The Six Million Dollar Man - In One Day!!

I have been watching the campaign with much interest, and truly believe that Ron Paul is the best candidate out there. Yet it seems to me that if the Revolution is to succeed, we must move beyond money bombs to themes that have broader appeal - these themes must be highlighted by the campaign and by all of us. If we are going to promote Ron Paul as a serious candidate, and front runner, as I think we should, I think we would be best served by the following:
1. Emphasizing the economy. Point to the disparity between rich and poor, the ballooning federal deficit, and the trade deficit with China. The cost of living keeps going up, the cost of health care, college education, even transportation is becoming unbearable for the lower and middle classes who are being deprived of economic gains of the last 10 years. The threat of inflation keeps rising, the dollar keeps losing value. None of the other candidates seem to be taking this seriously.
2. Ron Paul is the only candidate that questions our role as an international police force in any meaningful way. It is important to point out that we have troops in 100+ countries, more than 700 bases... That we are spending billions minding other people's business instead of taking care of our own.
3. Ron Paul is the only candidate who believes federal spending is out of control and wants to decrease the size of the government. He is the only candidate who is not going to funnel more money into federal bureaucratic structures that have no proven track record, but instead is proposing real solutions on a local level where change can really take place.

Things I believe do not have broad appeal and detract form the seriousness of the Ron Paul campaign:
1. Talk of ending the IRS. While Ron Paul would work toward this, and certainly this would be a good thing, he has also spoken about the need to reign in the power of the executive branch. Would he really have the ability to close down the IRS as president? Is it not better rhetoric to speak of drastically cutting the size of the federal government, and working to lower federal income taxes? Ron Paul will be president, not dictator. To speak of closing down the IRS makes most people think that Ron Paul is not a realist, but is out in the clouds somewhere. This couldn't be further from the truth, but again the rhetoric needs to be toned down in this regard to attract a larger voter base.
2. It seems to me that the campaign needs to do everything it can to make sure that its opposition to big government does not get mixed up with conspiracy theories. This will not win votes.
3. If the campaign is going to win over Christian voters, Ron Paul needs to make it clear that he is not simply in favor of letting everyone do whatever they want, but that he wants these decisions to be made on a local/state/community level. He should articulate more clearly the principle of subsidiarity, which is a Christian principle, just as he has articulated just war theory. Christians need to understand that he does not believe that prostitution and machine guns are good - he just thinks that the federal government has no right and no ability to regulate these matters.

As a whole, it seems to me that the campaign needs to show that it not only has the grassroots support of a few or even many disenfranchised voters, but that it also has the support of a silent majority of Americans who are concerned with the economic and political situation in which the country finds itself, and who believe that Ron Paul is the only candidate who is seriously addressing the issues that confront us. The stakes are high, and that is why voters like myself, who may not agree with every thing that comes out of Ron Paul's mouth, nevertheless believe that he is the only candidate who has the integrity, intelligence, and courage to lead us through the coming years.

One last note: it seems to me that Ron Paul's nomination hinges on three things: that the economy continue to falter, the other candidates continue to be shown to be the gutless opportunists that they are, and the war in Iraq continue to drag on. This is why I happen to be particularly hopeful that Ron Paul has a shot at the nomination. But if we, his supporters, are going to truly build a groundswell around him, we must begin to really highlight the popular appeal and straightforward pragmatism of his message. There is plenty yet to be done.

Anyone noticed that Feb 5th ( a major primary day) is the anniversary of the Constitution!!??

Now that there is an abundance of funds, what is the consensus about the possibility of a Super Bowl ad? Would it be against the message of limited spending or would it be worth the tremendous cost to get Dr. Paul's name out on the most watched televised event of the year? I believe it's at $2.6 mil for a 30 second ad. Ouch.

Does anyone else think it would be a good idea to create a website where businesses in support of Ron Paul are listed by category? I would propose that, to be listed on this site, you would have to post a "We support the Ron Paul Revolution" banner prominently on your business's home page. I have done so on my business's page at www.tfconcepts.com. I'm not after a shameless plug--I actually got the idea from a banner I saw on www.ronpaulgraphs.com for a pet supply company. I just think if businesses could be encouraged to openly declare their support then all of their customers would see the logo and be exposed to the message. Anybody agree?

I could host it and do the database programming if someone would help me with design. I have servers, but I'm not a great web designer from a graphical standpoint.

They started the day with approximately 11,552,000 dollars.

Last night, right before the server crashed, it said 17,980,000.

17,980,000 - 11,552,000 = 6.428 million

Why do they have it listed as only being 6.026 mil on their press release?

Seems like they're shorting themselves over $400,000 and failing to surpass HRC's fictitious #1 spot as well.

...at about 11:45 EST, and, given the site's own estimate of 11.6 million at midnight the 16th, that is a rise of at least 6.3 million, beating Hillary's bogus 6.2 million in one day. Boo yeah!

Might be a good slogan for Ron Paul Nation.

Rhymes nicely.

www.rochesterpatriot.com

As anal as I am, thank goodness, I kept a blow by blow tally of the total until 11:59 eastern time last night. According to my numbers (the actual starting amount was higher), at 11:59 eastern dec 15th, the total was $11,551,006. The total on the screen on www.ronpauforpresident2008.com (which is usually behind 1 minute from the total on www.ronpaul2008.com was (Drum roll):

$17,980,156 If I would have known that the system was going to crash I would have taken a picture of it. According to the screen, before the system went down, the totals in the 24 hour period were over 6.4 million dollars! We'll see if my figures are correct.

PRESIDENT RON PAUL !!!