Slow learner?

SurveyUSA is still not including the (likely) top Republican fundraiser in their polls. Is it just to be different? Might I suggest a body piercing instead?

Lingering bias -- death by a thousand cuts?

It's hard not to see when you're attuned (some might say hypersensitive) to it.

A fresh example: would you know that Ron Paul polled the same as Mitt Romney in the latest Quinnipiac poll in New York from looking at RealClearPolitics here or here? But, he did:

"...and 5 percent each for Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Congressman Ron Paul, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today." [12/17/07]

(It's also worth noting that Paul's 5% is up from 1% in October, whereas Romney's is down from 7%.)

Yet how many other sites and news anchors will cite RealClearPolitics and, like them, leave out Ron Paul's tie with a "top tier" candidate (albeit near the bottom of the crowd, but above Tancredo and Duncan)? What is the cumulative effect of a thousand such slights?

Welcome...

...refugees from crashed Paul sites... ;)

Atop Drudge

They're noticing

We're gonna need a bigger blimp

Farmocracy

"[Acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner] said...Congress should deny farm subsidies to people with more than $200,000 a year in adjusted gross income."

Wow, $200k. That shouldn't be too controversial.

"The Senate would block subsidies to people with more than $750,000 a year in adjusted gross income from the 2010 crop year unless at least 67 percent of their income is from farming. The House would bar payments to anyone with an AGI above $1 million and a $500,000 AGI limit for part-time farmers."

Oh.

"When I get all steamed up..."

The calm before the (second) storm

Week-on-week Q4 fundraising by Ron Paul here.

Last three weeks only here.

A pretty steep drop-off, right?

Storm...here. Think green tea.

He's already at $11.43 million of his $12 million Q4 goal--a goal which, in October, seemed too high. This weekend the campaign will wave at that quaint marker as they depart the tea-steeped harbor for...interesting seas.

Meanwhile, in the other Carolina

The blimp is aloft.

And 500+ people are watching live video--when it works--from inside one of the chase cars:


Watch live video from ronpaulblimp on Justin.tv

Clumped in Carolina

South Carolina, that is...




Numbers for this chart are taken from CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll (reported here).

So who is The Kurgan?

True, "there can be only one." But Ron Paul wants to give the Prize back to the People. (For non-Highlander fans: the Queen song in the video was part of the soundtrack.)

Oh, The...Humanity?

'Tardette is on top of the "incompetence" of independent Ron Paul supporters (who have apparently maxed out on legal direct donations). Incompetence = efforts to organize the flying of a giant blimp promoting Ron Paul up the East coast just before the anticipated record-re-breaking fundraiser being behind schedule. Can the campaign survive this disaster?

But Reagan and McDonald still own "Ronald"

Top "Ron"'s at Google:
1- the 2008 presidential candidate
2- the Harry Potter character
3- the Italian musician

Top "Paul"'s at Google:
1- the Apostle
2- the 2008 presidential candidate
3- the Beatle

Tom Tancredo Revolution

Tancredo is leading Glenn Beck's web poll (right side, half way down). Well now, why do you suppose that might be...?

Must..Resist..Family..Guy..Reference

Elise Hu, a TV reporter from down the road blogs about Gov. Rick Perry being quizzed about Ron Paul...

Did you consider Ron Paul?
No, I did not.
Why?
I just didn't. I didn't ever consider Ron Paul.

More...

Nice job, Elise.

Interesting Numbers*

Where in the World is the U.S. Military? Here are a few* places:

South Korea: 28,000
Japan: 48,000
Germany: 64,000
the rest of Europe (excluding Bosnia & Kosovo): 24,000

* Based in part on 2005 numbers. More here.

'Tardette: Does Surgeon General want to kill Santa?

"This is kind of like Ron Paul wanting to be president even though he doesn’t believe in government."

Right, 'cause we all know that if we want to make something smaller, it follows that we don't "believe in" it in any form. This in a post about a Christian biologist's conflict with his ex-employer over evolution.

By this logic, it is clear that when the Surgeon General and others call for Santa to slim down, what they really want is for the jolly old elf to be eliminated entirely and the North Pole left in anarchy.

Of course, this might make sense given Santa's well-known silence on living wages, workplace safety, norms of international trade, and his cheerful flouting of FAA rules and our national borders. Not to mention his failure to invite IAEA inspectors to his workshop.

