I never really looked into this guy the Libertarians are running but after seeing him on Colbert I have to say I’m really disappointed.

After checking out his Wikipedia page the only part I liked was his reversal on medical marijuana. But even with this he isn’t really saying that you have a right to medicate yourself and a right to ingest any and all substances you see fit, as a true Libertarian or freedom lover would. Instead he only argues that the Federal Government doesn’t have the right to regulate it in the first place. He has no problem with States criminalizing a substance and violating your right to self medicate and be free.

Yes, it’s definitely official. Bob Barr is a born again Libertarian who has returned to the light to give John McCain an excuse for losing to Obama and to help people believe that yes, they do have a choice and their vote counted.

On another note:

Seriously, why couldn’t Ron Paul run Libertarian again. He could have had way more impact then he’s having now and would probably pull at least 20% in a November, if not more. Hell, he could do a blog post saying he’s running independent today and have at least $20 million in donations by Monday.

AOL and CBS are both showing Ron Paul at 22% against John McCain in the Idaho Primary. This is another sign that the GOP really needs to start thinking strategy for November.

Even though McCain has been pulling 70-80% in primaries Ron Paul has been consistently pulling 15-25% of the vote. While this seems easy to most people the goal of this whole process is to win the Presidency. John McCain will not get any support from the Ron Paul camp. In the November Presidential Election Ron Paul voters will split between Obama and Barr, with some writing in Ron Paul.

On the other hand Ron Paul will pull all of McCain’s support (i.e. people who will vote Republican no matter what and people who would never vote for a black person) by default.

Ron Paul also have the upper hand as he will pull a lot of votes from people registered as Democrats, including the anit-war movement. McCain has no appeal to Democrats.

Of course lest a miracle occurs McCain will be the nominee and the American people will be denied a real choice yet again. If Bush doesn’t get to bomb Iran one of his successors will. And at least no one will be disappointed, as we the people will end up getting more and more the the same crap and care not the least, as long as American Idol is still on the tube.

Update:

Paul has ended up with 24% of the vote, a very large percentage of the vote for someone who has effectively stopped campaigning and gets very little mainstream news coverage.

It’s long past time to get really mad.

It’s stuff like this that really makes me like Ron Paul.

You all know Cramer’s going to vote for Ron Paul, how about you?

(Disclosure: I already registered Republican so I can support Ron Paul in the California Primaries but I still get emails from the Libertarian Party)

I just got this email from the Libertarian Party:

FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY:
Dear Libertarian,

Throughout the year, as you could imagine, questions about Ron Paul have been non-stop. Both our members and the media swamp every line of communication available.

While reporters generally dance around the issues, looking for a salacious story about Congressman Paul, our members get right to the point:

“What are you doing to support Ron Paul?”
“Why haven’t you endorsed Ron Paul?”
“Why are you avoiding Ron Paul?”
“Why isn’t…?
“Why is…?
“Why don’t…?”
“Why won’t…?”
“…Support Ron Paul!”

Trust me, in our small Watergate office, the words “Ron Paul” echo throughout the hallways all day, every day, as we respond to the many questions posed by passionate Libertarians who call, e-mail, mail and visit our office.

If you think about it, this appears to put us in a tough position. We’re the Libertarian Party, and Ron Paul is seeking the Republican presidential nomination. It’s not our issue, right?

A party loyalist would not dare say something positive about a member of another party…right? Blind partisan loyalty is why Republicans and Democrats are so powerful…right?

No!

Partisanship is why they are corrupt. The Republican and Democratic parties exist to maintain their own power…that’s about it.

We exist for liberty.

With integrity in our lives and in our organization, Libertarians have fought with long odds for more than three decades. We battle Republicans and Democrats who betray our principles of peace and freedom.

But now, we have a man of principle who is igniting a fire of liberty across the nation and, go figure, he has an “R” next to his name. So, what do we do? To some, this appears to be a black-or-white issue with only two options:

Do we stubbornly stand by and pretend Ron Paul does not exist?

Or . . .

Do we throw out 36 years of work, violate our own bylaws and principles, and convert to the Republican Party and join Dr. Paul?

Both of those are obviously horrible non-options.

What we can do is show respect for our Party’s history, bylaws and members while making an effort to recognize the revolution that’s taking place around the country.

Over this past weekend in Charleston, South Carolina, the members of the Libertarian National Committee (LNC) did just that.

It would be inappropriate and a clear violation of our bylaws for the LNC to simply “nominate” Ron Paul for the Libertarian ticket as many of his supporters have requested. That’s not a decision for the LNC to make–that’s the duty of Libertarian delegates at our National Convention.

What the LNC can do is attempt to “recruit” a presidential candidate, and while in Charleston, the LNC unanimously passed a resolution that states the following:

WHEREAS, the Libertarian National Committee encourages competition in the race for the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination and is appreciative of all candidates who make the commitment to run;

NOW THEREFORE, in the event that Republican primary voters select a candidate other than Congressman Paul in February of 2008, the Libertarian National Committee urges Congressman Ron Paul to seek the presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party to be decided in Denver, Colorado during Memorial Day weekend of 2008.

I encourage you to read the full resolution by clicking here.

The LNC has made a respectful gesture and it’s up to the good Congressman to accept or decline when he chooses to do so. And just so you know, so far, the response from Dr. Paul’s campaign has been the standard: “We have no intention to seek the nomination of a third party.”

Additionally, the LNC voted to allow me to pursue an effort that will allow Ron Paul supporters to contact voters in the upcoming New Hampshire Republican primary to tell them about Dr. Paul.

They will be able to do this through our resource, www.BallotBase.org, which is essentially a decentralized call center. From the comfort of your own home, you can use the system to call voters on behalf of a candidate. It’s easy to use and can be incredibly effective.

