How Much Responsibility Does HQ Have in This Campaign?
Okay, there is only so much we can do without getting help from the HQ. Every other campaign organizes their campaigns. Mitt Romney has basically been campaigning in Iowa for a year spending a ton of money.
We work very hard, but there is no real leader. It’s like going to war without generals a bunch of people running around trying to do what they can. This is WAR and we need to strategize as that.
How much responsibility does HQ have? Not for the numbers today, but over all of the campaign? Sometimes it seems like they just go where they are asked to go. Doesn't seem very aggressive to me. David Shuster asked RP where he campaigned in Iowa and RP said only Des Moines, when asked why, he said he couldn't be everywhere. My question is why can't they do more than one event in one day, and even more than one city in one day?
The HQ campaign seems to have a very slim schedule, which is troubling when name recognition is a major problem.
The RP campaign did not spend a lot of time in Iowa. I'm not sure why. I recently read they don't really contact media for anything and don't go on shows unless asked.
The HQ seems to have problems keeping us updated on the official website, and sometimes they give us wrong or outdated information. That doesn’t help. By now they should have enough money to get a few people working on the website and get everything up there as soon as they know.
This is what we need ASAP:
1. A grassroots "genera" in each state head of all that states meett up groups and grassroots that all grassoots can go to.
2. We need a National central committee of grassroots leaders to be in contact with HQ daily about what neeeds to be done and what is going on. Like suggestions, complaints, events, media etc.
3. More offices in different states and not just the bigger cities.
4. Infomercials
5. More aggressive HQ getting to the media.
6. More campaign managers or better campaign managers
We need to win or come second in New Hampshire.
I suggest we set up www.ronpaulcentral.com
This will be THE head grassroots
neeorganization that can lead all meet up groups, forums, myspace, etc keeping everyone informed and organizing events for RP to speak at at colleges, business, churches or whatever. We need it a chip in.
We keep it honest by keeping all books open on our website for all to see. With a donation chip-in we can keep paid to avoid schedule conflicts with other jobs. This way WE can communicate directly with every grassroots support group out there and also with the HQ to get updates on events media appearances etc. this has to happen NOW!
Need your input!
I'm glad to see
that we are having some productive conversation. A few points I would like to make.
1) Many states have "State Coordinators," from the official campaign. Your meetup group ought to be in close contact with these guys. Follow this link: http://www.ronpaul2008.com/states/ and click on your state to find out what is going on in your state. Contact your state coordinator and, well, coordinate with him. His or her contact info should be on that page.
2) I agree, a central grassroots organizer might be a good idea, but don't get sidetracked. The very nature of the strength of a good grassroots campaign is the influence at the community level. The national horse race is fascinating, but I assure you, it is only a sidetrack. We, each of us, needs to focus as much as possible on our local areas, and keep track of national efforts for possible donation purposes, and to advertise the efforts in our local regions. But the bulk of our time needs to be local.
3) Each of us needs to be involved in doing phone surveys, and canvasing, to locate Paul's current supporters and potential supporters. Your meetup groups/local campaign advisors should have phone and name lists of registered republicans that you should be contacting. If they don't, then you should take lead and make sure it happens.
4) Most of us need to use the info from these previous efforts to show up at the precinct meetings with fellow Paul supporters from the precinct, and ellect each other as delagates. If in the case of a brokered convention, we will be in unbelievable advantage.
5) Continue to spread the word with sign waves and whatever other methods you can devise. Let your community know you are there. Attend any Republican meetings you can. Get your meetup members to donate to the group to fund local activities.
6) Watch the grassroots training videos on www.RonPaul2008.com and sign up on the main website as an official volunteer. http://www.ronpaul2008.com/join/
https://www.ronpaul2008.com/volunteer/
If there is anything that we need to learn from tonight is that it all revolves around local efforts. Recruit as many people into your meetup groups as possible, and make sure you are meeting regularly and getting things accomplished. I hope some of this is useful, and I am speaking to mayself as much as to anyone else.
very sensible advice
after reviewing my previous statement, i don't know if GoldWater or myself are perhaps over-reacting to perceived shortcomings of national HQ and campaign.