Gulf War Song

Remember this song? (Visuals added by the Youtube poster.)

Stossel interviews Paul

John Stossel interviews Ron Paul. Internet only. This is apparently the first of several parts (explained here).

no street corner offices, except those* street corner offices

Today at Harper's, Ken Silverstein quotes Tom Edmonds, "a prominent conservative political consultant" as saying: "You can’t go to the street corner and find a Ron Paul for President office, but you can go online."

The only problem with this, of course, is all those actual "street corner" Ron Paul for President offices...

* "Ron Paul opened a campaign office this afternoon in Charleston, S.C. -- his third in a state that traditionally has been crucial to deciding who Republicans nominate for president."

* "Backers of GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul opened his Minnesota headquarters, taking aim at the Feb. 5 caucuses."

* Grand Opening of Ron Paul Council Bluffs Headquarters [Iowa]

* Iowa HQ Office Location:
Des Moines Bldg, 405 - 6 Av, # 104
Des Mones IA 50309

*New Hampshire Campaign Headquarters
45 South Main Street
Concord, NH 03301

* "It's finally happening: A Republican presidential campaign has taken notice of the tight race for Nevada 's early caucuses and shelled out for staff, an office and advertising here. And the candidate is (drumroll please) Ron Paul." (29 Oct.)

* "At his new New York City campaign headquarters in Chelsea, the candidate spoke about his political platform, which emphasizes..."

I helpfully supplied these (there are undoubtedly more) to Mr. Silverstein, but he replied: "thanks for note. i knew there were some offices but think the point he was making holds..."

The point that Ron Paul has little non-Internet presence? I thought that had been debunked. Maybe if we could see a breakdown of how many offices each candidate has. Ah, but then it would be how many people are working in those offices. And then how many paid staff. And then what time they open and close each day.

It seems as if Job 1 is making the narrative work. When Ron Paul's 8% in their NH poll didn't fit into their story, Newsweek and MSNBC simply removed it. I've seen at least one other outfit do the same thing (i.e., not cut him off at the bottom, but excise him from the middle of the field).

not worthy of consideration

Since I linked below to the Des Moines Register's announcement of their decision to consider Tancredo, for example, but not Ron Paul, in their series of issue-by-issue endorsements, here is the email I sent to them:

Dear Editor:

Ron Paul "didn't make the cut" to even be in the running for the Register's endorsement. That would be unfortunate if he is, in fact, the best candidate.

I must say I'm disappointed and surprised that you would choose to exclude Ron Paul--the only GOP candidate who voted against "the mistaken invasion of Iraq" before it commenced and who is campaigning against it. Nobody forced the Register's editorial board to design a rule that excludes the candidate who is the likely top fund-raiser this quarter, who has been climbing in state and national polls, who has won 24 (non-online) straw polls (including yesterday's by the Republican Party of Virginia), and who has views markedly different from the pack on at least four of the eight issues you outlined. Nobody forced you to include, instead, a candidate who is stagnant and next to last in the polls, who blends in with the mean candidate's views, and who has no significant financial support nor grassroots enthusiasm.

You write that "the deciding factor was time spent in Iowa."

This might be helpful for maintaining Iowa's standing as an early proving ground, but is it the most important basis for deciding who will be in a position to defend or degrade our Constitution? Who will be able to bomb--or not bomb--our "enemy" du jour?

I hope that you will reconsider these unfortunately contorted criteria, and the resulting homogeneous set of candidates, in time to give due consideration to who is credibly advocating the most important principles of our time.

Regards...

Poll w/o Paul

A pollster (SurveyUSA*) that is still not including Ron Paul by name in polls?! Others somehow manage to include him (note uptrend). Survey says "X."

* "...an independent, non-partisan, full-service opinion polling firm." Okay, but...well, at least they're not including Tancredo instead.

'Tardette obsession continues

One constant of the Ron Paul caravan--well, since mid-November, anyway--has been the compulsive barking and nipping of the liberal(?) web site Wonkette. Take today's delicious development (and video), which made it onto Drudge, of the SF GOP idiotically resorting to canceling their own straw poll lest another Ron Paul victory be visited upon Republicans (25 and counting). (Why 'Tardette? I normally don't believe in name-calling, but 'Tardette is so proud of theirs, I felt it appropriate to make an exception. I considered Wonktard, but it seems too copycatish.)

More video.

p.s. Welcome to Vox Politico! Non-blog stuff here.