Ray of Light from Dr. Paul
Here is my reading of Dr. Paul's letter (more discussion here):
We knew we could not go on the same way and expect something different to happen. This campaign staff shakeup was necessary and it shows us a clear silver lining (curiously, Dr. Paul's letter accomplishes precisely the steps #1 and #2 from my post-Super-Tuesday post here, where I was outlining what has to happen next). Here are the key points forming this 'silver lining':
1. Dr. Paul is not quitting and he pledges to keep fighting for the White House.
2. He is asking for continued support from us.
3. He and many of us were astonished how his message caught on.
4. That may not be the last pleasant surprise the
Higher Power has in store for us. (Don't they
always come in triplets? Nomination+White House?)
5. McCain is well ahead, but he is extremely fragile front-runner:
a) he has volatile temperament,
b) treacherous voting record,
c) history of political corruption (e.g. Keating 5)
d) many skeletons in his closet (Songbird, 1st wife...),
e) two bouts of malignant melanoma,
f) possible acceleration of his senility,
g) great animus toward him from republican right
h) resemblance to Bob Dole 96,
i) Manchurian whiff about him
6. Romney has not dropped out, but merely quit spending
his money on the campaign. He is on the ballots and
will continue to split the vote, making it harder for McCain
to reach the tipping point. Ron knows this very well, of
course, his ambiguous wording notwithstanding.
7. Major economic collapse can hit the fan any time
turning Ron Paul into a living prophet. We already know
that, but the rest of the country may learn it soon.
8. Victories in upcoming weeks can act as a seed for
a large scale 'phase transition' to our side.
9. The shedding of the lame, treacherous campaign
staff may jolt the grasroots into organizing an
umbrella organization which can be the new,
young, healthy, truly loyal, energetic, creative and
effective bottom-up campaign headquarters. That
transformation in fact fits his philosophy much better
than the top down bureaucratic campaign staff, which
as we saw doesn't work.
10. The shedding of the campaign staff and this letter will
be taken by our enemies, who have already all but
written us off, as the white flag, causing them to drop
their guard even further and make mistakes they will
soon regret. There is nothing better for us than
an overconfident enemy propping a front-runner
with the feet of clay. (Recall also the famous faint
retreat by Normans in the battle of Hastings.)
Edit/Delete Message
We are going strong.
We are going strong.
I think Ron paul knows that he has very good chance
to win the nomination. First, he is getting rid of expensive and useless official campaign staffs and rely on grassroots(much cheaper and effective). He probably made a deal with Hackabee to go against Mccain and Romney. If I were Huckabee, I will go with Ron Paul over Mccain. With Ron Paul, he doesn't have to worry about raising money and chance of winning against Dem is much greater. Ron Paul knows Mccain will not get his 51% of delegates. Don't worry guys - we can win this thing!
The man is broke
He's broke with no hope of a brokered convention. It's over. There's no shhhhh secret plan or ray of light. Face reality people good lord. I'm not saying give up on the revolution but as far as his presidential options go there's zero chance. The man said it himself what else do you need to get it through your head a burning bush? Though that would be kinda cool if it wasn't of the shrub variety.
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http://www.ronpaul2008.com
Ron Paul rEVOLution vs. CFR - Fight of the century
No one saw this grassroots
No one saw this grassroots movement when he started his campaign in the early 2007. He has expressed his amazement of what is happening on many occasions. It was something beyond his wildest dreams. It was the power of an idea whose time has come.
How that works and comes about, we mere mortals, including Dr. Paul himself, do not know. Of course, he knows that it works, that is the core of his lifelong philosophy. It is no different than him saying that he doesn't want to run economy since neither he nor anyone else knows how to. Similarly, in his letter he is nudging us to do the same with the revolution -- he doesn't wan't to run it and doesn't know how to run it. The movement will run itself much better, just as it arose by itself and made it this far.
as far as his presidential options go there's zero chance.