Csullens re-states the obvious: Work locally, work on identifying supporters and making sure contact is kept with them, work on your own precinct/ward/county voter lists, take part in meet-ups (but I haven't been contacted even once tho I signed up for meet-ups months ago . . . must try harder myself!)
"We have just begun to fight!"
Technoklutz
The problem is that a lot of
The problem is that a lot of times good ideas get lost in one local community because either it is lost on a forum or never gets out to begin with. Also a lot of local meet up groups are more hands on and don't get on the web as much and we need to stay in touch with those. Whether it be emailing news stations, complaints, or praising, or getting information about new events.
We need to encourage MORE events for RP to speak at. a couple of times a week won't do.
Professional Publc Relations Firm
I liked the idea that someone had about having a site to contribute to such as a Ronpaulcentral.com. What we could do would be to hire a professional Public Relations firm to guide how Ron Pauls image is seen throughout the country. We all know what a wonderful man that he is , with truly great strength giving americans the choice of voting for the man with THE REAL AND DIFFERENT ...MESSAGE, but the media enjoy giving him a less than lackluster image. If we donated our money to a central place and hired professionals to get some PR ads and such along with helping get his message out to the masses, then I see this as a positive thing most certainly. We could have a massive donation to this project as we have shown in the past that we are able to do, and go from there. As we all know, the huckster didnot have any money, but the old media has given him MILLIONS in advertizing PR. We would of course continue as usual to donate to the campaign, but if we had a massive fundraising then we could get a PR firm hired and in place and moving on this immediately. Thoughts?
Leadership is needed and quickly!
I think the campaign started as an "educational effort" and was overwhelmed by the response and can't (or perhaps doesn't know how) change into "we are playing for the win."
While the effort and money raised has been unbelievable, resources and time are limited and must be channeled for the best reults. There has to be some voice saying what needs to be done and when. If we want current info we go here, not the campaign site. The YouTube, MySpace, and Digg sites go too long with no updates for example. The passion and technologic skills that some volunteers have is unbelievable, why is it not being harnessed ofor the official sites? People are searching and when they find something it needs to be the best possible.
Some strategy decisions have been questionable as well. Much of the official contact I have received (e-mail) is a panic or in direct contradiction to what the volunteers are doing. It seems very reactionary. No movement has ever prevailed without good leadership. When I asked a person very high up in the campaign about it they admitted there really was none. That was not encouraging.
Time is too short to pretend that victory will happen if we all just work hard and donate all that we can. Concentrated effort is needed and to really harness the unbelievable volunteer effort with Dr Paul's unmatched message, dynamic campaign leadership is needed. It will increase the volunteer and financial efforts to take us from a movement to a winning team.
Not management, leadership. IMHO
Joe
There are professional companies
It cam up in another forum that Jesse Ventura used a good company to win him minnesota. If we used our ability to generate money toward hiring them we would be well on our way.
What about asking
Some of the people who have given up already. Maybe taking some of Thompsons campaing people or somthing like that. I am a complete noob and have no idea how these things are managed. But there must be people who specialize in cunsulting for elections.
Can't "legally" have contact between official HQ and outsiders.
Congress, in trying to "reform" campaign practices without endangering incumbents, has written some goofy laws and basically left it up to the inept and politically-stacked Federal Election Commission to police them.
Consequently, it is a violation of federal law for the Official Campaign to coordinate or consult in any way with independent volunteer or advocacy groups. Which leaves us exactly where we are --- as you described in the post.
It would make sense therefore to begin making donations to an independent grassroots coordinating committee. We would need both experienced, clear-headed leaders---and "new blood." The key qualification would be COMPETENCE.
On the other hand, as a practical problem, whom do we trust to collect the money, keep the books, make the disbursements, file the necessary complicated federal reports, etc? Huckabee, with much less money, has already apparently had someone make off with a chunk of change. Giuliani and Romney have had to part company with staffers in Florida and South Caroline who got tangled with other kinds of legal problems (cocaine & sex offense.)
