I think it’s time people stop pretending that Ron Paul’s support online is anything but sincere. They wheel out denials and explanations faster than an assembly line, yet none of them have any substance, and are actually proven wrong over and over again. You can make the case that the man is over-represented in the web community (the web community that cares about politics and the future of the country that is), but to just brush it off as hacking and spamming is beyond ignorant at this point.
The latest chapter in this saga was the CNBC internet poll that was put up, then taken down soon afterwards. I personally voted in that poll the evening of the debate, and saw the results to be about 76%, who believed Ron Paul did the best. The poll was taken down, and unlike some other networks, it was actually explained openly in a letter:
“You guys are good. Real good. You are truly a force on World Wide Web and I tip my hat to you.” The letter began, and went on to say, “Now Paul is a fine gentleman with some substantial backing and, by the way, was a dynamic presence throughout the debate , but I haven’t seen him pull those kind of numbers in any “legit” poll. Our poll was either hacked or the target of a campaign. So we took the poll down.“
Opponents will be quick to say that the poll was hacked or somehow spammed by a few Paul supporters. A follow up message was put up by CNBC’s John Harwood, which stated pretty clearly:
“I agree with the complaints. I do not believe our poll was “hacked.” Nor do I agree with my colleagues’ decision to take it down, though I know they were acting in good faith.“
So there it is, a man on the inside, saying he doesn’t believe the poll was hacked in any manner, and that, at worst, it was done via a coordinated effort on the internet. So what exactly is wrong or fake about that? It is not a scientific poll, and has no bearing on much of reality.
Remember both of the FOX News debates as well? After each one there was a text messaging poll done, not even an anonymous internet poll. Ron Paul did very well both times, only to be put down by neocon fox commentator Sean Hannity, who also went after Paul with quite some hostility when they interviewed the candidates. After a late swing by Mitt Romney, Paul finished in second place. FOX commentators the next day also lied and claimed that Romney won the MSNBC debate poll, which was not true.
In the second FOX News debate in early September, Sean Hannity made the false claim, on air, that Paul supporters were dialing in over and over, and that was the reason that he was doing so well, again hanging in the low 30% range early on, beating everyone else. A few supporters watching the show decided to put this theory to the test and found out that only ONE vote per phone was allowed. Trying to do so twice would receive the message: “You have already voted on tonight’s debate. Thank you for your participation.”
Opponents like Sean Hannity, self admittedly biased towards Rudy Giuliani, and others, will continue to make the claim that results are being messed with because of a small minority “flooding” internet or text message polls. What they don’t want to mention is that only one vote is allowed per IP or phone, you can try for yourself next time. I guess their next theory is to claim this small yet dominant group of Paul supporters has purchased a truckload of phones and cell phone plans just to win the post-debate poll.
Discussions about Ron Paul also bring in a large amount of attention on the internet. Youtube videos, blogs, news sites, and others, that cover Ron Paul may notice an increase in exposure when doing so. Is this some sort of flooding and spamming? In many cases, only unique hits are counted, which means if someone keeps coming from the same IP address, they still only count as 1 hit for the sites traffic.
One observant fellow pointed out that you can basically have five youtube accounts under various conditions. So I guess that means every Ron Paul supporter on the internet has five youtube accounts, and they use them all to give 5 stars to the pro Ron videos, and 1 star to all the negatives, along with flooding the comments section and subscribing to Ron Paul’s official youtube channel. Of course, they probably do a search thirty times a day for new videos, and new comments to respond to.
Personally, I only have one youtube account. I don’t even rate videos at all, though I am subscribed to Ron’s channel. I have one Facebook account, and no Myspace account and do nothing on the Meetup site. So I guess I must be one of those deviants in the Ron Paul internet circle.
Speaking of Facebook, Ron Paul is currently #4 on the Election 08 application at the site. He is only behind the big names of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Rudy Giuliani, while being ahead of others like Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, and John Edwards. You can’t really have a million accounts on Facebook, there are restrictions. This shows that Ron Paul does have legit support online.
Another big hit for opponents came early this month. The third quarters numbers came out for all the candidates, and it was found that Ron Paul raised $5 million dollars. The general trend is for candidates to slow down in the third quarter, but not only did Paul go against this, he proved a lot of doubters wrong. This too shows a lot of legit support. Much of the donation money came from the internet. The average donation total was about $40 per person. That means a good number of donors contributed.
