The Ron Paul Money Machine

After taking a severe beating at the hands of the millions and millions of absolutely brilliant Ron Paul fans, I found some interesting information. In case you are wondering, I received a good amount of attention in response to an article I wrote the other day about the conspiracy nuts who support Ron Paul and how they try to make it appear that he is the most popular candidate and that he receives low poll numbers because of the corporate run government that controls the media, blah, blah, blah. Not only did I get a good number of comments here in my blog, but the article was also posted at a forum called libertypost and was linked at a site called Ron Paul Rocker Report. The libertypost site has 77 mixed responses and my blog had about 20 from Ron Paul supporters. This isn’t much in the grand scheme, but this is a fairly new blog so if I receive as many as 5 comments, I think that I have created a masterpiece. The article was put at these two sites by people who found it here on my blog. I had never heard of libertyblog but it appears to post various articles and news from multiple sources so people can argue and scream at each other.

One of the comments in defense of Ron Paul was the amount of money his campaign has raised. I have seen a few other posts on places like digg.com that are similar. Ron Paul is the most popular candidate and this can be proven because of the amount of money he has raised. Just weeks ago, there were some reports that he had raised more cash than John McCain.

Perspective is a wonderful thing, so why don’t we give that a shot. Opensecrets.org follows the campaign cash of the candidates. According to their charting, the billions and billions of Ron Paul fans all over the world have managed to put just over 3 million bucks into his campaign. And if you are wondering, yes, it went from millions and millions to billions and billions in the past few minutes, he’s that popular. This $3mm is out of a combined $265mm raised by all of the candidates, just about 1 percent which would be impressive if there were 200 active candidates. Not only has Paul not raised more than McCain, he has not raised as much as Sam Brownback. Brownback, who is not really considered a contender, has raised $3.3mm, just a tad more than Paul. McCain has raised over $25mm, which is also just a tad more than Paul if by a tad I mean 22 million dollars. And let’s be honest, $22mm is just a tad if you are doing things like the counting the amount of cash spent by the federal government over the past few decades.

Ron Paul has raised about one quarter of Chris Dodd’s $12mm. For those who are wondering who Chris Dodd might be, don’t ask me because I don’t know either.

And before the Ron Paul clan states the blatantly obvious, I know that Ron Paul’s campaign has no debt. The nice little chart at the same exact website shows all of this. So let’s go to Cash On Hand. Paul has about $2.3mm in cash, which is more than Sam Brownback, but still less than Dodd. It’s also less than Joe Biden who has as much a shot at becoming the next President as Chris Dodd. Now Ron Paul does get closer to John McCain in this category because McCain only has $3.2mm left after spending all that cash for his StraightTalkExpress bus (stupid $70 oil). Of course, with $3.2mm in cash, many are wondering when McCain will pull the plug and admit defeat. With less cash, Ron Paul supporters are already claiming victory in next year’s election.

I understand that some candidates will go out of their way to make it appear that they have more support than what is real. I understand that the candidates’ supporters will do the same. Mitt Romney’s team is trying to claim that he is the real front runner and Romney also loaned his campaign his own cash. But at least Romney can honestly claim that he has a shot and he didn’t hide the facts about the loan.

Perspective is a wonderful thing. Long live the conspiracy.

Oh yeah, on a side note, Mike Gravel has raised about $238k and spent $207k. I had no idea that a marketing campaign consisting entirely of a handheld digital camera and 5 minute silent films on youtube could cost so much. Seriously, go to youtube and search for Gravel. Comedy gold this guy.

If This Doesn't Scare You..

I don't know what will.

FBI warns on Al-Qaeda's English messages

As a result, "al-Qaida has tried to put the message out to get others to step forward ... and do things in its name," Miller said. "I think what al-Qaida is counting on now ... is trying to develop and execute the major (attack) plan while at the same time putting out the propaganda fodder and hoping that others will take that ball and run with it. And they're counting on both happening at once."

Pay attention Ron Paul and Alex Jones supporters. This is real, and you are helping to spread this propaganda when you accuse the U.S. government of staging these attacks and attack plans.

Can Ron Paul Win a 'Scientific' Poll, or Just the Online Polls?

Much has been said online, places like digg and prisonplanet, that Ron Paul is destroying the other candidates in the polls. Interestingly, he only seems to be winning the online polls.