As events have shown, "where there's a will, there's a way." As this site is itself independent of the campaign (so far as I know), this discussion here is appropriate. Time is of the essence---for a proposal of this kind of scheme.
Technoklutz
Consequently, it is a
But it's OK for Big Pharma to write the entire Medicare Drug Law?
What's wrong with this picture?
"It would make sense
"It would make sense therefore to begin making donations to an independent grassroots coordinating committee. We would need both experienced, clear-headed leaders---and "new blood."
I was JUST going to post a request for a committee. IMMEDIATELY!!
I suggest we set up www.ronpaulcentral.com
This will be THE head organization that can lead all meet up groups, forums, myspace, etc keeping everyone informed and organizing events for RP to speak at at colleges, business, churches or whatever. We need it a chip in.
We keep it honest by keeping all books open on our website for all to see. With a donation chip-in we can keep paid to avoid schedule conflicts with other jobs. This way WE can communicate directly with every grassroots support group out there and also with the HQ to get updates on events media appearances etc. this has to happen NOW!
Wait - don't we have one already? - The "Meet-up" leaders?
Ithought the Meet-up groups were the lifeblood of the campaign. Why not use them - they are already established.
We have them, but they are
We have them, but they are not coordinated on a national level, and my meetup group I get information a lot of times passed the deadlines, like RP TV appearances etc. That can change with a central effort of leaders.
Please
Please take a look at this thread I started. If we had a single thread where we can focus all these ideas about leadership and organizing this operation, it would be so much more beneficial than just spouting out random ideas in various threads:
http://www.dailypaul.com/node/20554
That's what I am tying to
That's what I am tying to do. But we need an office where people can make calls and do mass emails. These forums are great but limited.
Campaign training
it will help Ron Paul and the liberty/constitutional movement greatly if more of us were versed in campaigning and lobbying.
The best stuff I know of is from Howard Dean's legacy org 'democracy for america'
http://democracyforamerica.com/nightschool
Agorism is the process whereby we create the orgs that provide what an absence of gov would necessitate, gradually crowding out the violent state from the market, killing it through neglect.
Does we even have a campaing manager
I think we need to spend some of the money before it is too late. Experince is priceless.
A good manager is
A good manager is EVERYTHING. It can means the difference between getting events set up, getting media attention, organizing grassroots, or going no where.
i KNOW the Good Doctor will do anything to win, but he won't ask for anything so the campaign HQ and managers MUST act NOW!
Why we have to change our advertising.
You don't have to sell the truth. That's what we've been trying to do. We've taken Dr. Paul and tried to run the campaign like every other politician's. You can see it in the ads. We continue to try to get him on every smarmy mouthed pundit's show out there. We don't need that. We just have to present Dr. Paul to the masses the way he was presented to us. Remember, most people still don't know who he is. We should just air some of his best speeches from the house floor. People know he was right on Iraq. People know he was right about the patriot act. If you just showed clips of his speech before Iraq during daytime television it would have great results.
"It's all just a ride"
-Bill Hicks-
"It's all just a ride"
-Bill Hicks-
My position is that anti-war Republicans plateau at 10%
I am asking that the campaign concentrate on destroying John McCain's chances because of his fervent desire to regulate the Internet.
Anti-war Republicans are 34%
According to the Gallup Poll.
The main campaign don't wan't to get to close
They don't wan't to get too close to grassroats because there's no telling what some of the supporters may do
WE need organizations like the carpenters union did for John edwards they spent millions for ads on tv I will give to a viable program there way to many of these chip inns for things that won't work Let's funnell the money into something that acually will work TV ads by supporters
Give me Liberty or Give me death
Give me Liberty or Give me death
Iowa
My sister and brother live in Iowa and tell me that only after 12:00 mid-night would the Ron Paul commercials come on! No kidding! WTF? I’m sure it saves money but who cares if it is a waste?
Do they want Ron Paul to
Do they want Ron Paul to win? That is unacceptable if true.
