with him (link)


• Anyone who has met me in the last 5 months must think I own nothing else but RP shirts! (link)


• you people. i tell you this is the most epic grassroots effort ever. i SHOULD say it's over the top and a bit excessive, but i love it. i simply love it! (link)


• I went with my mom to a doctor appt today, and took 2 of the new 12 page brochures with me (along with some other lit) to leave in the waiting room. I left them on the two tables, then went to put slim jims in the mag/lit rack on the back of the door... and there were already slim jims there! And not from us! (link)


• Well. I went for groceries and when I got to the counter the lady, Sylvia, started loudly announcing to the store.."Ron Paul for President ya all! .. Ron Paul for President". She did this four times while I was there.. everybody was smiling and a few were nodding. (link)


• I just wanted to give a short and inspiring story:
  
  I introduced one co-worker to RP around the first debate. He has been planning on voting for RP ever since. He hasn't been particularly active in his support, but he wants to make a difference on Dec 16 and make his first donation (yay!) (link)


• And one of the employees there noticed my RP button and exclaimed, "I saw him on the View! I'd vote for him!" So, I reached into my supply of RP buttons and handed one over. It was received with bright eyes, a warm smile and a promise to wear it everywhere with pride. (link)

Ron Paul excluded from FOX News New Hampshire debate

Supporters of Ron Paul are protesting FOX News' decision to exclude him from the Jan 6th Republican debate in New Hampshire after Paul's official site put up a terse press release. Update: Ron Paul's reaction. [See the sub-forum for this on Ron Paul Forums]

I'm hoping there has been some miscommunication/technical error and Fox will quickly clarify things. But supporters are not taking any chances. Fox is probably flooded with hundreds of phone calls and 1000's of emails by now. See this reddit thread which lists all the contact info. Sponsors Of Fox are also being contacted, their products threatened to be boycotted. After all, these are the people who launched BlitzTheMedia.com after a CNN host allegedly made some unfunny jokes about Ron Paul supporters.

Fox is often criticized for their bias towards the Republican Party establishment. Democratic Party leaders have publicly wondered whether they ought to appear on Fox hosted debates. Even a casual observer like me can't watch their below piece on Iran and wonder whether they have a sense of balance.

Sean Hannity: Potential attack on Iran (9m:28s)

I've repeatedly said the media is under the microscope for Ron Paul supporters.Lew Rockwell wrote last week:..those who smear Ron Paul will live to regret it, as their own readers and advertisers shun them. MSM, here are the new rules: no lying, no ridiculing, no suppressing. Remember "journalistic ethics"? You really have no choice. The Internet rules. "You'd better start swimmin', or you'll sink like a stone, 'cause the times they are a-changin'."

Unfortunately, all this comes around the same time that the US Government further relaxed media ownership regulations.

The market has already been responding. Apart from specific stations like Ron Paul Radio and Ron Paul Revolution radio, there are sites like FreeMindsTV . The Liberty TV channel discussed on the Ron Paul Forums has moved from conception to planning stage. Each of these might be as biased as the MSM, but the Internet should allow for a more even playing field.

Ron Paul after "Meet The Press" on NBC

Ron Paul's "Meet the Press" NBC interview went extremely well I felt. Outside the studio he had many supporters waiting for him (see video below).

Ron Paul after Meet the Press (6m:34s)

What struck me was that this casual video was up for all of 24 hours and had already got 14,537 views and had been favorited 580 times! When Ron Paul went on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno in October, the crowd outside waiting to get in was so huge that they probably broke some records for the show. Someone from Vancouver has made this video.

Ron Paul supporters before The Tonight Show (1m:59s)

It keeps raising the point that Ron Paul's CNN/YouTube ad was making: "There's something going on in this country. And it's big..really big"

Ron Paul Ad - "It's big..really big" (0m:30s)

FAQ about this blog and myself

• Who are you? I am Pramod Biligiri. I am 26 years old and I work as a developer in ThoughtWorks. From 2004-07, I was at Applibase Software



• Where are you?
  I am from Bangalore, India and been here all my life


• Why are you writing about Ron Paul?
  I'm greatly fascinated by the grassroots political movement around him. His supporters are doing amazing things like the Tea Party, blimp etc which are fun to watch. It's also a significant moment for the Internet and mainstream media


• Do you support Ron Paul?
  Not necessarily. In any case this blog is for the grassroots movement. I have no interest in taking sides in America's internal politics


• How did you hear about Ron Paul?
  From Reddit, in May '07. Here is my first blog entry about him


• What are your political views?
  I like the libertarian "live and let live" view on social issues. But I'm far from deciding whether government ought to be progressive, conservative or libertarian. I sometimes write about these issues on my LiveJournal blog


• Anything else?
  You tell me! Put a comment here or mail me at pramodbiligiri AT gmail.com. I love getting feedback.

