Ron Paul’s Clever Tactics in Iowa
by Charles Coughlin
A recent article on the Iowa Straw Poll reports “The online organizational efforts of Texas Congressman and presidential hopeful Ron Paul appears to have paid off this week-end at the Ames, Iowa straw poll. Media reports, the campaign itself, supporters and self-styled pundits all noted both the turnout at the festivities on Saturday as well as his relatively strong showing against his rivals. A Wall Street Journal… analysis of the poll results called Paul’s fifth placement ‘impressive’ ….Other reporters on the trail noted throughout the week-end that the fairground was covered in Ron Paul signs. And one excerpted post on a libertarian-leaning Web site notes: ‘Lastly, Ron Paul, though fifth, showed that he was able to translate his Internet support into votes on the ground in a difficult environment with little name recognition. That he received approximately 500 more votes than his campaign gave away tickets while only spending a week or two in the state indicates he may be the only Republican candidate that can truthfully claim grassroots support (the Paul campaign only opened their official Iowa headquarters this past Friday.)’ ”
The Iowa Straw Poll is the first Republican event with a large number of voters. Some candidates make an exhaustive effort spending a fortune and an inordinate amount of time in Iowa with each candidate trying to prove his popularity. Critics of the event complain that the Iowa Straw Poll is more of a test of a candidate’s wallet since the $35 ticket price to vote makes the event highly exclusionary. The top four candidates reportedly bought all the tickets for their supporters while Ron Paul only bought some of his supporters tickets. The rich candidates provided free bus rides to bring supporters to Ames, Iowa and at least one candidate was buying motel rooms for his supporters. The Romney supporters even had golf carts giving supporters free rides from the parking lot to the event.
Mitt Romney is suspected to have spent over nine million dollars in Iowa. Tommy Thompson spent half a million. In addition to a lot of money. The top four candidates spent 66 days or more in Iowa.
With a total of eleven candidates, was it a good idea to make a huge effort in Iowa? Probably not. Former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson went charging in trying to get the number one or two position. He spent half a million, placed sixth and has now dropped out of the race.
Mitt Romney placed first, but it may be a Pyrrhic victory. Critics are pointing out that he “bought” the election. One recent news article had the title ” Romney says straw poll win isn’t hollow.” Other critics are pointing out that he couldn’t get a majority (and he couldn’t even get a full third of the vote) despite spending millions and nearly three months in Iowa. If anything, his anemic 32% plurality is a strong sign that conservative American voters are not impressed with Mitt Romney and unwilling to vote for him.
Rudy Giuliani and John McCain made the questionable decision not to participate at all. One recent news article had the embarrassing title “McCain’s Team Responds to His 101 Votes.” If Giuliani really is the front-runner as some polls claim, why would he be afraid to run in Iowa? McCain, Giuliani and Fred Thompson each finished with about one percent of the vote in Iowa casting serious doubt on their ability to attract conservative voters.
The biggest winners in Iowa were Brownback, Huckabee, Tancredo and Ron Paul. They had been dismissed as “minor” candidates, but they all placed well ahead of Giuliani, McCain and Fred Thompson.
The most remarkable success story in Iowa is Ron Paul. He only spent 17 days in Iowa and was able to place in the top five. Paul’s supporters were the most enthusiastic by far –marching around the event and waving their signs while the other candidates’ supporters were too apathetic to show any enthusiasm. With 50 states in the US, it’s impossible to spend two months in each state for the primary so the candidates, who had to spend a long time in Iowa to get a decent vote total, are probably NOT viable candidates.
Ron Paul ran commercials in Iowa, which focused on his opposition to Amnesty and his pro-Constitution positions. Tom Tancredo one-upped Dr. Paul by appearing on stage with Minutemen. Tancredo went from one percent to 13.7 percent based entirely on the illegal alien issue. Tancredo however is a pro-war neocon (a fact his handlers no doubt obscured). Naturally, none of the candidates were advertising their support for the Iraq War. Ron Paul possibly made a tactical mistake by not mentioning his plans to pull our troops out of Iraq as soon as possible. If this point had been stressed Paul could have tapped into the massive anti-war majority, instead of battling Tom Tancredo for the “Minuteman” vote.
Ron Paul has moved up from the one-to-two percent range (assigned to him by various pollsters) to over nine percent in the Iowa Straw poll, despite the fact that money makes a tremendous difference. If people had been allowed to vote without the $35 fee, Ron Paul would have done a lot better than 9 percent –and every political pundit knows this. Ron Paul has tremendous momentum and a huge Internet following. Paul is seen as moving upward while Mitt Romney appears to have stalled out at less than a third of the vote despite his best possible effort.
The Iowa Straw Poll has shaken up the field. Suddenly Ron Paul is a viable candidate while McCain and Giuliani are one percent losers. The next big event will be the Illinois Straw Poll. Ron Paul scored 5.4 percent in a straw poll in Utah in June, placing second. Ron Paul scored 17 percent in July in the Cobb County Straw Poll in Georgia, placing second again. Combine this with Paul’s nine-percent finish in the heavily money-dependent Iowa Straw Poll and it’s obvious that Ron Paul is a much more serious candidate than the mainstream media is willing to admit.