At Ron Paul's tent, his son, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), rallied the Texas congressman's supporters. They are a fired up bunch.
There is plenty of speculation that Paul will ultimately win the straw poll. If that happens, Rand told the crowd, "some will try to discount it."
"This isn't an online poll," he said. "If Ron Paul wins the poll today, it's going to be a message heard around the world."
The crowd roared.
Rand said that rather than lamenting Ron Paul's presence in the race, the Republican Party should be glad that he has brought new blood into the GOP. A young man in a flat-brimmed hat waved his hand and nodded his head.
He served up plenty of red meat, hinting that America might see riots like the ones in Britain and Greece if the country does not get its debt under control and prevent its currency from being devalued.
"We want to capture and keep our republic before we get to that point," he said.
He railed against the fact that some agents of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Agriculture Department carry weapons.
"The government is here to protect us from ourselves but we want a government that will protect our liberties."
"It's a battle between good and evil," he said. "To steal from the future to get and live large off of government largesse now is theft. It's morally wrong and something we must change."
After he finished, Paul's senior campaign adviser Doug Wead, who previously worked as an adviser to both Presidents Bush, came up on stage. "When Ron Paul is president, Rand Paul will be there in the Oval Office whispering in his ear every day," Wead said. "You vote for Ron, you get Rand."
Ron Paul's campaign spokesperson Gary Howard predicted Ron Paul will get "a lot more [votes] than last time." In the 2007 straw poll, he finished 5th, with 9.1% of the vote.
Ron Paul Takes 2nd in Iowa: Now are you ready to win?
Like me, you probably care deeply about becoming the best grassroots activist you can during the Ron Paul 2012 campaign. We are on the verge of a true intellectual revolution sweeping this country. There is no doubt that Ron Paul supporters have a monopoly on enthusiasm and energy. Now, our challenge is to channel this massive energy toward effective action.
The Perfect Storm
In the past, the Liberty movement has been pushed to the sidelines of the political discourse. Many of us were accustomed to pursuing intellectual arguments that the average citizen had never considered. Today, now more than ever, due to the state of the economy, mountainous government debt and endless war, a perfect storm is brewing and our time has come.
If you haven't noticed, Ron Paul is the vehicle for many, if not all, of our shared ideals. Whatever your pet issue within the Liberty movement, for the next 15 months, our central focus must center on winning the primary contest for Ron Paul. What will this look like?
Winning an election is a numbers game. When it comes down to it, a shockingly small segment of the population decides an election. Think about it, among the entire population--for our purposes, let's say 100 people. Of this group, 60 will be eligible voters (think children, illegals and felons). Of these 60, 40% will be registered to vote, leaving us with 24. Of these 24 voters, 25% will likely turn out on election day. That leaves us with 6 people, of which 3 will vote in the Republican primary. In order to win, you need only 50% +1 of this final pool; this assumes a contest of two candidates. In a primary with multiple candidates, even fewer votes are required for victory. (These numbers are approximate and vary from year to year.)
While our activities can take many forms, they must all focus on identifying and influencing this exclusive pool of likely Republican primary voters. For many of us, this requires a whole rewiring of our activism mindset. The time has come to shift from education mode to full-on effective campaigning for Ron Paul...
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