But there will always be those whospit out their hateful words against a legitimate group of supporters, numbering well on the internet, who feel strongly for their candidate. Perhaps much more so than the supporters of other candidates, that is why the online poll results are so lopsided. You can say that the internet is saturated with Ron Paul support, enough to dominate internet measures of popularity but not to get 30% in scientific polls, but to keep saying it is somehow “fake” is to show you have no more credibility. All of the major networks have now seen for themselves the internet support for Paul, and many are now acknowledging it as real and sincere. The only question now is if they will have the balls to keep their polls up. And if these supporters on the internet can turn out to the Republican primaries in any substantial numbers.
Filed under: Iraq, Media, Politics, Ron Paul | Tagged: Candidates youtube, CNBC Debate, Debate Polls, Election 2008, FOX Debate, MSNBC
We already know the answer to the question of whether the online support will translate into real votes — it already has, dozens of times, in Republican straw polls across the nation.
The real question is will the front-runners’ soft support in random telephone surveys translate into real votes. They should be much more worried about that.
Ron Paul’s turnout in the primaries will be phenomenal, multiplying his standings in the polls several times. In low turnout states like Iowa, Wyoming, and Nevada, he could well win. In libertarian-leaning New Hampshire, he should do very well. In conservative South Carolina, he should also do well. What would that set up for the big February 5th showdown?
My car is covered in Ron Paul signs. I do mean covered..
I get honks every single day when I go somewhere. I personally believe that Ron Paul is going to surprise alot of people come election time. My family are all going to vote for him in the primaries.
I run a meetup and in the last week Ive seen a 25% increase in new members. Thats real support.
RON PAUL is the only man that speaks truths these days its quite refreshing but we all know what happens to the truth speakers, they wind up killed or die insome odd way.
I votef for Dems my whole life and finally a man who has the nerve to speak the turth. Ron PAUL MAY BE A REPUBLICAN BUT HE IS SURE HONEST. MY VOTE IS FO RON PAUL. DONT LET THESE MEDIA CONTROLLERE DICTATE TO YOU.BUSH IS EVIL AND ALL THESE OTHER CORPARATE LIARS TURN THE COUNTRY INTO ONE BIG WAL MART. RON PAUL SHOWS US HOPE. THE COUNTRY IS ALREADY BOUGHT AND SOLD BUT RON PAUL HAS OUR COUNTRYS BEST INTERESTS IN MIND, MOT ISRAEL AND SADUI ARABIA OR HAS BEEN IN THE POCKETS OF EVERY PREZ THE LAST 70 YEARS.
Ron Paul will not sell us out. God Willing MR PAUL will work the miracle and shock the world
lets pray we get a real leader, real thinker and some one who is not bought or sold like bush,clinton,giuliani,obama,mccain,andromney. Gof has a problem with america and we are gonna pay for the treament of our own soldiers after this war debacle,the ignoring or katrina sufferers, and all those whose lives have been ignored under Bush while we right illgegl wars
It’s not longer Rudy McRomney, it’s Ron Rompson. By any measure – head-to-head, win-lose-draw, olympic rating methods, any of three NASCAR ranking methods, actual totals (biased in favor of Iowa), or recent wins, there are only three ‘real’ GOP candidates, and those three are Ron Paul, Fred Thompson, and Mitt Romney, with Mitt fading fast, and Fred and Ron coming up fast – though Ron Paul’s and Mike Huckabee’s CONSISTENTLY high texting numbers in the two most recent Fox debates (Sept. and Oct.) show that perhaps true Southern Conservatives, once they see Fred ‘perform’ in his ‘new role’ are less impressed with him and more impressed with either Ron or Mike. The first Fox texting poll was between Ron Paul and Mitt, which Mitt barely won towards the end of the evening, so it seems these texting polls actually DO reflect ‘realer realities’ such as how Mitt has done in Straw Polls, namely well at first, not as well later.
As for the Dems, I’d have to say that if Edwards couldn’t do any better than he did on the texting poll, and if Biden did as well as he did, it could be that both BO and Hitlery will go down once they’re seen as the lightweights they are and that Biden will be the replacement candidate. I’m stunned at Richardson’s pathetic showing since he’s clearly the most qualified Democrat and the only one with Governor on his resume (and thus arguably the only electable Dem) but it appears people judged him harshly on his obesity, i.e., if a candidate is too lazy or stupid to control his own weight via diet and exercize, why should he control the nation? He and Dodd and Kucinich didn’t even get double digits and should probably pull out and endorse other candidates.