Election 2008

Ron Paul draws 600 to rally in Fairfield, Iowa!

DES MOINES, Iowa - August 6, 2007 - The Ron Paul presidential campaign held a rally in Fairfield, Iowa last night that drew approximately 600 people. Attendees heard Dr. Paul talk about his platform for freedom, peace and prosperity.

Fairfield is a town with 10,000 residents about two hours from Des Moines. The event was organized in less than a week, and held on Sunday evening at 8:00 pm. The crowd was very friendly, and Dr. Paul received several standing ovations.

"The Ron Paul campaign continues to build momentum and turn out large, excited crowds," said campaign spokesman Jesse Benton. "We are excited to continue introducing Dr. Paul to the citizens of Iowa and spreading his message of liberty."

Election 2008

Ron Paul campaign calms expectations

With Congressman Ron Paul (R-Tex) finishing as low as two percent or less in presidential polls, sources close to the Ron Paul campaign say that as soon as the numbers tick above two or three percent, the "Ron Paul effect" can be said to be engaged.

This is because the differential between Paul's Internet presence and national polls is significant and because, even locally, the established GOP is not apt to encourage or endorse Ron Paul's classical liberal views. Thus, without the larger coalition that Ron Paul has put together of those who do not share hard core "conservative Republican values," Ron Paul will not do especially well in Iowa.

However, if the coalition he has built, and which is evident and effective on the Internet manages to make itself heard in Iowa, Ron Paul's numbers could rise modestly, or even strongly. Sources say that the Iowa GOP is on its guard against this phenomenon and has taken to warning that all voters' ID will be checked carefully to ensure that voters are indeed from Iowa. Nonetheless, Ron Paul campaign staffers are hoping that Ron Paul's crossover candidacy pulls enough libertarian republican voters, democrats, independents and even greens so that a significant result can be achieved in the Iowa polls.

Says one source, "Staffers working for Ron Paul understand that this is the time to turn Internet support into real votes. They are emphasizing that it is not enough to register support on the Internet. Real life action is needed."

Wired Magazine recently put it this way:

"The question this weekend is whether the decentralized passion and organizational ability that his supporters have demonstrated online will translate into political action that will build the candidate's political capital in the offline world. The crucial event for some Republicans this Saturday is the straw poll in Ames, Iowa, where up to 40,000 people are expected to show up. State Republican Party officials hold the all-day, county fair-like event in years when there's no incumbent Republican president, and it's widely viewed as a political thresher that culls weaker candidates from the presidential race."

Election 2008

Giuliani's Iowa stealth campaign

GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani has said he is not focusing on the upcoming Iowa straw poll, yet sources "on the ground" in Iowa claim that his operatives are battling hard to gain traction in tomorrow's straw poll nonetheless.

The "name of the game," according to these sources, is managing expectations. Giuliani was recently seen to be struggling in the polls, the object of some controversy over his claims about 9/11, his bellicose attitude toward foreign intervention and also his affiliation to a controversial law firm pursuing a mid-America "superhighway." Thus a decision was likely made to de-emphasize the Iowa straw poll.

In doing so, Giuliani diminished expectations that he would finish well, and this in turn allowed his campaign the ability to push hard in Iowa, knowing that even a fairly low place finish could be "spun" into a momentum builder.

Accordingly, the Giuliani campaign will have reportedly have a tent, is said to have purchased tickets for supporters and is focused on energetic outreach on behalf of the quasi-absent candidate.

Election 2008

ABC changes debate tally after Ron Paul win!

August 5, 2007 - ABC TV apparently reset its tally of who won the Republican debate it broadcast on August 5, Sunday morning.

At 10 AM EST, Congressman Ron Paul (R-Tex) was winning the debate with over 1,000 votes. Mitt Romney was next with 106. After the debate at approximately 11:10 AM EST when the tally was rechecked, ABC showed Ron Paul had just 445 votes. Second was “Nobody Won. I’m Voting Democratic.”

Of course, it could all be an innocent glitch, and perhaps ABC will explain these tallies or see fit to rectify them. But it has long been FMNN’s contention, along with others, that Ron Paul, an old fashioned Jeffersonian conservative, would serve as a metaphor and magnifying glass for America’s current political difficulties and expanding corruption.

The debate itself was apparently little promoted. In fact, ABC marketed the debate so shallowly that Drudgereport.com didn’t seem to carry a blurb about it on its front page, and neither did Google News.

To set the stage for the debate, ABC moderators began with polling numbers that showed Ron Paul at just two percent, yet the numbers on the ABC website, at 10 AM EST and again at the end of the debate (before the tally was reduced), showed him winning the debate, as he has before, by a wide margin.

A search of Internet sites revealed some confusion about the debates times and where it was airing. Posted one confused would-be viewer: "What a bizarre time to hold a debate and what a screwy format for a debate. It won’t air in my area until 11:00 am."

