Updates

The blog has been down awhile as I've been in the process of moving back from my favorite country in the world to my other favorite country in the world. From G-d's country to "God's country" you might say. Now that I'm firmly back on US soil its been great to see this Ron Paul Revolution I've followed online up close and in person. I've also got a backlog of topics to comment on and hope to get to all of them as time and situation permits including Iran's financial situation, Gidi Grinstein on the future of US-Israel relations, and more.

For the time being, here's the update. The major event for the campaign has been a number of non-binding preference straw polls conducted around the country. The official campaign summarizes the performance here.

Straw Poll Date Paul's Rank Paul's Percentage
HRCC (Minnesota) 8/22/2007 3 16.0%
Ronald Reagan Club (Washington) 8/21/2007 1 28.0%
West Alabama 8/18/2007 1 81.2%
Strafford County, NH 8/18/2007 1 72.2%
West Lafayette, Indiana 8/18/2007 4 11.7%
Illinois State Fair 8/17/2007 3 18.9%
Students for Life of America 8/16/2007 4 9.0%
Western Montana Fair 8/15/2007 6 4.0%
Gaston County, NC 8/14/2007 1 36.6%
Ames, Iowa 8/11/2007 5 9.1%
National Federation 8/6/2007 3 14.0%
of Republican Assemblies (NFRA)
St. Louis, MO 8/4/2007 3 13.9%
Georgetown County, SC 7/28/2007 2 17.9%
New Hampshire Taxpayers 7/7/2007 1 65.3%
Cobb County, GA 7/4/2007 2 17.0%
California Republican Assembly 7/1/2007 4 12.0%
National Taxpayers Union 6/16/2007 2 16.7%
Utah GOP convention 6/8/2007 2 5.4%

Granted, some of these poll are clearly not a fair fight. None of the big-government world-police Republicans could be expected to compete with the good doctor in a poll sponsored by the New Hampshire Taxpayer's Union (a branch of the national NTU that got so fed up with Dr. Paul sweeping their awards every year they just gave up and named him "Taxpayer's Best Friend EVER") or with the West Alabama Republican Assemblies (a group of the old Goldwater Republicans) or with something called the Ronald Reagan Club. Nonetheless, the picture of the 2008 race on the ground is clearly different from the Rudy McRomney show that CNN is telling you. (Big news media letting their bias come in the way of accurate reporting, have we heard that before, Israel supporters?) The Ames, Iowa straw poll is probably the most indicative as it was the one that attracted all 10 major Republican candidates and generated the most national attention. Despite only having spent a week and some change in Iowa and running ads only in the week leading up to the poll, we were able to turn out 9% of hardcore Republican activists. An even larger band of supporters showed up from out of state to cheer Paul on and help with the organizing. As the campaign picks of steam heading into the fall, check out all the great things coming up at the official site or your local MeetUp group.

Now its Your Turn: Despite Paul's lead by all grassroots measures - supporters organizing online, straw poll votes, cash on hand - some groups still don't consider him a leading contender. One of those groups is the Republican Jewish Coalition. They decided not to invite Dr. Paul to their presidential forum on October 16. Ostensibly they don't consider Paul a "top 6" candidate even though you can see he's never finished worse than 6th in any poll that requires a voter to get out of the house and cast a ballot. Really, I think they'd rather have their ears tickled with bald-faced lies about moving the US embassy to Jerusalem (just like Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush2 did) than hear from a candidate who actually thinks Israeli policy should be made in Jerusalem. Please politely alert them to the error of their ways at rjc@rjchq.org. They actually responded to my email with a polite invitation to join their group though I think I fail the first requirement for membership, but at least it shows they listen to us. And just for kicks, tell them Zionists for Ron Paul sent you.