AZ GOP Convention a farce - Don't you guys care about this?

I was a state delegate.

We were trounced because Ron Paul supporters were outnumbered by far and the Party lined up a roster of delegates who believe that we should get behind McCain because he doesn't suck as much as the Democrats. Without MANY more RP supporters as delegates, there was nothing to be done about it.

Now what?

Is there really a future in the Republican party?

Should I spend my time getting elected as a PC and working within the party to try and change it? Or should I spend that time working on getting myself positioned for the crash, working in the garden, installing water harvesing, going to the gun range, etc?

Or should I join the LP and become a candidate so I can speak at forums and be quoted in the newspapers?

I, like many others, left after casting my ballot for alternate delegates in the at large vote.

1. I heard zero calls for a point of order. Zero.

2. The party leaders made it very clear which slate was the McCain slate. Fair enough.

3. The party leaders made it clear they wanted everyone to vote for the McCain unity slate. Not good.

4. The incognito nature of the consensus slate was lame, and the creation of the red herring Ron Paul slate was lame too.

5. McCain's no-show was indicative of his character, IMHO.

6. The pastor's invocation disturbed me greatly. Paraphrased, he stated that government was a vehicle for achieving religious goals; and government and religion are intertwined. These comments received raucous applause. Anyone who wants their religion to survive, needs some long hard reading in a history book.

I just got an email from the Juan McCain campaign asking me to be a National Delegate for HIM! Yes, several months back when it looked like it would go to McCain, I signed up on McCain Campaign website, I held my nose to do this. Anyway, my point is WE need to do like THEY do! We need to be our own opposition! Just like there is little difference detween Dems and Reps. and I think they work together to the same ends alot. We need to be the McCain slate! Yes, I now that many on the McCain slate are long time party activists and it is hard to get "in", but AFTER we have the Ron Paul slate filled, go undercover to become the McCain Team!

Also, what if Paul people had produced a slate identical to McCains, purple, same heading, that had our people on it instead, within one hour, maybe with "Revised" in the heading? Could we have handed it out in order to promote choas in the McCain camp? And maybe gotten more votes? Fight fire with fire! Just a thought! This is a game of inches and every inch counts!

DICTATORIAL!

Does my burka make my butt look fatwa?

Ron Pauls campaign and keep calling them. We got the doners list here. Also I think you go to http://fundrace.huffingto... and you can get all the doners for your state

Yesterday morning I was extremely uncomfortable being asked to hand out phony slates as part of a larger "psy-op". This kind of thing is just not for me.

And it would have been nice if the word "CONSENSUS" were spelled correctly.

I've committed to find and sign up 5 new RP PC's in AZ. (how's that for alphabet soup!)

I have one already. Time is short. Each PC's need 15 sigs, maybe only 10 in some areas, and the need to be in by 6/2/08 to be safe. They don't even have to go to the freekin' meetings most of the time. We can carry their proxy. One guy in my PC had 15 proxy votes at a recent meeting. Now there's power at the ballot box.

If we all got 5 more we'd be half The way to taking over the AZ GOP. Then WE can write the rules and THEY can pony up to OUR bar or take a hike.

"What have you done for Ron Paul today"?

We're just ignorant about what to do. This is new to most of us, and we must fight seasoned veterans who know the ropes. Too bad we couldn't get our act together sooner, but who knew.

Your post helps us learn, thanks for yourr time and effort.

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We don't know how to mind our own business
'Cause the whole worlds got to be just like us
Now we are fighting a war over there
No matter who's the winner
We can't pay the cost
-Steppenwolf 1969

I care.

Food. Has anyone tried food and coffee?

I'm thinking, a booth with free food and coffee and a Ron Paul inspirational video playing all day (outside the hall, if need be), might be helpful.

People who take your food will pretend to listen politely and accidentally learn something.

It also sounds like the McCain stealth plan was to pack the hall. How many of the chosen delegates will actually attend national? If not enough delegates or alternates show up to represent the state, they may be glad to seat another Arizona Republican no matter who they are for. I suggest some of you plan to go to national, anyway.

Usually, it is all about having clout for one's state at national.

IMissLiberty

Bottom line is that they had more people. This is because we didn't go out and get enough PC's this time around.

So, will you complain about it and do nothing, or keep working and get more PC's elected and win in the congressional election cycle in 2 years???

I was a delegate also, to prove it I'll just say CONSENSUS.

I am continuing to get the right people elected. If we had a list of all the donors to RP we would own the next election cycle.

I think maybe a couple stealth people would be a good idea in handing out material. Have your top flier titled McCain, then on the backside list all the wonderful things he has said and done; things like bomb Iran, 100 years in Iraq, infidelity, calling his wife a "C" etc... then have your Ron Paul stuff underneath?

Fortune Favors the Bold

different situations call for different tactics. Unless you have a specific plan, or doing "reconaissance", stealth is pointless.

how can we harness the ron paul supporters to recall mccain in an election of no confidence??? how many ron paul supporters were there?

Stealth is a stupid strategy. It goes against everything Ron Paul represents.

I wish we could get more communication from Campaign HQ on what this phase of the race is all about.

SUPPORT OUR FOUNDERS' AMERICA
Support the Constitution of the United States

Forget stealth have an open debate in the middle of the convention and speak the truth. People will hear and know you are right.

