Ron Paul Places Third in Texas Straw Poll

I echo both sentiments and reflections of those there:

1) It was an AMAZING turnout and effort on the part of RP supporters! What a fun group to hang out with, let alone politic with (lol). Everywhere you went, there were RP people around. Hats off to all fellow "fanatics."

2) It was a SCARY inside scene! From the opening video piece reminding us all...once again...of the tragedy of 9/11 (as if any could forget, especially by now), I kept waiting for Rudy to come out and make a surprise appearance. Afterall, this is his ONLY real running platform! But the speeches from the GOP folks should have carried a PG-13 to R rating for sheer "scare factor." If you hair was grey going in, it was WHITE leaving...lol. Only thing more scary were the periodic bursts of applause for some of these guys.

And loved most of their parting comments, tipping their proverbial hat to the GOP, I'm pro-life and hate gays. Guess they are still doing Larry Craig damage control so people won't be looking for any of THEM in men's rooms .

Bring on the PRIMARIES!!!

Pulling nearly 17% when virtually excluded is not bad at all. Now let's see what the world has to say this morning.

At 8am CET www.whowouldtheworldelect... shows total worldwide votes so far 39,016 for all 18 candidates from both parties, that is, including US votes and votes from all other countries, i.e. nearly 11,000 votes so far from those of us who are non US nationals not elegible to vote in US elections. Please visit www.whowouldtheworldelect... and vote Ron Paul if you haven't yet done so and pass the word so other can do so.

So far Ron Paul commands the equivalent of 86% of the Republican vote (and 43% overall).

16,782 Ron Paul
11,521 Barack Obama
2,811 Dennis Kuicinich
2,375 Hillary Clinton
1,537 Mike Gravel
(all others are well below, and Duncan Hunter has 128)

Here is a pretty good article about our favorite candidate and his grass-roots handlers!

http://online.wsj.com/pub...

Okay, the Republican neocons at the straw poll were largely NUTS.

On the positive side, by skipping the afternoon session, I was able to distribute Ron Paul literature at the "Texans for Peace" rally across the street.

I got several of them to say that they would do more research and look into Ron Paul.

I was amazed at the number of anti-war types who thought all Republicans were pro-war- there were a number of Ron Paul supporters like me who skipped the " while we're in the neighborhood, lets attack Iran too" craziness at the straw poll and went to work on finding recruits at the peace rally.

www.ronpaul2008.com

You think this stuff is scary, you should have been inside the convention center.

The event looked like a cross between a Christian religious rally and a war rally.

From the very beginning, there was one PRO WAR presentation after another- both from the candidates and from the event organizers. The event started with a loud video glorifying the Iraq war, followed by a Christian preacher giving a CHRISTIAN invocation (Jews, agnostics, muslims, hindus, atheists, etc- apparently there is no room for you in the GOP) and went downhill from there.

These folks are so out of touch with the American people its unbelievable. While most Americans have turned against the Iraq war, these people were not only glorifying the Iraq war, they were openly pumping up support for attacking Iran!

I'm not a pacifist, I served over 2 decades in the Army, but this stuff was downright scary- I wish I'd recorded it because I couldn't believe what I was hearing- I wish all of you could hear it.

It was so bad that by noon, I'd had all I could take, and skipped the afternoon session to attend the peace rally across the street (others told me it got even WORSE in the afternoon).

Never thought I'd say this about a peace rally since it had the usual collection of oddballs- but I felt more at home among them than I did among the Republicans.

www.ronpaul2008.com

Townhall definitely stacked the deck against us with a line-up of two hard-core, pro-war speakers (right before the vote). These speakers, unfortunately, were very effective at nudging the emotions of the delegates. For any people on the fence, they were sure to vote Duncan after listening to these speeches. We also were greeted with Hugh Cort's Fox News-filled assertions of suitcase nuks sitting in ten major US cities including Houston. Hugh says not to worry though, you can go to his web site doomsday.com and buy materials that will help you survive the upcoming attack. So what is this guy doing running for president? Good question.

We did as good as we could at this Townhall and Texas GOP carefully planned and choreographed war party. No question we were set up to take a hit. The deal from the beginning was for one lower tier candidate to take on Ron and put him in his place. If two or three of the other candidates had shown up, we would have taken first place while they split the "bomb Iran" vote.

But, like Iowa, we once again live to fight another day. We can win the Iowa Caucus as amazing as that may seem. It won't be easy but about 7,000 new student/young people votes may do the trick. We've got time, energy and the right message so let's do it.