NPR's "Who are Ron Paul's supporters" gets > 3000 comments

When NPR asked Who are Ron Paul's supporters?, little did they know that over 3000 people would respond saying who they are and why they like Ron Paul. (Neither did I).

Today someone on Ron Paul Forums saw this and thought of having a separate site for this idea. They've registered the domain WeAreRonPaul.com.

From the relevant thread on the forum:
"Now we're turning this idea into a website! www.WeAreRonPaul.com will have information about US, written BY us! No more will we have to be classified as "fringe internet supporters". Here's a chance to direct people to a site where Ron Paul supporters can tell their own stories!

This site will be fully searchable, so new people can narrow down searches to find people of the same age/location, or to read about a certain issue! And that's really where the site shines. If you want to read what REAL TEACHERS think about Ron Paul's stance about the Department of Education, YOU'LL BE ABLE TO DO THAT! If you want to read what ACTUAL TROOPS are saying about Ron Paul's foriegn policy, YOU'LL BE ABLE TO DO THAT! Don't leave it up to the media to say what people are saying, LET'S SAY IT OURSELVES!"

Let's wait and see what comes out of it. I'm blogging this even before it's taken off because you get a chance to see how grassroots efforts happen in real time.

Ron Paul supporters on Giuliani, Romney's events

Below are 2 videos of Ron Paul supporters turning up at campaign trail events for Giuliani and Romney, partly to get some extra media coverage and also due to their enthusiasm I guess.

This one is hilarious:

"Giuliani in Missouri" report with Ron Paul supporters (1m:32s)

Michigan might be where Romney was "born and raised", but is currently strongly for Ron Paul if the below video is anything to go by.

Ron Paul supporters in Romney event (3m:06s)

And of course who can forget this snippet of Ron Paul banners in the background of a Democratic debate event as 2 TV analysts get ready to talk about it.

Who are Ron Paul's supporters?

[Update: This question got 3000 comments! See my newer post]

Well, that's the open question NPR (National Public Radio) asks its readers. Looking at the responses it's clear that he has broad appeal across Americans of all classes and ages. In fact this question keeps getting raised due to certain anomalies in Paul's campaign: With little media coverage, corporate backing or name recognition he's gone on to gain tens of thousands of the most avid, creative supporters and broken fund raising records.

Add to it the fact that he is only polling about 9% in many national polls. Much of mainstream media is trying to figure out if the supporters are only a small, vocal minority...but then what about the 60,000 donors for the Tea Party? That means the polls are woefully out of shape, which is not too unlikely either. It also implies the media is not able to correctly observe what's churning in the minds of the electorate?

So we are faced with the prospect of having to wait for the actual elections to know who has a real shot at the Republican nomination.. :)

Ron Paul Tea Party around the world - France, New Zealand, Dubai

I was quite surprised to see so much support for Ron Paul from all over the world! Below are Tea Party videos from France, New Zealand, Dubai.

3 lively New Zealanders dancing for Ron Paul :)

Tea Party Dance New Zealand! (2m:34s)

Perhaps 200 years ago the American war of independence inspired the French revolution just like this:

Paris loves Ron Paul (2m:18s)

Another re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party in New Zealand:

New Zealand's Boston Tea Party (6m:16s)

Europe4RonPaul in front of the European Parliament, Strasbourg, France:

Europeans for Ron Paul (0m:40s)

Just this one person in Dubai who makes a statement:

Dubai Tea Party Supporter (0m:59s)

Ron Paul's Tea Party will make supporters dig deep and donate

It's touching to see Americans forego pleasures and spare extra cash for the Tea Party. Some examples below:

- "ronpaulslist.com - help raise money for Ron Paul. Donate what you can, then sell the stuff you don't use to donate some more!" (link)

- "My startup has recently become reasonably profitable, I don't have kids to support, and I don't have a car to feed/insure. Very few expenses, so I've got some money to do something with...and what better use than saving the Republic? I've also asked all of my relatives that want to give me gifts for Christmas to instead make a small contribution to the campaign on my behalf. My relatives are all Republicans or Libertarians, so it's not asking them to go against their beliefs." (link)