...the prouder I am of how we did things in WV. We had a loud group of supporters, and over 100 delegates out and obvious for Dr. Paul. I don't care that we only got 3 RNC delegates out of the deal, because we were certainly not going to overtake Romney or Huckabee in this state with the establishment in several counties the way it was. We worked hard, we did well, and we did it out in the open. I will always have the pride of knowing that when McCain didn't show up here, either, his surrogate was heckled for what was an inappropriate speech. We boo'd. Oh how backwoods! I've seldom been prouder. Calling a spade a spade. We cast our votes, and the Romney people were so angry! The McCain people were huffing and puffing and quite upset. When I left the floor saying "Well Romney can't even be straight forward about his first name... how am I supposed to trust him?" as a joke into a cellphone, people looked dumbfounded.

"Stealth" doesn't always work, folks. Insiders have means of figuring out which of us "don't belong", but people who are new to the process will have trouble picking out their own delegates. You can "stealth" yourself right out of slots at the RNC!

As an aside, I heard directly from several people at the AZ Convention that there were not enough open anti-McCain people (including Paul supporters) to have overturned the process, elected a new chair, etc.. The appraisal was that there were a lot of ancient folks and a lot of "young Republicans who looked like they were more interested in hooking up". The former are generally bussed in, since it's a weekday and there's nothing better to do. The latter are usually the establishment's children, being groomed for future office and looking for their early "credentials" in the Party. These Conventions during the week a long drive from Paul supporters are a killer. The economy's awful and not everyone can toss off a day at work to go vote, no matter how vital it is.

At any rate... please for love of all that's holy... understand that a strategy has to be sound, start to finish. Do what you can now, and I hope it all works out <3

I didn't like the stealth idea. I understand why it was thought necessary, but the concept just doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the Constitutional thrust of the r3volution, nor with the passion and enthusiasm of the supporters.
The whole theme of the convention was to 'unify' and vote McCain to beat the democrats. The talk of McCain himself was actually very limited. It's like the entire Republican Party knows McCain sucks, but somehow he got into the lead and now they 'have to' vote for him. (It really is weird how he was dead in the water and suddenly catapults to 'lead'?) anyway,
A couple weeks before the convention I contacted the AZ GOP for lists of the elected delegates with the intent of having a list to hopefully work from to find out who were RP supporters. I was stonewalled. I was getting very frustrated, even had emailed the RP campaign asking for direction and organization help because there didn't seem to be any forthcoming. No answer from the campaign. Except for a couple RP supporters in my LD, I couldn't make contact with other RP supporters -- the last meetup in my area I went to, NO ONE ELSE showed up! and the meetup before that one, only 3 of us showed up! I've been feeling generally isolated as far as RP supporters being organized, but I'll keep working on that. I have had a few people from work come to me about Ron. Finally one gal in my LD emailed me that someone from the Phoenix meetup was putting together a list of RP supportive delegates. I contacted them and they did get the list out at the convention with no time to spare.
What I don't get is, several names on the 'real' RP slate were also the names on the McCain slate. It had been explained to me that Anti-McCain people were joining with RP supporters and that should give us better numbers, maybe that's why.
What I don't get is, how can we grow our r3volution unless we know each other? I met a total of one other RP supporter at the convention, who would even mention his name! I passed out copies of the slate but even if someone appeared to be thinking about acknowledging that they support RP, they just kept moving by, I HATE THE STEALTH CONCEPT. It was like the other guy here said, like a cattle convention. mind-numbing.
Another thing I don't get is, almost everyone who WAS following the McCain slate, had complaints against McCain! The most recent being his meeting with LaRaza. When they'd mention that, I'd offer a copy of "The Constitution Slate", but they'd go back to following the McCain agenda. THERE IS NO REAL LOVE OR ENTHUSIASM FOR THE GUY. The taped McCain message was droning and no one even paid attention. There was no real excitement, no genuine belief in this candidate, speech-givers trying to elicit cheers made unenthused attempts and the applause was weak, no crazy cheering, no yelling, No genuine passion for McCain at all. It's crazy that RP supporters couldn't walk away owning the state.
We should have been there STIRRING IT UP, WAKING IT UP, MAKING IT MEMORABLE, REVOLUTIONIZING.
We should abandon this stealth practice for SLAP IN THE FACE modus operandi. I will not be operating in stealth mode any more.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...

Be the Miracle!

I think it's time to forget about the stealth crap and just go out there all guns blazing. Unless you are Seriously stealthed up (ie. ON one of these McCain Loyalist Nazi slates) then forget about slipping under the radar. The McCain campaign is well aware that RP suporters are still actively campaigning and Nevada was a wake up call to the fact that we're serious about it.

The fact is that a lot of these people aren't complete idiots, they're just uninformed. Look at Nevada - 10% of the total number of people there (who would otherwise have voted for the party-approved purple paper) switched to Ron Paul because they actually wanted to vote for a real life conservative Republican. Not a crazy, liberal, left wing, spoiled little daddy's-boy piece of crap like the presumptive nominee. So many people just think that Ron Paul is a one policy candidate (the war) and have no idea that he is far and away the best person for the job. Talking about the Nevada swing vote, this poster reckons that RP got about 40% of the vote. What if we'd been actively campaigning the place, winning hearts and minds. Maybe we'd have swung another 10% across and walked away with a full RP slate from McCain's home state. I suspect that even the MSM couldn't have resisted a juicy story like that one.

Missed opportunity there. Very disappointing.

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Live Free or Die - Amen to that