Thread: Curtains For Ron Paul's Web Crusade

Friday Flame Forum
Curtains For Ron Paul's Web Crusade
Andy Greenberg
01.11.08




On the Web, the Ron Paul Army reigns. With or without their favorite presidential candidate's consent, they flood Web forums, overwhelm online polls and berate bloggers. They build countless fan pages and dominate user-generated media sites. A few may have even hired Ukrainian spammers to fill millions of in-boxes with Paul-supporting propaganda.

But back in the offline world, Paul's fanbase seems to vanish. In last week's Iowa caucus, Paul received 10% of the vote, and in Wednesday's New Hampshire primary, he earned just 8%--hardly matching the near-90% support in Web polls following Republican presidential debates.

It comes as little surprise that Paul--a libertarian who has vowed to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and reinstitute the gold standard--can't pull votes from more mainstream conservative candidates. But the disparity between his online support and his performance in primaries raises the question: Is the power of the Internet to influence politics all that it's cracked up to be?

What does Ron Paul's primary performance mean for the political power of the Web? Weigh in. Add your thoughts in the Reader Comments section below.

Not yet, says David Thorburn, the director of the Masschusetts Institute of Technology's Communications Forum and a co-author of Democracy and the New Media. "Intense and passionate support from an intellectually elite minority that lives in cyberspace does not translate into support among the general population," he argues. "The Web will continue to be a major source of fund-raising for many candidates, but it remains far less influential and less significant than traditional old media, especially television, which continues to reach a far broader audience than is possible on the Internet."

The Paul campaign, which didn't respond to requests for comment, surprised politicos by raising $4 million in a 24-hour online pledge drive in early November and another $6 million in online pledges in one day last month. Those Web-driven "money bombs" fueled a growing sense among candidates and consultants that the Internet is gaining importance as a campaigning tool and a political battleground.

Paul's online popularity may have also translated to a serious boost in primaries, says Michael Cornfield, vice president of the online grass-roots advocacy firm 720 Strategies. Cornfield compares the campaign with Paul's presidential bid in 1988, when he ran as a libertarian and drew less than half a percent of the vote. "Twenty years ago, he had the same message, but there was none of this Internet thing going on," says Cornfield. "The fact that Paul plus the Web has done about ten times better than Paul without the Web makes for a pure case of what the Web can get you."

Even so, the lesson from Paul's campaign may be that the Web alone has limited power to propel a candidate to the White House. Web users represent a surprisingly small slice of the American electorate, and politically motivated users are even rarer. A Pew Internet study performed last year shows that just 69% of Americans use the Web on a given day, and the same organization found in August 2006 that only 19% of Americans look for political news or information online. If anything, Iowa and New Hampshire have a particularly large wired population: The most recent U.S. census shows that both states have higher rates of Internet usage than the national average.

That means campaigners can pull money from the Internet, but they shouldn't expect it to swing elections, says Julie Germany, the deputy director of George Washington University's Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet. She points to a series of contenders like John McCain and Howard Dean, who have leveraged the Web to raise funds but failed to win national primaries.

"The Web definitely does have the power to affect politics," Germany says. "The big sexy story of recent elections has been using the Internet to raise money. The less sexy question, however, is why these 'online' candidates can't get votes."

Got an opinion about what Paul's primary performance means for the political power of the Web? Weigh in. Add your thoughts in the Reader Comments section below

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I just wish they would all shut up about Ron Paul. I thought he kicked butt last night. No one wants to face him. I think it is just priceless the look on McCains face everytime Ron Paul says something. McCain can't say anything because he knows Ron Paul is right and so do the American People.

He's doing really well eventhough everyone in the MSM tries to make him look like an idiot and claim he is crazy.

Originally Posted by Paige

I just wish they would all shut up about Ron Paul. I thought he kicked butt last night. No one wants to face him. I think it is just priceless the look on McCains face everytime Ron Paul says something. McCain can't say anything because he knows Ron Paul is right and so do the American People.

McCain can't say anything because he knows Ron Paul is right and so do the American People.

Some issues some people

I have to laugh when they use the word "Main Stream" canidate when in fact they should just say "Elite Sanctioned" canidate. The public has been so brain washed that they keep buying the same thing only in a different wrapper (Presidential Canidate).They are so brain washed that when the real deal comes along and the media tells them they are not a viable canidate the public says OK and since they are told to vote for someone who can win (thier CFR pic) the public says OK.

Unbelievable !

Originally Posted by USPatriot

I have to laugh when they use the word "Main Stream" canidate when in fact they should just say "Elite Sanctioned" canidate. The public has been so brain washed that they keep buying the same thing only in a different wrapper (Presidential Canidate).They are so brain washed that when the real deal comes along and the media tells them they are not a viable canidate the public says OK and since they are told to vote for someone who can win (thier CFR pic) the public says OK.

Unbelievable !

I couldn't have said it any better.

The MSM is selecting two candidates for us on the Republican side: Suckabee and McLame. Two RINO's that have poked conservatives in the eyes for years and are completely trying to cover up their past records by lieing and deceiving sound bites and statements now. I just hope the American people are seeing through this selection process for a Republican candidate going on in the MSM. After last night's debate, Fred Thompson came out looking awful good, especially after he spanked Suckabee and exposed him for the RINO that he is. McLame tripped up on the immigration question he was asked when he said he's from a border state and no one know's better than him how to secure the borders and then went on to say that most of the illegals entering the country come through the Arizona border. A huge Homer Simpson moment...Doh!!!

Originally Posted by Paige

I just wish they would all shut up about Ron Paul. I thought he kicked butt last night. No one wants to face him. I think it is just priceless the look on McCains face everytime Ron Paul says something. McCain can't say anything because he knows Ron Paul is right and so do the American People.

Fox News dealt with it by clipping out Paul's best moments from the replays.

Cripes - does anybody besides me notice that McCain is now supporting the tax cuts he voted against?

All I can say is Ron Paul has started a huge grass roots movment way over do in this country, he may not get the nomination but he sure is waking up alot of Americans and giving them the guts to speak out!

I say Goooooo Paul!!

Ron Paul won the debate. Fox news even admited it...ha ha!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEEl2FoQScg