- "If someone grabs a domain, I'll get the website up. I'm completely out of fund at all... I owe my bank $250 and need to pay tuition and I'm unemployed... so i can't buy the domain." (link)

- "I'm living on a budget, but I will sacrifice $25 today to follow the campaign's lead. I will make another small donation on 1 Dec (sorry, my mortgage is due!). Finally, I will also commit to my $100 donation on 16 Dec" (link)

- "I live paycheck to paycheck, just like you. But, I will find a way to donate one weeks pay to http://www.ronpaul2008.com on December 16th." (link)

I'm sure there are many more stories like this. Please do share it here if you know any! I record them into a Google notebook called Ron Paul donors as I find them.

Ron Paul volunteers for Iowa: 1000's of handwritten letters, 1000 volunteers...

Ron Paul supporters are sending 1000's of handwritten letters to residents of Iowa to show their support for the candidate. According to this site, 484,127 letters have been distributed as of now. Their Hall of Fame features people who have written 800, 600 and 500 letters by hand.

Also, similar to Vijay Boyapati's Operation Live Free or Die in New Hampshire, there's a 30 days to Iowa effort which seeks to assemble 1000 people to canvass in that state.

The official campaign is active there too. Here's their chairman in Iowa giving a pep talk. He says Ron Paul is the best candidate he's ever had to campaign for. And this is the only actual grassroots movement he's ever seen in life.

Ron Paul Iowa Chairman - Drew Ivers (10m:17s)

"Ron Paul Phenomenon" on PBS, Dec 15, Saturday

PBS will air a documentary about Ron Paul in their "PBS Now" program this Saturday night. From the preview on their site, it looks like they'll cover the grassroots nature and lack of MSM attention very well.

Ron Paul Phenomenon - PBS Now (7m:05s)

They speak to Trevor Lyman, the man behind the November 5th money bomb idea. He says he first heard of Ron Paul on MySpace, when people started replacing their profile image with Ron Paul's!

Ron Paul in New Hampshire, chatting up with individual supporters

Ron Paul chats up with each supporter as they come pose for pictures, get autographs. You get to hear Ron Paul on outsourcing, and illegal immigration (Birthright Citizenship) as 2 people bring them up.

Ron Paul meets people in NH - 2 (9m:59s)

(Talks about outsourcing at 45s, illegal immigration at 8m:10s)

In Part 1 of this video, a lady asks him (at 9m:0s) how women would benefit from his Presidency. Paul replies that he sees everyone as an individual and not by categories. So if a man benefits by more freedom, so would a woman. She'd have more opportunities, get to keep all her income and so on.

The Ron Paul blimp all set to fly

The inventiveness of the grassroots knows no bounds. A blimp(!) measuring 197 ft long and 66 ft high will launch on Tuesday, Dec 11 - all thanks to the folks at RonPaulBlimp.com and generous donors who raised $200,000.

The Blimp's aim is 2 fold: grab people's attention, and generate media coverage. Many news outlets are already running pieces on it. Watch MSNBC below.

Ron Paul blimp - Tucker/MSNBC (2m:38s)

CNN's Internet reporter Abbi Tatton covers it. So does Boston Globe among many others.

It is sure to grab people's attention as it flies along its route. The best part is on Dec 16th, where they will be dumping tea from it into Boston Harbor below...Rings a bell? ;)

This project avoids many campaign finance restrictions by setting themselves up as a for-profit company who are not endorsing anything election specific. Read more.

Ron Paul Radio - a tireless campaigner

Ron Paul Radio (listen) is another of those incredible creations to come out of this movement. All day they play the latest RP news and speeches, take calls (even through Skype), play songs about Ron Paul & liberty. Their IRC chatroom is fairly lively and a source of new links about the candidate.

My favourite host is someone who calls himself NonServiam (I Will Not Serve). He does a daily round up of the print and web articles about Ron Paul with some really intelligent commentary thrown in.

Vijay Boyapati's Ron Paul effort in New Hampshire is on!

Operation Live Free or Die (blog), the brainchild of ex-Googler Vijay Boyapati is well and truly on in New Hampshire! Supporters are arriving from all over USA, braving the snow and chill to spread the word. More in a video below.

But first here's an interview with Vijay Boyapati himself, "amazingly jet-lagged" but looking quite excited. He first saw Ron Paul during the 1st Republican debate and couldn't believe "someone like him existed in Congress".