LGF has the story about Prisonplanet's piece claiming that there is no way to fake online polling because they register your IP address. Really guys? This is from one of the websites that claims Bush orchestrated 9-11. Bush managed to cover up 9-11, but Ron Paul supporters can't download one of the thousands of IP programs that allow you to use one of the many proxy servers that are connected to hide your IP address? I'm not buying it kids. Now, I'm only guessing here about those proxy programs of course, I don't have one on my computer. Well, not at the moment. And if you ask me if I have ever had one, I will plead the 5th, being a strict Constitutionalist and all.

Real Clear Politics has run the numbers, and it shows Giuliani to be on top of the polls right now. This is from a combination of a large number of telephone polls from different organizations. If Ron Paul is the clear winner in both debates, why is he only at about 1% in the polls right now? And before you start on the conspiracy theories, allow me to give you one of my own. The conspiracy lies with those who support Ron Paul. You are going online and voting multiple times for him, and if need be, using easy access to proxy servers to hide your IP address. Either my theory is right, or none of you people own telephones. I will be the first to say that I am not a big fan of poll numbers, but how do you explain the huge discrepancy? The best number I have seen yet for Ron Paul in any non-online poll is 3%.

I know that you have a theory to retort. I know you will spout off that Ron Paul is being left out of the polls on purpose, or some other nonsense. But here's the deal. Conspiracy theories are not going to get Ron Paul into the White House. Conspiracy theories aren't going to help our country. Conspiracy theories just make the rest of us think that you are all nuts. I happen to agree with Paul on many things regarding using the Constitution as the litmus test. I love the Constitution and spent 5 years under oath to defend it. I would still pick up a gun to defend it if need be. I absolutely love the fact that lobbyists stay far and away from Paul's office, knowing that he will shoot them down. We need more of that attitude in D.C. I disagree with his stance on isolationism because we exist in a day and age where technology keeps us too tightly knit. But that is a completely different piece that I am not getting into at the moment. The issue I am bringing up here is that people see through this internet escapade. Those who don’t see through it are the ones who don't use the internet that much, so they only see the media polls. This means Ron Paul gets nowhere near the White House. This means you are all wasting your time promoting yet another ridiculous conspiracy that needs to be put down. Do something constructive like supporting border security.

Did Romney win the Debate of Stupid Questions? -- The Sequel

According to Drudge, Romney took it with 37% of the vote followed by Giuliani with 20%.

Pollster.com gives it to The Mayor with 30% followed by McCain with 17%.

Prisonplanet.com says that Ron Paul had 47% of the vote on MSNBC's poll. I can't find an active link to the MSNBC poll, but yahoo has a US Newswire story with Paul taking 43% of the MSNBC vote.

Interestingly, FoxNews says that McCain won. But the article claiming this was written by Dick Morris. Morris runs vote.com. Vote.com shows the winner to be Ron Paul with 30% followed by Romney with 29%. McCain took only 7%.

With the exception of pollster, these are all online polls, so no one knows how many people voted multiple times. Pollster's survey was limited to California adults, so the fact that the more liberal candidate won probably doesn't reflect the entire country.

More strict Constitutional conservatives now know the name Ron Paul. More conservatives got to compare Giuliani and McCain to Romney. So my question is how long before Romney and Paul are the frontrunners in a field that is currently led by a pro-abortion candidate and a candidate lax on border security? Paul answered a number of questions by saying that something was or was not authorized by the Constitution. He did it so many times that it almost seemed monotonous. But few conservatives will argue with his logic. Romney had some good answers, and I thought his explanation of his abortion views made sense. He said he has always been against it, but believed that it was a choice. After debating the issue, he believes the federal government should pass it to the states. He stood tall and looked good, which won him a lot of points. He looked like a President.

Of course, everyone is still asking about Fred and Newt. If they enter the field, do some of the others drop out? Could Fred and Newt take the frontrunner spots? People like them. Fred is mostly marketing, and Newt has that skeleton out of the closet thing. But people see a lot of comparisons in Fred and Reagan, and not just the acting thing. Newt is probably the smartest of them all when it comes to actually fixing problem. His book Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America is about as good as it gets. If they enter, it changes everything. They may not win, but they certainly make the race more interesting.