Hiring new people
Dr. Paul 2008
I am not sure how they decide on hiring in each state, but I do know they just hired someone in Hawaii to head things up here. We are a small part in the overall picture so I would hope the larger states would be getting some leadership also. The guy here had to step down as organizer for the local meet ups to take the job, but he still stays in contact with us. They have even opened an official office here. Our district caucus starts on Jan. 25th and is on a different evening for different districts.
We gotta start trusting I guess. They must know what they are doing. I would not want the job of making those decisions.
I really think the primary state outcomes with be far more telling than those that caucus. We will see more of a turnout and it will be available to more of the reg. voters in those states. We will be watching and praying for New Hampshire.
Dr. Paul 2008
They hired someone in Hawaii?
Truly HQ has it's head up a proverbial location.
Lots of Earlier and Bigger states get bupkiss... but Hawaii gets a visit by the campaign manager and it's own office?
some of you guys sound like nanny-staters ;)
What do you mean "there is only so much we can do without getting help from the HQ"?
Haven't we proven that with our grassroots organization the sky is the limit?
WE are the movement. Organize locally.
Stop criticizing the campaign and realize that this is Ron Paul's philosophy of government in action. walk the talk.
NO, but the problem is that SOME things can only be done
by the "official" campaign HQ people.
For example, in my state we have been TRYING to get the "final word" on getting people to be delegates. Most counties we do not even know the deadline dates for (and the local chairmen swear they do not know!)
Right now, we have essentially "speculation" -- why? Because the people in the positions of the state GOP who "know" are stalling and do NOT want to get the information to us.
The information IS all correlated in one document (it has to be, as it is required by the RNConvention to be supplied to them in that format by September of 2007!) But we cannot get our hands on it because we have "no standing."
The "official campaign" COULD get that document if they tried. Probably take an hour or two on their part. But right now, if we can even get THROUGH to anyone at HQ (they are all "in the field" -- even the damn "store manager" a few weeks back was supposedly "in Iowa campaigning" ...the Store Manager? WTF?) -- even if we get through, the answer is, well, you guys are AFTER February 5th... so...
Royal PITA.
I'm sorry I think you are
I'm sorry I think you are missing the point. We can have individual freedom but have organized government and business. I mean, you would run a 4000 employee business with no managers would you? Can you imagine a government with no heads of state and no coordination between all the employees?
the whole purpose of government is to have an organized unit to protect people. Running a campaign is like running a business. You come up with strategies, you inform your employees or new events etc. Just letting everyone do their own thing to me is leading to failure. I say this because I have taken over businesses that were completely unorganized and doomed, until we began having some coordination and central leader.
Does the HQ contact grassroots when they set up a local event? I doubt it, but they should. Do they contact us when RP appear on every radio, TV and local event? I doubt it, but they should.
We should be able to raise our voices without being labeled.
That's not true at all
It sometimes amazes me how some of us resort to unfounded personal attacks without thinking about what we are saying.
RP says we need to reduce gov't and be very specific about what it can and cannot do. He doesn't say he won't manage it at all.
His point on the CIA is a great example. He'd keep them in place and give them very specific role in gather intelligence and put several controls in place regarding their "other" activities. Just throwing a bunch of people out and saying "hey go get some intelligence" is the wrong way to do it.
We can create much great results united than separate. We're stabbing in the dark.
Hear, Hear!
YES!!! Some objective thinkers on this stream!
Decentralize indeed!
Chasing the herd results in losing....
Blind ambition does not achieve sight.....
Absolute faith creates followers.....
Can someone show me ONE concrete thing the "official" campaign has done that really scored points????
I heard it here a while ago (I think from Treg) who suggested that WE, the grassroots people, would actually WIN the presidency....and then GIVE it to Ron Paul. He is a reluctant leader in the sense that he does NOT have the ego and ambition for it. He is TRULY our figurehead for OUR revolution.
It is NOW that WE must do anything we can to break OUT from the herd of "talking heads", get AHEAD of the game....RECREATE the process.
The delegate system is in OUR favor. MOMENTUM is not. We need a national, 50-state focus and the finances to compete until Minneapolis.
"Luctor et Emergo" - Struggle and Emerge