Vijay Boyapati interview (3m:29s)

Here's a reporter talking to 2 supporters from Arizona and Kentucky (watch from 1:08)

Ron Paul supporters in New Hampshire(4m:41s)

Ron Paul himself gave a surprise visit to the pub where many were assembled and spoke a few words standing on a chair(!), ending with: "You are the campaign. I have joined the revolution. Thank you for having me." (video)

The mainstream media seems to be catching on. Washington Post has a detailed article. Interestingly, the owner of that pub came up with many insights on what they are doing wrong in NH, along with suggestions for improvement: How to Raise Poll Numbers in NH.

Some Ron Paul supporters gatecrash Giuliani's party

Rudy Giuliani had been to Georgia earlier this week to meet supporters and have a private fundraiser. At his public appearance you can see a group of Ron Paul supporters walking around with signboards and cheering for Ron Paul. At one point in the below video, Paul and Giuliani supporters are trying to shout over each other!

Ron Paul supporters vs. Rudy Giuliani

I don't know if this kind of heckling is common in the US, but definitely shows it's a highly politicized atmosphere there.

Ron Paul at CNN/YouTube debate: plane banners, straw polls and more

The CNN/YouTube debate at St.Petersburg, Florida seemed like one big Ron Paul party hosted by supporters, at least to me in India. They flew 2 planes with his message and turned up in large numbers.

I came across this nice independent reporter called Veracifier who's made this video about the event.

Veracifier at YouTube debates (6m:21s)

I love this skysign video, with a plane going around with a message of support for Ron Paul. It reads something-"the Constitution" (I couldn't make out the first word).

Ron Paul skysign at YouTube Florida debate(0m:55s)

There was a straw poll which Mitt Romney won with 893 votes to Ron Paul's 534. There was some controversy as you were allowed to buy multiple tickets and vote once for each ticket, which is why you find the guy in the below video asking each person "How many times did you vote?" (Read more about the controversy here.)

CNN/YouTube debate straw poll (09m:56s)

Ron Paul meetup groups map, compared to others

Here's a map of Ron Paul's meetup groups spread across the USA compared to some other Republicans'.

Huckabee Meetups	Giuliani Meetups
Ron Paul Meetups

You can find more such maps and other grassroots resources on InfiniteRonpaul.

Ron Paul discussed on Daily Kos

Daily Kos has a post on Ron Paul supporters' Tea Party which could raise millions. Since it's a largely liberal site, the comments show how Paul has attracted many liberals too. Some examples below.

But first here's what the article has to say about the Ron Paul movement:
"Put the Paul campaign in a test tube and study it. There are lessons here for insurgent netroots campaigns at all levels (not just Presidential). A $10 million one day take (which is nearly a third of Obama and Hillary's total fundraising in a single quarter), is perhaps the most remarkable online feat ever engineered in campaign history."

Selected comments:

• "I said it on that day and I'll say it again: Paul's stance on Iraq - immediate and unconditional withdrawal - earned him a $4m dollar day. But the Dems, the ones I give money to and who I vote for - still cannot manage to come with a coherent witdrawal policy."(link).


• "If Paul wins the primary, we Dems are going to have a serious problem."(link)


• "We Dems aren't energising the grassroots? Why? I don't know. We just don't have the coherent message that Paul does. Until a Dem does, we have a problem!"(link)


• "The question is does a third party run jeopardize the Republicans more or the Democrats? He seems to pull about equal numbers of both."(link)


• "I personally know six Democrats that have registered as Republican in order to vote for Ron Paul in the primaries. Paul is for real, and he's sucking the most activist Dems right out of the party! If Paul wins the primaries we Dems are going to be on the wrong end of a rout."(link)


• "..because of the frontrunners' vulnerability on the war, and particularly that of the establishment's golden girl, they had to taunt, mock, humiliate and marginalize the antiwar Democratic candidates. They succeeded all too well, and the whole basket of grassroots politically unconnected antiwar energy was handed to Paul.."(link)


• "..i keep running into people so dishearted with the Dems that they are considering voting for RP.."(link)


• "..I'm hoping that Ron Paul is the GOP's worst nightmare; he is pulling a lot of libertarian's and disaffected republicans into his growing support. From what I hear there is growing support amongst traditionally liberal democrats who are sick and tired of being triangulated on things like civil liberties.."(link)


• "..We Dems aren't getting it. THERE IS NO FORMULA. The thing that draws millions for Paul in a day is his message, not a damn formula strategized by marketers!.."(link)


• "It's not a formula. It's honesty. It's adherence to principles that are clearly and consistently articulated. I'm an independent who has been, for all intents and purposes, a democrat and I am leaning heavily towards RP. I can say without hesitation that if RP wins the R and Hillary wins the D I'm voting with the former..."(link)

Now, take these statements with a pinch of salt. It could be faked to make it look like Paul has more support. On the Internet, nobody knows you are a dog.

