So Many "Ron Paul" signs everywhere...is he the Ross Perot of Selection '08?

[KoKo]

The same folks who used to call in blathering with undying support for Ross seem to have invaded C-Span's Washington Journal with "call in viewers" all emotional carrying on about how Ron Paul is the answer to what's WRONG WITH AMERICA! "VOTE FOR RON PAUL" and all will be fixed with what's wrong.

Problem with this is that it's Hero Worship. It's some fringe group who manages to latch onto some figure they feel "Speaks the Truth" for them...and they blindly jump on the bandwagon without doing any research.

What is it about the folks (who I think were the same people riding around with American Flags/Support the Troops/and Bush '04) who have to have this flaming patriotism but they seem to constantly be SWITCHING THEIR LOYALTIES? This group doesn't seem to get polled. Are they INDIES? RW Non-Evangelical Weirdies? WHO ARE THEY? :shrug: Are they even worth bothering about for '08? :shrug:

[skipos]

1. Paul do nowhere as well as Perot in this election

This is the 1st time since George Wallace that white supremacists have felt they really have a candidate who represents them. The excitement over at stormfort.org is insane. Paul picks up a few other underinformed anti-war voters, anti-choicers, people who are for businesses regulating themselves, etc. It is an interesting collection of people, that is for sure. Alas, he won't come close to getting the nomination and that will be that.

[Alexander]

2. He's more like the David Duke of the 2008 election.

A racist, far-right bigot who won't do well in the primaries.

[Bluzmann57]

3. I work with one of them

and his main reasons for supporting Paul are his stance on drugs, and the fact that he comes off as an anti establishment guy. There are a lot of people out there, especially younger people, who feel the same way. But they likely will not get involved beyond giving money and mouthing platitudes about him. I asked the guy I work with if he is going to the Republican version of the Iowa caucuses to support Paul and he said...well let's keep things clean around here. In other words, he said no. I suspect that will happen with a lot of Paul "supporters".

[Purveyor]

4. Many Paul signs in Michigan, in fact I've seen no others. Radio spots started about a

week ago also.

Good anti-NAFTA/loss jobs theme that will play well in the state (Michigan).

He won't win the GOP nomination but listening to him this morning on MTP, he refused to take running as an independent 'off the table'...

[David Zephyr]

5. Worse than Perot, I fear he could be another John Anderson and hurt Dems.

For those here who don't know, John Anderson was the liberal Republican who ran in the GOP primaries, but after losing to Reagan went with an independent ticket. Anderson pulled enough away from Carter to cost him his re-election.

Should Paul run as a Libertarian, which I'm pretty sure he will because he already has before --back before he was a cult figure -- he could pull votes away from us again. It's a problem we will have to deal with.

And, KoKo01, there are lots of Paul bumperstickers here. I saw a lot of his "signs" in New England two months ago.

[skipos]

6. Carter would have lost if 100% of Anderson's votes would have gone to him

Very unlikely.
http://presidentelect.org/e1980.html

[PresidentObama]

7. Ron Paul signs are all over my 150,000+ person town.

I saw a big "Ron Paul Revolution" sign in this couples yard.

I see signs all over town, including down the busy roads in town. And hand made Paul signs are on street corners EVERYWHERE.

I see more Paul bumper stickers than any other.

Even then, I don't think he'd get anywhere near the support of Perot. I just think people are uneducated and aren't seeing the full picture of who Ron Paul is--yet.

[morningglory]

8. A.J. Liebling said something like this: (paraphrase) "If a plain truth, simply stated,

ever appears in a newspaper it will be retracted within 3 days due to some party being sorely aggrieved..." Something like that. When we hear someone speak the truth it is astounding. The Republics always lie and spin, so hearing one speak what is true to them, straight up, is shocking. That is the appeal of John McCain, Ron Paul, and Huckleberry, in my opinion. Even though they are crazed with inane ideas, they are speaking "truthfully", similar to Alan Keyes. A Dem thinks, "What a nut!" but is not sickened. I may be wrong.

[mmonk]

9. Something's up. If anyone can't see that, they're ignoring it.

Heck, his blimp was spotted over my city.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

10. How is this different than the adoration Obama receives?

or Hillary. or even Edwards? After all there's certainly no shortage of supporters of ______ who are 'all emotional carrying on about how _____ is the answer to what's WRONG WITH AMERICA! "VOTE FOR _______" and all will be fixed with what's wrong.'

[ElizabethDC]

11. Lots of Paul signs here in Florida

it's notable that I haven't seen many attached to specific people (e.g. signs in people yards or bumper stickers on their cars), but rather I see them in public places, such as attached to fences along the highway.

[silverback]

13. Anti-Bush Republicans...

Libertarians, Independents, even some Dems and Greens I know support Paul. But what's really driving his candidacy is all the people who could never bring themselves to vote Democratic and are fed up with the Bush doctrine. It's not true in my experience that Paul supporters don't understand his positions, they understand very well, though I'm not convinced the people who're so negative about him do. I've heard a lot more inaccurate information from people bashing Paul than from his supporters.

I think that's another example of people projecting their own opinions onto the general population, like when Republicans say Hillary isn't electable because everyone hates her.

I don't believe the racist charge at all, that's nonsense. There may be a lot of racist types and fringies generally who support him just based on his libertarianism, but that doesn't reflect badly on Paul IMO.

People mistake the nature of the Ron Paul phenomenon because they mostly didn't know who he was until a few months ago, but he's been kind of a hero of the libertarian types in the GOP and the LP for a very long time, the failures of the Bush administration, and to a lesser extent the perceived failures of the Congress have combined to provide his candidacy with favorable conditions.

I think many people will be shocked at how well he does in the primaries, but I don't think he'll win the nomination.

[KoKo]

17. Maybe it's the same group that backed Pat Buchanan? Buchanan

isn't libertarian but can sound that way at times...at his heart he is a racist..perhaps more than Paul, and Buchanan claims he's he was against Iraq Invasion but he still wants a Strong America (meaning keeping a new Cold War going even though he says we shouldn't be into "Nation Building"). Buchanan when backed into a corner comes off as really wacky...yet MSNBC uses him as a political observer,Repug filter on candidates, and he's on MSNBC every day pontificating. He sometimes talks a good talk but would anyone imagine what kind of President he would be. Not someone any Democrat would want to deal with. Nixon II. But, maybe it's more the Buchanan voters Paul is going for than the Perot voters. But, then I never made much sense out of Perot's views, and felt he was an outlet for those who wanted Poppy and his policies out of the WH but wouldn't vote Dem.

[snowbear]

12. There's an article rolling across the AP right now saying Paul won't rule out Independent run..

..

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2007/12/post_6.html

I sure hope that if he does, that he winds up taking more batshit crazy wingnut votes, than he does of Independents or even (perhaps) a handful of Democrats.

The guy is looney tunes.

[KoKo]

14. ...

[medicswife]

15. Most of my family

is on the Ron Paul bandwagon. My Dad has been a Libertarian for a long time, and in fact, my parents were some of the first people that started using the "Liberty Dollar" when it first came out. My Mom is quoted on their homepage!

A lot of people that have been fed up for a long time over a lot of different things are really coming together to support Ron Paul. Now, all that said, I really don't know how well he's going to do, and more so, I wonder what the Republican party would do if he did win the primaries. Would they name him as their nominee? Or would they snub him in support of whoever came in second, forcing him to run as a Libertarian? (See, my heritage of dirty, evil, establishment tricks is showing here!)

[sniffa]

16. there's actually a ton here in Mass.

and i've even seen some bumper stickers. :/