Jack Wagner

Ron Paul keeps increasing momentum. Every new major indication of support is stronger than the previous one. That's the way to go! I think that this steady progress is very important in this early stage of the campaign, especially in order to motivate all the grassroot supporters to soldier on. We can all see that efforts small and large do pay off and that we are on the track to victory.

Another interesting aspect of the results would be to show how much Hunter and Thompson raised in campaign contributions. Dr. Paul raised $102,000 from one house party, best one day yet. Plus I'm sure the Rally and auction raised the total even more.

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.
Thomas Jefferson

If we do this, we really have a chance

http://www3.webng.com/ron...

At the beginning of the year the entirety of Rep. Pauls campaign could pretty much fit into one office cubicle. There was very little money, staff, name recognition and no major media/gop party support which meant this campaign would have to be built from absolute zero scratch. All there was at that time was the Man, the Message and the Internet. Think about that for a moment and you will come to the realization what is unfolding now in this race for the 2008 GOP Presidential Nomination is nothing short of an incredible historic candidacy. Today he came in 3rd in the Texas straw poll behind Duncan and Fred, while most everyone else threw in the towel and stayed home. You can bet the house that every trick in the book was unleashed this weekend to put Hunter and Thompson 1-2. Just imagine the extent of the behind the scenes effort to pull this off, think of the money it took and the phone calls and intimidation and threats and palm greasing through the shadow pecking order to get everything and everyone in place. It is going to be a showdown like this from State to State and as the Ron Paul campaign grows so will the efforts to stop him. This campaign has had to grow fast, get smart fast, be very organized, frugal and have one helluva thick skin. It is now to big to just ignore or make go away, it's our guy Ron the Man of We the People against them, it's game on!

I think Dr, Pauls showing in the Texas Straw Poll was great (16.17% Ron Paul (217 votes) , This many delegates from previous delegates of the last 2 elections is really good considering the Texas GOP is against DrPaul.

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.
Thomas Jefferson

What a blast to be a part of this weekend.

We were worried we were not going to get even 100 delegates and managed to get 217 (plus a few that didn't show up on time)

The turnout was about what we expected. Only Hunter looked good on Friday. But Saturday, others started showing up in droves. We had more signs and people in the speeches than Hunter, but more of his were delegates.

In fact a Hunter delegate could not believe we got so few votes. I had to point out most of up were in there on guest passes so we could see RP and cheer him on.

As far as the Fred Heads. Friday it was looking like a joke, but by the end of the night, they had quite a few people around there booth and had a few signs. I didn't see much of them in the speeches, but during and after the voting, they were everywhere.

Oh well, we did good anyways,

For the most part, the RP supporters were respectful of the speeches. Only when Perry showed on the screen did you get boos and hisses, but I don't think that was just from RP fans.

The real embarrassment came when they showed Chaney introducing a video piece on Reagan, the RP crowd booed and pissed off a lot of people around where I was sitting. (Thanks you idiots, you made us look like war protesters snuck in)

I will say this, I talked to a lot of delegates this weekend. Most of them like a lot of things about Ron Paul, most that said they would never vote for him was over the War Issue. Others that liked him said they didn't think he could win. Others stated they liked someone else better) In all, it was mostly not a hostile crowd.

This video tells it all ...
http://www.youtube.com/wa.... Contrary to what has been stated below, Ron Paul delegates weren't late for the vote after all, they were just told that they couldn't vote, and given no reason whatsoever. Are we in America??? Unreal!!

Good job Mr. Paul!
Who the hell is Mitt Romney???
GO RON PAUL!

"For those with ears to hear, a prophet is like a light in the darkness."
somewhere in the bible I think.

A post at the Lew Rockwell blog corrects the math: 217 is 16.7% (not 16.17%); that's about 1/6 of the total of 1300.

Rockwell comments:

The Texas Republican Party set up its straw poll to hurt Ron Paul. That's why the voters were restricted to past delegates and alternates from Texas Republican conventions, that is neocons and party hacks for the most part. Also, the poll was placed in Ft. Worth, five hours away from Houston and the Gulf Coast, to discriminate against delegates from Ron Paul Land. Ron was supposed to get zero. Instead, he got [nearly 17%].