Ron Paul supporters' Thanksgiving stories

This Thanksgiving, Ron Paul supporters are spreading the word. Here's 2 nice stories from the RP forum. One is how entire extended families are learning about him by word-of-mouth, the other is giving people at shopping lines some hot chocolate in RP-branded cups along with an RP slim-jim - till late at night and probably in the cold.

The first one should be read in its entirety, in the first person:
"A few weeks ago I appeared on the front page of the NY Times in the picture with Dr. Paul (was the guy in the R3volution sweatshirt above the poster he was signing). I told my dad about it (who wouldn't tell their parents?), and he asked me why I supported Dr. Paul. Now since I knew my father was a die-hard Christian, I told him the facts that would make him like Dr. Paul (married for 50 years, 18 grandchildren, pro-life, etc). This got him interested, but he never really talked to me after that day about him.

Today at my family's gathering (not just immediate family - cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and even people I've never met before), I was sitting down with my grandmother talking to her about college. She asked what I've been doing in my spare time, so I asked her if she saw the NY Times front page image a few weeks back. She said no, but asked if I was on it. I told her I was, and that it was a picture with Ron Paul signing a poster. She perked up and said, and I quote, "He's a great man! I'm so glad your father told us about him. He has changed our opinion of politicians...read more"

You can find more pictures of the cups, hot chocolate being made as part of Operation Hot Chocolate drop.

Giving Ron Paul money - now or later?

The Ron Paul campaign put out a note to supporters asking that donations be sent sooner than later. The reason being that media ad slots have to be booked weeks in advance. Considering that the Tea Party is not till Dec 16th, they have no way to gauge how much Ron Paul effectively has in the bank.

This has stirred a fair amount of debate. Some feel that a whopping figure on the 16th and the ensuing publicity will make up for any ads that the campaign could not afford to run. Others feel it's presumptuous to think they know better than Paul's own staff about timing his expenditure. And just today I read about another money bomb being planned for Nov 30th to give the thermometer a quick boost.

Relevant forum threads:
- The 2 Steps 2 Victory! Nov. 30th and Dec. 16th!
- A tale of two (money) bombs

We have to wait and see how Nov 30th and Dec 16th play out. The movement quite resembles the distributed chaos of a free market, as Jason Rink perceptively noted.

There's a high degree of "ownership" among Ron Paul supporters towards his campaign. One person even commented that the grassroots has done a better job than the official staff itself when it comes to publicity and organization (not that Paul would mind that!).

Ron Paul banners at Michigan-OSU football match

The OSU-Michigan football match on Nov 17 saw Ron Paul supporters turn out in large numbers. They used flying banners from 2 planes (one each from Michigan and Ohio) with the words "Univ of M is for Paul '08" and "OSU for Paul '08".
ESPN was covering this. In the post-match (or half-time?) analysis program, you can see a Ron Paul banner strategically placed between the 2 hosts discussing the game (Pic). Their aim of increasing Ron Paul's name recognition was well served I guess.

This video captures the Ron Paul supporters and the flying banners:

Ron Paul Gameday (1m:59s)

This is the Ron Paul forum thread where some of the planning happened.

Here's another video from an older Michigan football game, again with lots of Ron Paul supporters.

University of Michigan supports Ron Paul (2m:26s)

Ron Paul jokes

Some Ron Paul supporters are creating jokes about the candidate and on the supporters themselves.

Here's a selection of Ron Paul jokes (link):

- What's the difference between Abraham Lincoln and Ron Paul?
Abraham Lincoln has already been shot.

- What's Ron Paul's favorite form of exercise?
An evening Constitutional.

Ron Paul began thinking about the problems in America. First, he thought about our involvement in foreign wars and the loss of American lives overseas, and he cried a tear. Then, he thought about our loss of liberties at home, and he cried another tear. That's why he's called a second-tear candidate.

(This one is my favourite)
Q: How do you know you are in a room with a Ron Paul Supporter?
A: He'll tell you.

