As various news outlets and liberal blogs gleefully report that Ron Paul won the Republican Advance Straw Poll, I would warn folks to not believe everything they read. It was, at best, a stacked poll.
To find the real winner that better represents the leaning of Virginia Republicans, look to the # 2 slot -- Fred Thompson -- who was represented by Attorney General Bob McDonnell and former Governor George Allen.
The SWAC crew was surrounded by Ron Paul supporters at the speeches for presidential candidates. Paul supporters were well organized with signs and prepared chants. Some of their group were loud and rude and obnoxious, and had to be asked to pipe down.
And they were anti-war, hooting and hollering and booing whenever the war was mentioned, or when a speaker suggested supporting the war, the President, and Dick Cheney.
And I dare say they were not Republicans.
My guess is they were bussed in to stack the poll. At $35 a vote, it provided one way for a campaign to get some PR from the mainstream media. All they needed to do was spend about $5,000 and they had front page headlines that Ron Paul was the "winner" in Virginia.
Most of those Paul supporters had not been seen the rest of the weekend participating in seminars or meetings or any of the other events. They showed up for the vote only.
In a word, stacked ... especially in light of the fact Paul has reportedly been doing this at straw polls around the country.
So do not put much weight into the "winner" of Saturday's straw poll. It is not a true bellwether of Republican leanings in the presidential lineup.
The good news is RPV made some money off those guys!
Updated: To be sure there are no misunderstandings, these opinions are strictly my own. It was my observation of what occurred and who the Paul representatives were ... RPV ran an up-and-up poll. They did nothing wrong. My speculation is that the Paul campaign may have brought in people for the sole purpose of voting in the poll, people who did not participate in the Republican Advance.
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12 comments:
From lewrockwell.com:
Writes Jacob Lyles: "The crowd was electric: you should have seen it! Some of the party organizers were happy to see so many young people and first time voters out. Others were glancing around with that 'the world is falling apart' look! It was worth the price of admission to overhear some Huckabee supporters arguing among themselves after the poll because they could not match the organization of the Ron Paul folks."
Did you say the same thing when Romney BOUGHT the Iowa straw poll buy transporting and PAYING the entrance fee of his supporters? Im guessing not...
Why does the establishment fear Ron Paul?
I also found Ron Paul's supporters very rude at the recent Americans for Prosperity Summit.
Wow. You are totally clueless.
If you think the Paul campaign has bussed anybody anywhere, you have no idea what's going on. People paid their own ways to that event because they believe fervently that Paul should be our president.
If you think the Paul campaign bought that straw poll, I can't wait to see your reaction when he wins NH.
As one of the Paul supporters who showed up to the advance yesterday, I can attest to the fact that we were *NOT* bussed in. I met several people there - all of us showed up independently - or in packs of family, friends, and fellow Ron Paul supporters.
Many of us were very likely not part of the "regular" GOP activist base. I will give you that much, but the grand old party needs a revival of its principles, and Ron Paul can bring that if they wanted it.
Many of us likely would have hung out for the whole weekend, if we could afford to stay in the Hyatt for a couple of days. But I doubt many of Paul's supporters can justify that expense.
Paul is not "stacking" straw polls around the country. His spontaneous, volunteer activist base is simply looking to express their vote. These are people who are so inspired by Ron Paul's platform, that they come from wherever they can to try and help spread the message.
All of the Ron Paul supporters who came to vote in the stroll poll did so on their own accord and paid for their own admission and their own gas to drive up in their own cars. There were no busses present however there were dozens and dozens of cars sporting Ron Paul bumper stickers.
Instead of spending time making false claims in attempt to somehow justify the loss of your candidate, why not try to figure out how to appeal to more people with the message you support. Ron Paul has raised a lot of money and has barely spent any of it. His supports spend their own money because they care so much about his message. It is unfortunate that the other candidates do not inspire their supporters in the same way. I drove 6 hours round trip to vote in the straw poll and I will surely vote in the primaries. The VA straw poll was a good prediction of who will show up to vote in Feb.
Thanks to Ron Paul, I now love to watch the normally uninteresting TV debates. And now, thanks to him I'm now reading the normally banal political blogs like this one. I love to see SWAC Girl squirm and write incredulous rationalizations for why Paul won a straw poll. Ha, ha, ha. I could do without the SWAC Girl whining though -- learn to take a loss like a man (pun intended).
I challenge SWAC Girl to please respond to her allegations against Paul supporters.
Heh. I think SWAC girl has made her point and the "commenters" have reinforced it.
Anon- FYI: One does not respond to one's own "allegations".
FYI - If you're going to make a claim, you ought to back it up. Supporters were not bussed in. It was the commitment and work of loyal supporters.
First and foremost, I attended the RPV Advance this weekend to meet with fellow Republicans and find ways to unify our party base. Unfortunately, I was quite offended by the actions of the Ron Paul supporters sitting in front of me (especially a guy with a clip board who kept waving it with certain slogans) or hearing that they were glad to overthrow the Boyd Marcus dynasty. We gather together every December to unify as a party. However, the actions of the "nutroots" Ron Paul supporters just show the division of our party between the conservative and liberal-tarians.
what is so "nuts" about embracing the principles of our founding fathers?
I doubt anything, when you get down to supporting some of the things the founding fathers did, is wrong about embracing those beliefs.
But it's all in how you do it.
There's classy, and then there's ragamuffin.
The Paul Horde was the latter...
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