Ron Paul will likely win the online debate poll by large numbers in any case. But changing poll numbers always generates questions. ABC is believed to have manipulated its comment boards before as regards Ron Paul.

Election 2008

Iowa straw poll to use inaccurate Diebold electronic voting machines!

August 3, 2007 - A letter has been issued by Citizens for a Fair Vote Count, National Ron Paul Supporters Meetup, Restore the Republic, and We the People Congress regarding the use of Diebold voting machines in the Iowa primaries.

The letter reads as follows:

Everything we are all doing is going to be brought to NAUGHT if the Diebold computers - being used to 'count' the votes at the Iowa Straw Poll - are used to STEAL the Straw Poll Election.

Election 2008

Ron Paul campaign has more money than John McCain!

WASHINGTON - July 16, 2007 - Ron Paul, the Lake Jackson congressman running a long shot campaign, reported raising nearly $2.4 million from April through June and ended the quarter with a similar amount in the bank.

The total is a remarkable showing for Paul, putting him in a better financial position - with less cash on hand but no debt - than Arizona Sen. John McCain. Paul still barely registers in public opinion polls and raised far less than McCain or the other leading Republicans. But his libertarian views and opposition to the war in Iraq have ignited a fire among nontraditional contributors, particularly on the Internet.

Paul has relied on his debate appearances and on an online network to spread his message. He also spent $120,000 on printing and mailing fundraising letters, his single biggest expense. Overall, he has raised $3 million for the year and spent $646,000.

McCain's presidential campaign reported spending more than it raised from April through June, leaving him financially strapped with $3.2 million cash on hand and a $1.8 million debt.

Election 2008

Rudolph Giuliani’s new foreign policy posse

by Philip Giraldi

July 12, 2007 - The naming of leading neoconservative Norman Podhoretz as one of Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani’s senior foreign policy advisers is disconcerting to those Americans who have hoped that the current disagreements with Iran might be resolved short of war. Giuliani - together with Mitt Romney and John McCain - has publicly advocated a military strike against Iran to keep it from acquiring nuclear weapons. He has also not ruled out the use of America’s own nuclear weapons if that should prove necessary to deter Tehran.

Depending on how the situation between Washington and Tehran develops, this pledge could conceivably mean a nuclear attack on a country that has not itself attacked the United States. This would shatter the policy of only using nuclear weapons as a deterrent that has been in effect since the Second World War. It would also establish a dangerous first-strike precedent for other nuclear powers like India, China and Pakistan that might in the future feel threatened. The acquisition of Podhoretz as an adviser confirms that Giuliani’s statements should be taken seriously and are not just political rhetoric designed to obtain the support of the influential Israeli lobby.

Podhoretz has recently called on the United States to bomb Iran and he describes the current situation - pitting Washington against what he describes as "the Islamofascist threat" - as World War IV. Podhoretz basically advocates a world-wide conflict not unlike World War II to defeat Islamists everywhere they are to be found. Giuliani is already the U.S. presidential hopeful who is perceived most favorably in Israel because of his uncompromising stance on issues like the Iranian threat and terrorism, and the addition of Podhoretz will certainly be viewed favorably by many influential neoconservatives. Podhoretz is himself an uncompromising advocate of what he sees as Israeli national security imperatives very much in the mold of the right-wing Likud party.

He continues to be a leading supporter of the Iraq War and is one of the few remaining apologists for the WMD claim, insisting that they were spirited away to Syria prior to the start of the fighting. In addition to Iran, Podhoretz advocates regime change policies for Syria and renewing warfare in the south of Lebanon to eliminate Hizballah. He has also supported regime change for Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinians. His advocacy of foreign policy positions for the United States will be decidedly Israel-centric. Even in Israeli terms, he is from the far right, advocating simplistic military solutions to solve what are complex and multifaceted international problems.

Podhoretz’s definition of the enemy as Islamofascism is itself a borrowing from right-wing Israeli think tanks that prefer to see an enemy in unitary terms that can be conflated with international terrorism. Most experts on Islam and on the many countries that have majority Muslim populations would reject that Islamofascism or anything like it really exists, just as the "global war on terrorism" is essentially a misleading simplification that has little meaning. The basically false depiction of a hostile and menacing global entity is done deliberately to help formulate a policy which perforce makes Israel’s enemies also the enemies of the United States, even when they are not.

Beyond terrorism, Podhoretz also does not see any difference between Israel’s broader security concerns and those of the United States, an assumption that is basically fallacious and which ultimately benefits neither Israel nor Washington. Of particular concern is the possibility that Rudy Giuliani has "bought in" to the world view expressed by Podhoretz and that his willingness to incorporate those positions will bring about a shift by Romney and McCain. As Giuliani is the front-runner, McCain and Romney might seek to outflank him in foreign policy by embracing even more hard-line positions that would be even less in the U.S. national interest.

Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, is the Francis Walsingham Fellow for the American Conservative Defense Alliance.