(Ex-)Google engineer Vijay Boyapati's grand grassroots effort in New Hampshire for Ron Paul

[Update: Read my latest update on this project]

Operation Live Free or Die is the name of a volunteer effort launched in New Hampshire by Google engineer Vijay Boyapati who's quit his job to campaign for Ron Paul. He plans to get 1000 people to New Hampshire to do door-to-door canvassing. The counter on the site currently shows that 201 volunteers have signed up.

From their webpage:
"If we are able to gather a thousand dedicated supporters who can spend at least a week in New Hampshire before the primary we should be able to organize cavassing efforts in all the major cities of the State. I also propose that we hold three major rallies in the days before the primary."

The promo video for the effort:

Operation Live Free or Die (2m:20s)

USA Today full page ad for Ron Paul

Some supporters of Ron Paul are going to run a full page ad for him in USA Today coming Wednesday. Wikipedia says this newspaper is one of the largest circulated in the US.

Check out this forum post where the final draft of the ad was announced.

Bigger image

A Video for America - another rocking Ron Paul anti-war video

It's a sign of the times that many Americans' creative and entrepreneurial spirit is being poured into political efforts. The war in Iraq takes centre-stage for many of them. Below is part 2 of an excellent montage called A Video for America. Notice how it reaches a crescendo.(Start watching from 3m:17s onwards if you are short of time)

A Video for America - II (7m:58s)

I may not agree with all of its contents but it highlights again the grassroots nature of this campaign.

The final moments are from a Ron Paul speech in Congress(2007) titled The Neoconservative Empire.

A glimpse into an ideal world (according to Ron Paul)

Economists often use the "free market" as an ideal situation and analyze real world scenarios with respect to their deviations from the free market. The assumption is that one should always strive for a free market and justify every deviation from it on solid grounds.

Today Ron Paul has written an article titled Entangled Alliances, about the volatile political situation in Pakistan. Towards the end he briefly touches on how US' current approach deviates from his conception of the ideal situation:

"...Free trade means no sanctions against Iran, or Cuba or anyone else for that matter. Entangling alliances with no one means no foreign aid to Pakistan, or Egypt, or Israel, or anyone else for that matter. If an American citizen determines a foreign country or cause is worthy of their money, let them send it, and encourage their neighbors to send money too, but our government has no authority to use hard-earned American taxpayer dollars to mire us in these nightmarishly complicated, no-win entangling alliances..."

The key phrase is "Our government has no authority..". Paul generally uses it to mean something is unconstitutional. That means the government doesn't have the mandate to do it, irrespective of consequences.

Ron Paul's personality and political style win praise

Glenn Greenwald, political blogger at Salon first wrote about Ron Paul last week:

"..there is simply no denying certain attributes of Paul's campaign which are highly laudable. There have been few serious campaigns that are more substantive -- just purely focused on analyzing and solving the most vital political issues. There have been few candidates who more steadfastly avoid superficial gimmicks, cynical stunts, and manipulative tactics. There have been few candidates who espouse a more coherent, thoughtful, consistent ideology of politics, grounded in genuine convictions and crystal clear political values..."

Yesterday he rebutted someone's short sighted misinterpretation of Paul by quoting from his speech on the floor of the House. Though the issue itself is trivial, Paul's speech is worth reading in full:
"..First off, I think what we are trying to achieve through an amendment to the Constitution is to impose values on people – that is, teach people patriotism with our definition of what patriotism is. But we cannot force values on people; we cannot say there will be a law that a person will do such and such because it is disrespectful if they do not, and therefore, we are going to make sure that people have these values that we want to teach. Values in a free society are accepted voluntarily, not through coercion, and certainly not by law, because the law implies that there are guns, and that means the federal government and others will have to enforce these laws.."

In fact when I first heard of Paul sometime in May, I wrote:" ..his 15 minutes of fame will improve the quality of debate and put the focus on some core questions of the idea of US in an arena where personality and rhetoric rule."

Two top notch videos

Nov 5th has infused enormous confidence into supporters. They can't wait for The Tea Party on Dec 16th. The below 2 videos capture that spirit beautifully. Masterpieces I think. Watch with the volume turned up! :)

Tea Party '07 (3m:16s)

Ron Paul - Underdog (4m:15s)

November 5th turned out a huge success

[Originally posted on Nov 8, 2007 at http://pramodbiligiri.livejournal.com/22978.html]

Just a note that the November 5th Ron Paul money bomb was a stupendous, outrageous success. The campaign received 4.2 million dollars in 24 hours, the biggest online one-day haul by far and one of the biggest 1 day raises ever. Everyone from FOX, CNN, NBC gave ample time to Ron Paul in their coverage: Examples.

