I Was Wrong About Ron Paul

It doesn't affect my ego that I was wrong.  I'm not surprised that I was wrong.  I am deeply saddened that I was wrong but everything could work out for the best anyway.  Let me explain since I've been gone for a couple of days.

On December 16th, Ron Paul supporters carried out their planned Tea Party fund raiser.  It was a huge success.  Huge as in, never been done before kind of huge.  John Kerry was the previous record holder for fund raising but now it's Ron Paul.  He raised a little over $6 million and is now being called the Six Million Dollar Man.  I recap all of this because you might not know it.

See, I woke Monday morning and went down to the hotel lobby to grab a newspaper.  I flipped to the political section of the USA Today, I believe it was, to check the headline.

"Hillary Clinton starting new campaign to try to convince people that she's actually a warm and caring person instead of a cold and calculating beeyotch."  Those weren't the exact words and I can't remember the exact words now but that's what they were saying.  I scanned the article and found out that McCain was being endorsed by a newspaper. 

Down a bit farther was a small article, a paragraph that Ron Paul had raised over $5 million.  Fine, I thought, they had to go to press before the 24 hours were up.  I finished a bagel with Trey and went back to the room and turned on the TV.

A story came on while I was packing up about how all the candidates were out campaigning.  They had pictures of candidates with arrows pointing to the states where they were campaigning.  I have no idea where Ron Paul was on Monday because he's apparently less of a likely presidential candidate than Kucinich who looked like he was in Michigan on Monday.  Ron Paul's picture and location were not on the graphic.

They segued into the Hillary and McCain endorsements by a newspaper.  They asked the pundit if endorsement did much good.  The answer was no but in a tight race, maybe they would. 

That was the end of political talk for that channel.  The Ron Paul campaign set the all time one-day fund raising record and useless endorsements are the news of the day while pointing out that they are useless.  Fine.

Monday night, when I got home, I turned on the Situation Room on CNN for the last time ever.  Wolf Blitzer was utterly amazed when Ron Paul's supporters raised $4.3 million in a day so what did he think of this new feat?  He was off for the day but the show was still on.  Here's what I learned:

Hillary Clinton is trying a new tactic in the next two weeks where she tries to get people to like her.  She has a new website called who'sgoingtobelievethiscrap.com where we get to learn about her life when the camera isn't on.  Don't we know too much already?

Next was a piece about McCain getting some endorsement.  I didn't listen too close to who was doing the endorsement.  Lieberman?  I don't know and since I had learned that morning that endorsements didn't matter, I wasn't paying close attention.  The pundits were asked about it and they said that the endorsement didn't matter.  Oprah maybe.  Lieberman no. 

I have an idea for CNN and the rest of the obsomedia.  When you put useless information on the air to kill time, don't have an expert come on and tell us that you just wasted our time.

Next, I learned that Rudy was pulling TV ads in Boston or New Hampshire because he didn't have enough money to fund everything that he wanted to do.  Is there some government fund that he can tap into or something?  Come on, if you can use state money to help you with an affair, you should be able to use state money to fund a campaign.

I did find this interesting because what better segue could there be to go to Ron Paul where the question being asked is, "What the hell is he going to do with *all* that money?"

Nope.

Instead it was more on how Mike Huckabee's god can beat up Mitt Romney's god and how Romney was trying to dig himself out of a hole.  There was also a bit where Huckabee's latest ad was shown which wished everyone a Merry Christmas without attacking anyone and how a front runner can afford to do that.  Psst.  Ron Paul released a Merry Christmas ad last week that didn't attack anyone.  Ohhhh, and Huckabee had a window or present in the background where the window panes or gift ribbon made a cross.  Is this a subliminal message to voters in Iowa?  Seriously, I'm not making this up.  A Southern Baptist makes a Christmas commercial and there might or might not be a cross in it.  What's the big message that he's sending if it was done on purpose?  Ooh, ooh, pick me, pick me! 

"He's a Southern Baptist sending Christmas wishes to Christians."

Next, it's back to Hillary.  CNN has been pimping her for months so it's no surprise that she's covered twice and that neither time is it actually news.  This piece was about how she is traveling around Iowa.  You'll never believe this.  She's using a helicopter.  I know.  Amazing.  I'm sure that several of her campaign aides got together and brainstormed and decided that even though helicopters are brand new technology, they'd risk it because they had heard a rumor that they are faster than ground transportation.

