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Underdog Paul Inspires Political
Passion
AP
Thursday September 6, 2007
Passengers on a plane leaving New York could see three words
in 4-foot block letters painted on an East Village rooftop terrace
as they ascended: GOOGLE RON PAUL. The entreaty to search the
Internet for news of the Republican congressman from rural Texas
is one of the more visible signs of enthusiasm from a do-it-yourself
base of Web fans. Their support doesn't show up in public opinion
polls, but it's unmatched among presidential candidates in its
passion.
On their own, the fans have developed a Ron Paul Revolution logo,
marketing the idea through YouTube. Message boards and Web sites
debate his virtues.
The Web fans for Paul's anti-establishment campaign run away
with online polls and blanket Web sites with caps-locked, exclamation-point
endorsements of the contrarian Republican, even though he measures
no more than 2 percent in most national opinion polls.
The supporters have an entrepreneurial drive and get their political
news from Internet sources outside the mainstream media, especially
blogs and news aggregators that rely on popular vote to determine
news value.
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That same spirit inspires them to canvass parade routes in 100-degree
heat, argue campaign strategy in two-hour meetings or paint the
roof of a Manhattan apartment building.
"To get your arms around everything and understand what
is going on is really impossible to do," Paul spokesman Jesse
Benton said of supporters roaming the Web.
Paul's message is gospel among his base, which Benton described
as mostly old-school conservatives.
Supporters can recite his talking points at length.
"They forge their own intellectual world to find the obscure,
unusual sources of information that lead them to obscure, unusual
candidates like Ron Paul," said Brian Doherty, a columnist
for the libertarian magazine Reason.
Avery Knapp is typical of the Paul Web supporter. A 28-year-old
radiology resident, Knapp describes himself as a lifelong conservative
who voted for President Bush in 2000 before growing disillusioned
with the Iraq war and federal spending.
Bush "did nothing but increase the size of government. The
Republican Party needs to move back to its core principles,"
Knapp said. Many Paul supporters share Knapp's disdain for what
he called a "neo-conservative clique" and hope Paul
can spark a Goldwater-style insurgency.
At 46, Kevin Leslie has never bothered with politics. After watching
an interview with Paul during his 1988 campaign as candidate for
the Libertarian Party, Leslie told himself, "If this guy
ever runs for president again, I'll back him."
Paul did, and Leslie was good to his word, starting a prominent
Paul blog in February and traveling to the recent straw poll in
Ames, Iowa.
Paul has attracted a contingent of previously apolitical and
even left-leaning Americans like Leslie who support his call to
pull all troops out of Iraq immediately and who like his reputation
for opposing any legislation not linked to principles already
expressed in the Constitution.
"I've already been surprised by how much traction his campaign
has gotten," Doherty said. "He's a clever politician
because these netroots types can call him a 'true conservative,'
a 'constitutionalist' or whatever they call themselves, and he's
sensitive to that."
Whatever their political background, the supporters all consider
themselves part of a spray-paint and duct-tape "Ron Paul
Revolution." Four banners with that unofficial logo hang
from the fire escapes of the Manhattan building.
"They couldn't reel us in if they wanted to. Most everything
has become an unofficial-official part of the campaign,"
said Dave Gallagher, whose cadre of Paul supporters came up with
the Ron Paul Revolution logo.
Gallagher claims to have started the first group for Paul supporters
on Meetup.com, a Web site geared toward the kind of networking
that helped presidential candidate Howard Dean's supporters organize
in 2004.
In the six months since, more than 30,000 people have joined
Meetup groups in more than 700 places across the country. Paul's
Meetup presence surpassed Dean's in just two months, said Andres
Glusman, vice president of Meetup.com.
"Because people have the power to self-organize here, it's
obvious that he's hitting a chord that is resonating with people
in a way the media is not acknowledging," Glusman said.
This weekend, Paul will be the major Republican candidate to
attend a Texas GOP straw poll in Fort Worth. Straw polls typically
are won by the candidate who does the best job turning out dedicated
supporters. All the top tier candidates in the race — and
a few lower-rung candidates as well — are bypassing the
event.
When Paul supporters get together, they often find themselves
thrown into the intricacies of running an insurgent campaign,
attorney Steven Heath said after a Meetup session in Dallas.
"These guys in Meetup, hardly any of them have any political
experience," Heath said. "These people are newbies.
They're about to get plugged in, and they'll be plugged in with
Paul's ideas."
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INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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