Not at all. The "zero chance" is only for the split-vote brokered convention as conceived initially. There are many paths from here to the White House in the next nine months, as hinted in the post at the top and the linked threads. You don't expect him to lay down all the cards face up or to insert "wink, wink" in a public email to supporters. What is plain to me is that he is as upbeat as ever and that interesting times are ahead.
Just wondering
No offence, but I'm just wondering why you stay on the site if you think this is a lost cause? Are you waiting for the Revolution to go in a different direction, and want to be part of it? Maybe you could make yourself more useful by going on to Huckabee's forums and stirring up some false rumours or go and tell the world the truth about John Mc (I'll soon be walking with a) Cane.
It helps if people can Grieve a bit -- and the "movement" is not
just about Ron Paul's personal presidential campaign.
So STOP with the BS about "trolls" and driving people away.
We NEED people -- even people whose morale is low -- to stop back in and stay associated and linked and "semi-active."
Because this is a LONG TERM thing now.
And if YOU don't understand that YET, then please stay SILENT;
I'm not telling you to go away, but don't drive others away either. ESPECIALLY not to other campaigns and candidates, you ASS.
For the revolution
I'm here for the revolution. As Ron Paul has said many times. If he can't win then the revolution of waking people up to the world we live in must continue. That's why I'm still here. Don't get me wrong. I'd love to have hope that somehow he'll pull it off but I don't see it happening. We've all had an uphill battle as far as ideology is concerned and with Cheney at CPAC and even Bush himself pushing lies just to make McCain look better... well I don't see it happening. Ron Paul himself said his chances are nearly zero and that's pretty much saying it's over as far as the candidacy goes. With him down and out it's back to the lesser of two evils. I hate that feeling and won't vote. It was a bunch of bs every 4 years till Paul came along. At least he was able to open our eyes to how the world is really run and to whom the puppet string are attached..
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http://www.ronpaul2008.com
Ron Paul rEVOLution vs. CFR - Fight of the century
I understand what your
I understand what your saying, but consider this. No matter what, show up and Vote for RP. Even if your sure he can't win.
There's something about making a practice of resisting. Also, concreting that you will participate and take full advantage of your rights.
Believe me, the establishment is more than happy to have you sit it out. Don't let it be one more thing they take from you.
There is truth in the statement that things in motion stay in motion.
Sit it out and you allow apathy and non action to have a creeping influence.
Keep the habit of active participation and defiance and it will become a way of living rather than something you summon yourself to do.
Don't forget...
McCain is not a natural born citizen :)
Thank you thank you thank
Thank you thank you thank you. Finally someone put it to words.
Folks we've got primaries to go for tomorrow get your game faces on.
We need some money coming in as well so donate as much as you
can and as often as you can.
We've got a congressional seat and a White House to push towards!
Puppets come and puppets go but the world's stage is getting cluttered.
Good except for 9 & 10.
First of all, even though I am VERY critical of the campaign staff, especially the chairman and manager -- I take offense at calling them "treacherous."
They may be inexperienced, they may be incompetent, they may even be idiots, but they ARE loyal to Ron Paul. And I am certain that they DID in fact believe they were extending their personal BEST efforts for the campaign.
The problem is that campaigns are NOT scientific, and a series of mistakes by inexperienced people (and here I mean lack of experience in TECHNICAL issues: costs of ads, buying airtime, print media costs & mailing techniques, and a complete LACK of understanding PR and Media Relations) -- can sink a campaign or waste its funds just as easily (perhaps MORE easily) than any outright fraud or purposeful mismanagement.
Secondly, you have missed the mark with items 9 & 10; as the MAIN people who will be laid off will be minor staffers (most part-time) in the offices around the nation, and the extra personnel that were added at HQ to handle advertising and other aspects for the Feb 5th effort. But, the main people who directed the campaign will doubtless stay on board for at least the next month and the wind-down phase that follows as well. Its basically a reverse of the hiring phase, sorta like a bell-curve.
I take offense at calling
I take offense at calling them "treacherous."