The Republican Party of Texas has been controlled by the Bushes since 1980. That means the Ron Paul campaign and all its volunteers and donors can be very proud. This is yet another step upwards in the growth of a movement that is already shaking the world of all the bad guys. Note: Hunter did so well because he alone, of all the warmongering candidates, bothered to show up. BTW, Fred the Late was supposed to win--that was Gov. Perry's plan--but he was elsewhere, delaying.

He just seems so anti-gambling.
http://www.gohunter08.com...
I guess they don't play poker in Texas.

Just say Yes to Dr No

That's what we are up against. This was clearly a setup - Have the major players not show, so as not to split the pro war votes, and focus those votes on the lowliest of contenders. The contest was clearly, do you like Ron Paul or not, with the added disrespect of "Even Duncan Hunter beats Ron Paul".

I think that the neocons see that Paul's supporters are motivated, and will show up, and that his support is widespread - the straw poll result showed that. The combination of the paleo conservatives, and the South Park republicans is effective. In a crowded field, he would easily have a chance to Win some primaries. The problem is, most primaries are rigged to favor the current party leadership - and if the current Neocon faithful show up, and are focused on one candidate, they will have more people.

We need some better strategies for breaking through. The neocons, which make up most of the traditionally active republicans, makes up 60 - 70 percent of the party, and a fair number will show up, if for no other reason than to vote against Dr. Paul. Its kind of a blow back effect. Now that his Candidacy has proven viable, it energizes the pro war faction. Lots of signs and noise are great, but it won't be enough.

We need a more efficient way to target possible supporters that can vote in republican primaries, and, to sow seeds of discontent among the neocons, so they stay home, or remain disorganized.

whats funny is john cox got more votes than john mccain and sam brownback. i look at it this way, if all the ron paul supporters were allowed to vote it would have been a landslide victory for us so really we won this thing. the fact that we took 16 % away from past bush supporters is a very impressive outcome. someone said this was there first straw poll and i believe they set it up so ron paul wouldnt have an advantage.you can bet your ass that msm will be all over this saying that ron paul did lousy in his own state.but we know better than that. its just a trick to deflate the campaign. i'm not buying into it.

Texas Straw Pole adiminstators were correct in not allowing latecomers to vote. Rules are rules. No excuses. We would not like it if another candidates voters were allowed to vote after the stated closing time. Maybe RP would have come in second if the bus would have left three minutes earlier.

On Thursday, RP was scheduled to be on Janet Folger's nationally syndicated radio program. The two previous times RP was scheduled to be on her program, he cancelled out because he had to vote. On Thursday, he was a half hour late. His campaign should have made sure he made his appointment.

The point I am getting at is that the campaign and each of us have to sharpen our campaign skills. Being places on time is a start.

and you'll start to see how positive 16% is. Only delegates from past Texas conventions from 2000-2006 could vote. The years are very clearly defined, they are when Bush took power and the neocon policies of preemptive war took root. People who are just now jumping on the political bandwagon for Paul had no opportunity what-so-ever to be involved in the Texas Straw Poll. 16% shows major inroads to the party and like Iowa, demonstrates the 2% nationwide polling numbers are flawed or outright manufactured.

.
Duncan Hunter winning seems a bit odd, but I am not in that loop. I know he's Ann Coulter's favorite candidate so maybe she had some influence?

Flubber Thompson will probably do well for a while until his shady past begins to surface during the primaries. Giuliani, Romney and McCain are sharks and will target him more than Ron Paul, since Flubber is perceived as a real threat, not Ron Paul. Also, Flubber's Law & Order appearances have had an impact, so it is likely that many uninformed Texans think they are really voting for Arthur Branch, Manhattan District Attorney, and not a flip-flopping Senator, former lobbyist and supporter of Haitian dictator Aristide.

Dr. Paul is doing just fine. The main thing is that he beat Romney, Giuliani and McCain - who are still considered by the media as the frontrunners. Still, we're a year out from the convention, so don't worry friends. Our guy will continued to do well.

Fred Thompson 2nd? Really? I was there Friday and Saturday and I could count the Fred Thompson supporters on one hand. This is laughable. Lets not mention the secrecy surrounding the vote count, the methodology employed or the blocking of 50 delegates because their bus was late by two minutes.

Shameful!

My comment is not intended as a sour-grapes comment, whatsoever - but that's an amazing feat that Duncan Hunter was able to pull off that many votes.

I'm sure it helps when a candidate actually shows up.

But what's the story about some RP supporters not allowed to get in because it was after the 10 am deadline?

Is that a legit story?

Fred Thompson that really pisses me off.