Monday, February 13, 2012

Rachel Maddow: Ron Paul Has Something Big Up His Sleeve

JM emails:
Rachel Maddow is the first person among the mainstream media tv types to stumble upon the fact that Ron Paul is doing extremely well in these caucus states, and may very well have won them all or at least the majority of delegates so far via the delegate process.  In this clip she basically figures it out, while Doug Wead comes on to confirm her suspicions.   
I think this is a wonderful clip to show to most people because of how complex the strategy and concepts actually are.  It should also bolster the spirits of the RP supporters to let them know he is going to have a lot of power at the upcoming convention.


Note: I posted Tim Carney's story on Ron Paul's strategy back in January.

18 comments:

  1. What I find most interesting is that RP supporters got this even early on in the 2008 campaign, and there were several well-publicized incidents even then. None of this is new. It was talked about heavily on sites like the Daily Paul, and there was already talk of doing it better in 2012. 2008 was my own initiation into the arcana of party politics. Further to what is commonly known, even though many delegates are obligated to a specific candidate, they are often freed from such an obligation after x ballots are cast (the value of x depending on the state). It's good for RPers to get as many delegates as possible, in the possibility of no winner after the first ballot at the convention, even in the absence of a brokered convention.

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  2. Awesome awesome awesome I love Ron Paul. I'm going to buy a ton of Godiva chocolates for the National Convention.

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    1. We might be in for a VERY entertaining convention if Romney, Santorum, and Newt all fight for the same votes while RP continues to rack up his delegates. I am almost thinking the most likely scenario unless Newt drops out soon is that no one has the 1100 delegates by the time of the convention.

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  3. note how she describes the whole process, portraying it as anti-democratic as possible, without actually coming out and saying anything about democracy, let alone using the word.

    yes rachel, this is really how the GOP works. the people who put in the time to get the party business done are the ones who earn its rewards. they don't just vote on who gets each others' stuff.

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    1. THANK YOU. I was about to mention the same thing. I'm actually surprised in all the places this clip has been posted I haven't seen anyone else bring it up.

      She's not just "helping Ron Paul by bringing to light that he's doing better than the media lets it show"...she's trying to make the primary process sound crooked, and then make Ron Paul sound crooked for playing by the rules.

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    2. I think that the mainstream media are trying to paint this in a negative light goes without saying. What I think is surprising is that anyone in the MSM even figured out what is really happening, and that many of the RP supporters don't realize how well he actually has done in the caucus states.

      I saw foxnews talk about the same RP press release and literally started laughing while showing an AP count that mentioned RP has hardly any delegates, for instance.

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    3. Agreed. Maddow spent 6 minutes playing to her shrinking base by intimating how undemocratic this strategy was. It was pretty entertaining if vomitous.

      Ta,

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    4. Her guest seemed happy with her approach. Why all the paranoia?

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  4. Wead is always excellent. Now if Rachel can explain the concept of superdelegates to me I will be truly enlightened.

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    1. Wead is indeed a great spokesperson for Paul. I would like to see him used more often.

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  5. Great news! I wonder if the GOP will try and invalidate their own rules and not count the RP delegates?

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    1. From comments I have read at the daily paul, they already have started in places like Iowa...

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  6. I agree with this being a great advantage for Ron Paul - which is possible only because of the enthusiasm of his supporters.
    But, I still don't 'get' it.
    Maddow is obviously trying to discredit all the RP candidates by claiming that they are abusing some arcane rule. Are the RP delegates following standard procedure, or can this be mangled by the talking heads as a coup or something underhanded? If the latter is the case, then I'm pretty sure we can bet that Maddow's puppet masters were merely planting the seeds in the public that the RP delegates are doing something underhanded. Other talking heads will follow the lead on this.
    Can someone please explain this to me?!

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  7. In 2008 my wife and I went to an Alaska caucus and even though we had 28% of the votes they wouldn't give us any Ron Paul delegates. Finally one of the "old guard" suggested they give us one delegate so we wouldn't drop out of the party. Obviously the Ron Paul organization has not only stayed in the party but now control much of what the "old guard" did control.

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  8. No , Ron Paul supporters shouldn't be appeased at all or feel any comfort. How many millions of dollars would he pull in this week if he had won Maine? (He did.)

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  9. How is this for a scenario? Paul has a quarter of the delegates to the convention, the GOP treats them badly, Paul's delegates rise en masse, during the nominee's acceptance speech, and storm out of the convention. Paul then marches over to the Libertarian convention and receives their nomination.

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