Here's where it gets truly newsworthy.  CNN calls it the Hill-ocopter.  Is that just priceless or what?

CNN somehow thinks that using a helicopter to travel is newsworthy and that their pet name for said transport is cute.  If I worked there, I'd see if I could trade my CNN badge in for a Beavis and Butthead badge or something that wasn't so embarrassing. 

"Sooo, where do you work?"

"CNN's Situation Room."

"I'm sorry.  I heard Jack Ass is looking for writers."

Next, this part truly is unbelievable, they mentioned Ron Paul.  They gave him about 60 seconds to say that, ho hum, he raised $6 million, like it's done all the time, and then they moved on.  Most TV shows were much of the same, many giving the Ron Paul story less time, and interestingly and tellingly enough, they reported that he broke his own record for fundraising.  They didn't report that he broke everyone's record or the all-time record, just his own.  If it was Hillary or Rudy that had raised the money, you wouldn't be able to escape the story.  Since it's Ron Paul, it's a foot note and you have to research it yourself if you want to understand the significance.

They moved on to a story about a bird that was trapped in a building.  Not an endangered bird.  Not a special building.  Just a bird in a building.  It was a set used for press releases for things like candidate endorsements and how useless they are so there were cameras set up and the bird in the building was caught on film.  I got to watch for 5 minutes while they tried to catch this bird in the building.  I never did see how it ended.  I got so excited, I nearly peed myself, so I ran to the bathroom.

Last week, they did a piece on how the corporate candidates take their coffee.  The only one that I can remember for you was Hillary because she's a flip-flopper.  Sometimes she uses cream and sometimes she doesn't.  They didn't ask Ron Paul and for once, I'm fine with that.  I did have one question.  Does CNN know just how stupid they sound with this stuff?

When I got back from peeing, the bird story was over.  Grieving that I had missed the conclusion of that nail-biter, I turned the TV off, went to my computer and left a message on CNN's site letting them know that I will never watch their stupid show ever again.  It's not just the lack of Ron Paul coverage but the lack of actual news.

So I was wrong about Ron Paul.  I said that by breaking all the fund raising records, the old media would have to start looking at him as an actual candidate.  Apparently, no they don't.  He can have the most money and the most support but that doesn't mean that they have to report on it.  Maybe they can keep the black out going for another 17 days.  Maybe if they talk Huckabee up enough, they can keep Ron Paul out of the top 3.

Except.

Except that the black out might have blow back.  I know, I hate the word but I'm going to use it because it's one of the mandatory words for the 2008 election.

A lot of people don't take part in primaries and caucuses.  They just accept the two people the old media picks and wait until it's time to vote for the president to take part and say they did their duty.  I was one of those until Dr. Paul cured my apathy.  It's going to be Rudy and Hillary.  Every Ron Paul story by old media states that he won't win and that's he's just a human interest story because of his "fervent on line support."  There is no point in going to caucus since the outcome has already been decided.

I read an article before the Tea Party and they quoted a Republican organizer or some such thing.  He was telling people that they better Caucus.  While obsomedia is saying things like, "We'll see if On line support turns into real votes," this guy was sounding out loud and clear.  "If you don't want Ron Paul to be the nominee, you have to caucus.  Make no mistake, Ron Paul supporters are going to be here."

It's obviously true.  They have done wild stuff, stood in terrible weather to wave signs and chant his name, put a blimp in the air, donated $18 million this quarter of their hard earned money, showed up to every straw poll, and dominated the Internets.  They are called fervent, energetic, zealous, and a number of other adjectives that show their intent while simultaneously being dismissed as not interested enough to caucus.  These aren't people on Wall Street that can give $2,300 a whack.  These are people who scrape together $25 and complain if the next fund raiser is closer than a month because they can't afford it that soon.

This will be the first caucus that my wife and I have ever been to and we are part of a group of tens of thousands of people in the same boat.  Next year's primaries and caucuses might be the best attended in a long, long time. 

So old media, I was wrong.  You obviously *can* keep ignoring him.  Quite frankly, at this point, I'm fine with you telling everyone that it's going to be Rudy and they don't have to do anything about it.  It's inevitable that it will be Rudy.  Sure, spread the message that Huckabee might take Iowa and Mitt might take New Hampshire.  I'm good with that.  Keep the supporters of the warmongers lulled for a few more weeks.  We'll keep raising money and keep going door to door gaining supporters who will show up to vote.