In order to use Ballot Base, you have to register by providing us with your name, address, verified e-mail, etc. and then you can start calling within minutes.

Now, I need you to know that these are very controversial decisions and there are some people who are very upset.

A few are upset that we’ve invited Dr. Paul into our presidential race, while others are up-in-arms that we’ve used LNC resources to benefit a Republican. At first glance, they have an argument, so let me take a minute to FULLY DISCLOSE what this is about, how it works and what we’re possibly giving up and gaining.

We plan to use the Ballot Base to affect a Republican primary. To do so, we give up the following:

* The use of a server that is not even moderately used during the political off-season.
* An independent expenditure of $2,120 to purchase the New Hampshire voter files of registered Republicans.
* Moderate use of staff time.

Now, here’s what we possibly have to gain:

* We make it possible to influence a Republican primary race in the favor of liberty…just as we have done in the past with other primary races.
* We gain the ability to build a lasting relationship with a large group of pro-liberty activists.
* Most importantly, through the Ballot Base registration process, we are able to reach out to many thousands of people who share many common values with the LP. Hopefully, one day down the road, as we continue to build our relationship, they will take the bold step of joining the Libertarian Party or supporting our efforts.

So, for a few thousand dollars, use of a server and some of our time, we are able to create a network of communication with what I hope will be thousands of hard-working and passionate lovers of liberty.

In the meantime, a soft-spoken Republican congressman named Ron Paul gets a leg up over the likes of Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney.

Sound good to you?

If so, keep reading, as I need you to do me a very big favor.

Today is December 11th. Thirty-six years ago, our Party was founded by a handful of people who wanted to stand up in defense of liberty. Yep–it’s our 36th birthday!

The decisions made by the LNC this past weekend were bold, decisive and in my opinion, necessary. We can no longer stand by and do nothing when such an incredible opportunity exists for the Libertarian Party.

If you agree with these decisions, show your support by sending us a strong message in the form of a significant gift as we celebrate our 36th birthday. To donate, click here.

I appreciate your continued support and please know that together, we will always remain the Party of Principle.

For Liberty,

Shane Cory
Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee

P.S. If you are behind these efforts, please forward this message to friends and family and ask them to go to www.BallotBase.org to join the effort!

All I’ve got to say is wow! I knew the LP was supportive of Ron Paul but this is something I did not expect to see.

This is a very exciting time in US Politics. We are quite possibly on the eve of a new age of freedom and prosperity in America and this step by the LP just moved us a little bit closer.

In this post on the LA Times ‘Top of the Ticket’ Blog Andrew Malcolm really does try to take a stab at downplaying Ron Paul’s tremendous support, and potential for winning the election. With rude remarks such as:

The fact that no top-tier Republican candidates and even some second-tier ones are skipping the symbolic vote will not douse their enthusiasm one drop.

So, even though this is a small straw poll Ron Paul’s supporters are out in full force representing their candidate. Since Ron Paul has supporters there and the other candidates don’t wouldn’t that be a sign that Dr. Paul’s campaign is more popular than the other Republican candidates?

At all hours of the day or night they constantly scour the Internet for Web polls to vote for their man repeatedly, making his support appear far stronger than the single digit he usually gets in scientific polls.

Every significant online poll and text message poll that Ron Paul has one prevented people from voting twice from the same IP address or phone number, respectively. Now, I know there are proxies out there and other interesting ways to spam these polls, but to make such an accusation without any evidence to base it on is tantamount to libel.

If their activities had anything to do with political organizing, the Paulites might have a chance of gathering some serious votes. But that does not faze these amateur hardcore conservatives one bit. They are convinced that if they spread the gospel of Paul enough, enough people will see the light.

And what kind of political organizing would you recommend Andrew? Better yet, lets see some examples of what Romney’s and Giuliani’s supporters are doing on the political organizing front. You can post this on your blog or in my comments Andrew, just let me know either way so I can link to it and update this post with your response.

“Dr. No” is Paul’s congressional nickname for his predictable “nay” votes, a nickname that Paul himself says with a smile is really “Dr. Know.” Google Dr. No and you get a James Bond movie. Google Dr. Know and you get the Health Channel’s Dr. Paul Trotman, who debunks medical myths.

This one is probably one of the most ridiculous. Luckily I work in the SEO Services industry, so I can explain this one, and how it can be corrected to please Andrew.

If you do a search in Google for [site:www.ronpaul2008.com "Dr. No] you will see that the phrase Dr. No is only mentioned on one page of the site in a paragraph. If you look at all the pages ranking well in the Google for Dr. No you’ll see that with the exception on an article in the Washington Post mentioning Dr. No that all the other page have the term Dr. No in the title tag of the page. Google happens to give a lot of weight to the words mentioned in this tag on a website. Think of it as the title of a chapter in a book, as that’s the simplest analogy to looking at the way Google looks at a website.

All Ron Paul would need to do is add a page to RonPaul2008.com with “Dr. No” as the title of the page and it will most likely jump straight to the top. If not I’m sure there are plenty of Ron Paul supporters out there who wouldn’t mind linking to that page with “Dr. No” as the anchor text of those links.

In closing, if you’d like to see a poor attempt at a hit piece please read Andrews post on Ron Paul. If you’d rather do something constructive with your time that will make the world a better place you could always join a Ron Paul MeetUp Group or Donate to his campaign.

PS: Hey Andrew, how’d you like the $4.2 Million Dr. No raised on the 5th?

I don’t think you can fake out Google Trends folks, this is the real poll in an online world.

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Honestly, I have chills right now just thinking of all the new people right now who got to see this interview live in their living rooms, saying wow, that’s a guy I can really vote for.

Anyone else feeling it?