Remember, the 5th of November

[Originally posted on Nov 3, 2007 at http://pramodbiligiri.livejournal.com/22700.html]

On November 5th (Monday), as many supporters of Ron Paul as possible will be donating to his campaign on the same day. The date was chosen because some threat to the British government was foiled on that day in 1605 (Wikipedia). In any case, it's supposed to showcase the organisational strength of the "netroots" so that the media will sit up and take notice. No one knows for sure how much money will be raised. I am expecting anything b/w 1 and 3 million. This could be the day to introduce Ron Paul if you have any friends in the US. Btw, they're calling it the "Ron Paul Money Bomb".

On Monday, keep an eye on the donation counter at Ron Paul 2008. I actually use the Ron Paul Donations Firefox extension that updates in a corner of the status bar every few minutes.

A girl called Liv has shot to fame by doing a few support videos for Ron Paul. She uses her good looks, considerable acting and scripting skills. Not to mention taking off a few clothes! The below video(NSFW) has been wildly successful.

Ron Paul Girl(NSFW)

You can find all her videos on LivFilms(NSFW).

Ron Paul grassroots - what all they are doing

[Originally posted on Oct 24, 2007 at http://pramodbiligiri.livejournal.com/22284.html]

Both the grassroots and the Ron Paul official campaign have seen some major events in the past week. First he announced a big rise in 3rd quarter donations: 5 million. It was also a clever ploy to raise visibility before the upcoming FOX News debate, where he again won the SMS poll easily. FOX gives highly unequal time to the candidates that it looks like they already want the frontrunners to win.

The donation info is updated real time on a nice looking Flash widget. It shows the name and location of donors as they give. Promptly someone grabbed the data off their URL and created Ron Paul Graphs. Its developer explained its significance saying: "this is the first time this level of transparency has ever been applied to the finances of a political campaign".

Another volunteer effort is Ron Paul Radio, a 24-hour Internet radio station which plays his speeches and songs about him, with some RJ-ing. The commentary is not top notch but the passion is. Speaking of songs, boy are they increasing too! I enjoyed some on the radio station the other day.

Others are creating all kinds of billboard signs in a competitive frenzy. Here's a video showing the making of a really large sign in Phoenix. 2 people on Digg are even more resourceful.

I doubt the Net was anywhere this powerful for Howard Dean in 2004. If you have any interest in the Web, media and/or politics, don't miss out on observing this unique movement. There is a certain innocence, glee and pride in the Ron Paul movement which is due to a rare confluence of politics, economics and technology. And things are just beginning to hot up!

Ron Paul interview on Online Newshour in PBS

[Originally posted on Oct 14, 2007 on http://pramodbiligiri.livejournal.com/21530.html]

Judy Woodruff conducts a smashing interview with Ron Paul on PBS. This is not your Hard Talk, in-your-face shoutfest, but gives the guest complete freedom and time to air his views. Obviously it assumes that viewers are intelligent, 'cos a stupid guest gets more than enough rope to hang himself.

Here's the transcript. And there's audio too.

Ron Paul in Online Newshour, PBS (09m:21s)

Someone was saying that listening to Ron Paul is always an educative experience, whether or not you agree with him. It's no surprise that his post-debate rally in Michigan drew 2000 people.

Ron Paul rap song

[Originally posted on Sep 24, 2007 at http://pramodbiligiri.livejournal.com/20328.html]

Ron Paul continues to blaze the campaign trail. Propping him up is an inventive, audacious and Web-2.0 compliant grassroots movement. Latest exhibit is this (professional sounding) rap song. I never listen to rap but ended up rating it 5/5 on Youtube. How do you find this song?

Ron Paul rap song (05m:24s)

Ron Paul@Google

[Originally posted on July 16, 2007 at http://pramodbiligiri.livejournal.com/17252.html]

Ron Paul talks at Google as part of their Candidates@Google program where they invite Presidential candidates for an interview. This is definitely one of the better interviews I've seen of Ron Paul. Again he stresses the role of free markets in bringing down prices of services/goods, saying how health care and education in the US are becoming progressively more expensive because the Govt. tries to regulate them. As a counter-example, prices of other goods like electronic items keep going down.

