Report from Rand's weekend in Western KY (8.1.09)

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will get educated & Rand wll learn the game & make valuable connections.

GO FOR IT!

but let me wear my old campaign manager's hat for a minute.

Rand needs to become more appealing. He needs to do something different with his hair. He typically looks like he just got out of bed and didn't bother to comb/brush his hair. Not good PR.

Rand needs to be taller. Not much can be done in this area without being absurdly obvious. Maybe some shoes with heels...

All the Rand videos I've seen are very poor: poor color, poor sound, lifeless/ listless candidate, some shot from very bad low angle. Are there no KY videographers who can do better? Also, never shoot the candidate leaning back in his seat, whether in chair or sofa. We want/need erect or leaning forward dynamism in every view, especially for Rand because he does not project dynamism in other ways.

I point out these deficiencies because there are tons of voters still asleep in partisan dreamland and they have little interest in issues. They react to what they perceive as visual, vocal, and behavioral leadership traits, the same traits any successful car salesman or televangelist utilizes. They will be staring a Rand's unkempt hair while he is trying to tell them his stands on the issues. It doesn't matter how right he is if he doesn't pass muster with the sheeple.

My impression was a bit better. I only attended the picnic but Rand's supporters were everywhere. We were the only ones out in front of the picnic waving signs at traffic. A big Rand Paul homemade sign on a trailer was parked right at the front of the lot. Supporters at several locations were passing out literature. Trey had a small group there and they all sat together but we were scattered throughout the crowd. Our organized 'Run Rand, RUN! chant sounded great and he was not heckled once during his speech.

Rand's not a career politician and he's not as slick as the others so he ran out of time but so did Conway.

Also Rand had someone hanging banners at several of the exits along the Western KY Parkway. I didn't see any signs for any other candidate until I got about 5 miles from Fancy Farm.

We grassroots supporters of the Drs. Paul are experienced at this ground campaign and we know what happened to Ron in 2007 and 2008 will be repeated this year. We on the ground are going to have to step up to do the hard work because the media will write him off. They already have after Trey reported his big money haul.

Those of us who are GOP Precinct Captains know this campaign is on our shoulders. Now that Rand's got some great literature, you are the ones who are going to have to get it into your local party's HQ's and when your local parties have booths at the various fairs and festivals coming up you have got to get Rand's literature on the table. Your local parties are not going to order his stuff. YOU WILL HAVE TO DO IT!. You do it by volunteering to work your county GOP's booth at the local festivals and fairs in your area and bring the material with you!

I know some of you are distraught but remember we have an advantage that Trey does not, a national grassroots Liberty movement to back Rand. Trey is popular in KY but as has been mentioned, the pool of Republicans is small and primary elections have low turnouts. You will have to go door to door EARLY and get the word out. You must target Independents and Liberty-leaning Democrats and get them to switch (even if it's just temporary) to Republican and then in May go around and pick people up to take them to the polls.

Stay tuned for a call out from me to all Republican Precinct captains in the state of Kentucky right here on DP!

that there are very few Republicans. There are so few people involved in GOP politics that pretty much anyone who is involved is a big player. This is the understanding I get from having family into GOP politics in Marshal Co.

If they're showing a vested interest in Trey, we aren't going to sway the current GOP-connecteds in W. Ky.

The GOP establishment in Ky. has the money, but they don't have the numbers and they don't have our energy. Did I mention they have money?

We have to focus on swaying new GOP primary voters.

I can quiz my family on what went on in Marshall Co. as I'm positive they were there, but I don't think we're going to find any difference between the counties.

New GOP primary voters. Say it with me. New GOP primary voters.

This account just confirms what developmental psychologist, Piaget, discovered many years ago - that the majority of people never develop sufficiently to think in conceptual terms. They do not think abstractly. Thye do not follow chains of conceptual reason. Thus they will never, for example, pay attention to, much less understand, the insights of Austrian economics, which does require reasoning from first principles using abstract concepts prior to reaching a logical and necessary conclusion.

Instead, the politico-economic understanding (if you can call it that) of the majority of citizens are limited to grasping slogans with surface level appeal, i.e., minimum wages will help the poor, drugs hurt people so must be illegal, etc. Not being able to focus on anything beyond perceptual reality - trucks, football, TV sitcoms, hair styles etc. they will not care about the principles of liberty beyond what they were told in grade school - that America is the land of the free, that the US invasions are actually trying to help the unappreciative downtrodden of the world by bringing them democracy, that Muslims hate the US for its freedom, etc.

Maybe after the statists have brought about a complete societal collapse a freedom movement that succeeds can arise from the ashes after the people have lost faith in the political myths they were raised on. Or maybe freedom lovers can create floating cities on the oceans and hope they aren't nuked by the collectivist governments that would hate them. I honestly don't have confidence that I know a better way for liberty lovers. But after spending the last 40 years pushing the freedom message and seeing only marginal successes against an ever swelling tide of oppressive government crushing liberty I have no hope for the US. Maybe some of the Asian or Eastern European countries where the memory of totalitarianism and government failure is still fresh in the minds of the people will pick up the torch of liberty.

marlow

Trey is helping to lead a poor state that is in the hole for 1.1 billion in 2010. He shares the blame for that since he works so closely with the establishment that did this to KY.

As we go along, don't count out the economy as a way to discredit this sort of establishment type person, especially since the only people that predicted our economic situation, were those on Rand's side. There is an argument to be made for a non career politician that runs his own business - especially if you are a Republican.

Don't get too down about things, Trey should be scared too. I wouldn't want to go up against Rand Paul this year, you never know about the economy, or whatever else may bite you.