There were incidents reported from Alaska, Michigen, NH with campaign staff that cannot be explained in any other way than as a deliberate treachery. The dramatic under-performance in those states, coupled with the explicit reports from the local grassroot leaders, pointing finger at the same people independently of each other, amplified with some gooling of the names mentioned, have convinced me.
I think, except for the few rotten apples above, most of the staff simply failed to grasp the concept of the grassroots and how to tap the amazing power of the movement unleashed by Dr. Paul's words. They were operating on autopilot, doing the conventional campaign things they always do, asking for donations and wasting money to remind us with flashy postcards, printing & mailing of which consumed good deal of money, to go vote (as if any Ron Paul supporter who has signed up with them and donated would forget to go vote). They were clueless.
But, the main people who directed the campaign will doubtless stay on board for at least the next month and the wind-down phase that follows as well.
I may have not explained #9 & 10 it well in that initial post. It doesn't matter who stayed. The move of scaling down is itself a communication to us, a nudge to the grassroots, saying in effect -- you have done fantastic job so far, much better than the pros, they didn't get it, let's do it from now on the bottom up way, which in accordance with my core philosophy, anyway.
This is the reading expanded upon by "Bradley from DC" in this thread.
Ah, thought you were referring to campaign LEADERSHIP
I wasn't thinking of the "grunts" in Michigan & Alaska.
You see the problem to me is NOT simply those grunts (who MAY in fact be little treacherous nazi's for all I know).
The problem is with the management who ignorantly HIRES those types, fails to provide adequate oversight to PREVENT the damage, and then FAILS to manage and purge them ASAP.
THAT is incompetence. And incompetence like THAT is actually much more dangerous and damaging (like $17M worth) than the problems that can be wrought in one state or another by a couple of moles.
See the campaign management is what loses EVERYWHERE, whereas the absolute worst-case a mole can do is damage a single state or two.
It's sort of like comparing Enron to a car theif. Enron stole FAR MORE than the value of a car from countless hundreds of thousands of people. By comparison, a single car thief, even a whole GANG of car thieves, would have to work overtime for their entire life and they STILL would not be able to steal that much from that many people. (And I think the Enron guys actually BELIEVED they could keep the floating & kiting up forever.)
As another analogy, while Jack-the-Ripper killed a LOT of people, he's a petty little piker on the death & destruction scale compared to the coffins that GWB has filled with a few words from his mouth and a few signatures of his pen. (Personally I think both are malevolent sociopaths.)
Understand where I'm coming from?
Despite good "intent" incompetence can be even MORE dangerous than malice.
Nice analysis...
... I do believe Dr. Paul will continue to jet around giving speeches and go to the convention and maybe raise a little hell and give a speech.
=)
I like this...
6. Romney has not dropped out, but merely quit spending
his money on the campaign. He is on the ballots and
will continue to split the vote, making it harder for McCain
to reach the tipping point. Ron knows this very well, of
course, his ambiguous wording notwithstanding.
* * *
Remember too...people voted for Thompson and Gulianni as they were still on ballots too.....all are preprinted at this point.
and...
as we've witnessed, with this campaign..ANYTHING...is possible.
MSM had Guilianni #1 nationally for all last year!!!!!
just keep that in mind folks.
Yeah, wasn't that a load of
Yeah, wasn't that a load of intestinal excretia! I NEVER believed that! That guy was so monstrously creepy (not to mention lying, cheating, corrupt, narcissistic --but I digress), if I were one of his unfortunate offspring I would have disowned my own father too!
Agree with all of your points
5 (i. was my favorite.... A "manchurian whiff about him" lol!
9 and 10 are worth consideration. It could be a way to streamline and trim the fat a little for obvious reasons. And if the opposition DOES let their guard down, that's their problem.
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"I killed the banks"
Things change
so much every day.It's hard to tell what the next good or bad thing will be in this race.Just have to ride it out and see where it lands.
Consistency
is the key ... Absolutely.
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"I killed the banks"