Ron Paul at Google (65 min)

Some of the stronger statements from this talk (I'm paraphrasing):

• It's perfectly all right for Google to do business in China. Anyone opposing should reject Google products but not use Govt. to arm twist the company


• Govt. need not make safety, gun-control laws. In their absence, multiple private initiatives will exist to make things better. Eg: Consumer Reports


• The Afghanistan war was more to do with oil and gas pipelines than Al Qaeda (He kind of hints at this)


• The US dollar will continue to quickly lose value unless the Federal Reserve stops "printing money" and the currency is backed by "hard assets"


• The environment will be better if there is more respect for private property (He thinks the threat of global warming is overblown)

It's held in a relaxed, leisurely setting. The interviewer doesn't interrupt the guest every 30 seconds or so.

And no ad breaks!

National morality

[Originally posted on June 06, 2007 at http://pramodbiligiri.livejournal.com/16143.html]

Ron Paul's run for the Republican Presidential nomination made me think about the strong human desire to give a moral underpinning to their worldview. When he quotes the Founding Fathers or the Constitution to find a high moral ground, it resonates with his audience. A world based on life, liberty and pursuit of happiness (LLH, in short) for everyone has idealistic allure. An attempt towards that seems the most natural thing to do.

Realpolitik shuns such aims and moves towards more earthy goals, probably because of practicality.

If you are willing to sacrifice the LLH of "others" in order to further your own, the moral underpinning is suddenly shaky. To avoid this kind of dilemma, the best compromise known till now is the concept of nationalism. A non-interventionist nation which minds its own business ignores moral persecution outside its borders. Thus resources are freed up to maximize the said values within its confines. Thomas Jefferson wrote: "Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto".

A moral worldview restricted to the nation has 2 distinct consequences:
1) It provides leeway for exploiting foreign countries
In particular, if the political and economic elite in those countries profess starkly different values (like in Africa, Middle East, China) it opens economic avenues which are impractical in the home country. Communism, dictators and genocide are brushed aside with much less ado. In fact, it's a foreign policy adage that "only interests matter" (not values).

2) It may fail to handle an increasingly interdependent ("globalized") world
Consider this criticism by Ron Paul: "Our foreign policy is designed to protect our oil interests".

But an isolationist State policy has an impact on access to scarce(?) natural resources like oil, minerals. The country's demand will have to be met through purely commercial transactions. Other countries which use State clout to further business demands might fare better.

Global warming is another problem which straddles national boundaries. Our political, economic structures are not suited to tackle this unless we innovate. International co-operation is required on a massive scale. It remains to be seen if transnational commercial incentives will work.

There is only a thin line between a country "minding its own business" and attacking others to secure this business.

Ron Paul keeps questioning the role of Government

[Originally posted on May 17, 2007 at http://pramodbiligiri.livejournal.com/16087.html]

It was only last week that I first heard of Ron Paul, from a video linked on Reddit. (He's a long time Congressman from Texas who is contesting to be elected as the Republican candidate for Presidentship. His visibility shot up a few days back due to a 9/11-related spat with fellow contestant and ex N.Y. mayor Rudi Giuliani in a debate with other Republican candidates on Fox News. An immediate poll gave him the top rating among the debaters, though it's possible that the poll was spammed by avid supporters.)

As I watched that hour long speech, I kept on getting surprised by his skill in presenting a classical liberal, libertarian critique of the current Conservative control of US government. He draws with a casual, scholarly flair from American history, Constitution, economics, foreign policy and plain common sense. His voting record in Congress has been highly consistent with his ideals.

Answering questions in a talk show (05m:51s)
Much of his ideas are derived from first principles of Libertarianism and classical liberalism (he even won from the Libertarian Party ticket once!), so a few quotes will convey the gist of his positions:

"The government should be out of regulating the economy."
"Working Americans like lower taxes. So do I."
"The war in Iraq was sold to us with false information. The area is more dangerous now than when we entered it."
"The biggest threat to your privacy is the government."

I doubt Ron Paul will win either the Republican nomination or the Presidentship in case he wins the first (I hope I'm proved wrong). His opinions are too radical for either big business or the poor to see any immediate benefit. Moreover, his thoughtful, fact-filled presentations could be overrun by someone more charming and folksy like Bush. He has little backing even within the Republican party. That is a bad sign when running for a job in which one should carry the whole country along!

Ron Paul is best suited for heading committees and framing policy, which he has always been doing. Still, his 15 minutes of fame will improve the quality of debate and put the focus on some core questions of the idea of US in an arena where personality and rhetoric rule.