Post by PapaSmurerf on Jan 6, 2008 21:26:50 GMT -5
helmuth_hubener 09:35pm 5-Jan-2008
OK, so I have read through your negative threads and will now proceed to tell you the true inside story.
Wyoming did not go nearly so bad as you are making it out to be.
In my county, the Ron Paul delegate got 45.6% of the vote. Rejected by party hacks? Hardly. We stormed the barricades, crashed their party, and almost, *almost*, won it all. Unfortunately, Romney's guy got 54%. So we made a good show. If we could have switched over 4 Romney people or got 8 more of our people out, we would have had it (you can calculate this, but the result was 37-44). Oh well.
It was probably largely my fault for not doing enough early enough to get everyone registered and jumped throught the hoops back in December. We had several Ron Paul supporters that could not vote because they hadn't met registration deadlines and this and that, some that came to the caucus this Saturday (for moral support and to see it, man the table, help however they could; they couldn't vote, due to not doing aforementioned hoop-jumping). Including Wyo_Lars! Thanks Wyo_Lars!! Still, 45% is not exactly haplessly weak. We did well!
Even one delegate from Wyoming would have been major victory. Iowa gave Paul 2 delegates, after a ton of focus, time, campaigning there, millions of dollars spent, etc., and they are a much larger state with millions of people. If little Wyoming with just 1/2 million people could have got 1 delegate for Paul, especially when we've had very little attention from the national RP campaign, I would have considered that we pulled our own weight.
Alas, it was not to be for my county.
And finally, I saved the best (or maybe the worst) for last: in Fremont County we also lost... by one vote. One vote.
Ron Paul is a frontrunner, make no mistake. Non-frontrunners don't get 45% of the vote. We just weren't very organized. All you meetup people need to realize: you ARE the campaign.
If YOU do not make it happen, no one else will!
Own your turf.
Your county/town/suburb/whatever is Ron Paul territory now, as of this moment.
You will inundate your streets with signs.
You will put slim jims on car windows everywhere.
You will talk about Ron Paul to merchants you visit.
You will wear Ron Paul shirt and other gear everywhere you go.
This will help you to run across other supporters who will comment on your shirt.
You will get the contact info of any supporters you meet.
You will follow up with these supporters, get them out to your meetups, go over to their houses, associate with them and work with them.
You will research your own state's convoluted process and do everything you can to convice these people to do whatever is required to have their voice heard.
This election is yours.
You are legend.
You are a one-man campaign wrecking ball.
You can't win the nation. But you can win your county or equivalent 35,000 person area. Or you can at least come up 7 votes short like me. And you can then be sad and disappointed but you can at least know you can tell your grandchildren you did *something*.
I wish I could come on this forum bearing a delegate. I really wanted to. Eight votes made the difference between sweet, sweet elation and bitter. Bitter. Defeat. Do better than me. Go win. And remember to have fun. Be a legend.
OK, so I have read through your negative threads and will now proceed to tell you the true inside story.
Wyoming did not go nearly so bad as you are making it out to be.
In my county, the Ron Paul delegate got 45.6% of the vote. Rejected by party hacks? Hardly. We stormed the barricades, crashed their party, and almost, *almost*, won it all. Unfortunately, Romney's guy got 54%. So we made a good show. If we could have switched over 4 Romney people or got 8 more of our people out, we would have had it (you can calculate this, but the result was 37-44). Oh well.
It was probably largely my fault for not doing enough early enough to get everyone registered and jumped throught the hoops back in December. We had several Ron Paul supporters that could not vote because they hadn't met registration deadlines and this and that, some that came to the caucus this Saturday (for moral support and to see it, man the table, help however they could; they couldn't vote, due to not doing aforementioned hoop-jumping). Including Wyo_Lars! Thanks Wyo_Lars!! Still, 45% is not exactly haplessly weak. We did well!
Even one delegate from Wyoming would have been major victory. Iowa gave Paul 2 delegates, after a ton of focus, time, campaigning there, millions of dollars spent, etc., and they are a much larger state with millions of people. If little Wyoming with just 1/2 million people could have got 1 delegate for Paul, especially when we've had very little attention from the national RP campaign, I would have considered that we pulled our own weight.
Alas, it was not to be for my county.
And finally, I saved the best (or maybe the worst) for last: in Fremont County we also lost... by one vote. One vote.
Ron Paul is a frontrunner, make no mistake. Non-frontrunners don't get 45% of the vote. We just weren't very organized. All you meetup people need to realize: you ARE the campaign.
If YOU do not make it happen, no one else will!
Own your turf.
Your county/town/suburb/whatever is Ron Paul territory now, as of this moment.
You will inundate your streets with signs.
You will put slim jims on car windows everywhere.
You will talk about Ron Paul to merchants you visit.
You will wear Ron Paul shirt and other gear everywhere you go.
This will help you to run across other supporters who will comment on your shirt.
You will get the contact info of any supporters you meet.
You will follow up with these supporters, get them out to your meetups, go over to their houses, associate with them and work with them.
You will research your own state's convoluted process and do everything you can to convice these people to do whatever is required to have their voice heard.
This election is yours.
You are legend.
You are a one-man campaign wrecking ball.
You can't win the nation. But you can win your county or equivalent 35,000 person area. Or you can at least come up 7 votes short like me. And you can then be sad and disappointed but you can at least know you can tell your grandchildren you did *something*.
I wish I could come on this forum bearing a delegate. I really wanted to. Eight votes made the difference between sweet, sweet elation and bitter. Bitter. Defeat. Do better than me. Go win. And remember to have fun. Be a legend.