Prediction: Media will use Ron Paul Tea Party to ridicule Kucinich

November 20th, 2007

Ron Paul Tea Party 07Journalists and political pundits have been pulling groundless election predictions out of their butts left and right. I want in on the game. Bear with me while I give some background up to my prediction. If you are impatient, you can skip right to the point, bolded for your convenience, at the end of this article.

Ron Paul’s November 5th money bomb made big headlines, and started a wave of positive reporting as well as some incredibly negative smears stemming from recognition that he is now a serious contender with a lot of enthusiastic support. Judging from the numbers reported on teaparty07.com, it looks like Ron Paul’s December 16th fundraiser will be significantly bigger, possibly breaking all one-day fundraising records.

If the current trend continues, I have no doubt that many media outlets will become even more respectful of Ron Paul’s candidacy, and the conversations will evolve from whether or not Ron Paul will effect the race for the “first tier” candidates to whether or not he can win primaries. It’s already starting to shift in that direction, and it will have to continue if Ron Paul brings in another $5 million or more in one day.

But the important point of my prediction is about how the mainstream media will handle the “money bomb” attempts by supporters of other presidential candidates. In case you missed it, supporters of several other candidates have tried to outdo Ron Paul’s $4.38 million fundraising day, believing that if Ron Paul’s tiny band of lunatics can raise that kind of cash, then certainly their candidates, with such high percentages in the polls, can do even better.

Obama’s supporters had Barack’s Friday. 132 people pledged to contribute $100 on November 16th. When the day came, 72 people contributed a total of $4650. November 20th is Mike Huckabee’s big fundraising day. He has done significantly better with over 200 pledges and has raised over $110,000 as of this posting. Not bad. Perhaps the most embarrassing “money bomb” is Fred’s Giving Day, organized for Fred Thompson. So far, he has the smallest number of pledges, just 76, and the big day is tomorrow.

Dennis Kucinich supporters are also trying to raise some cash for the Democratic candidate, who has been continuously marginalized by the mainstream media. With more than 3 weeks to go, nearly 350 pledges have already come through. That far exceeds the levels of support shown for every other candidate, with the exception of Ron Paul. It would be unfair to dismiss Kucinich’s candidacy on the basis of low fundraiser numbers without also dismissing Obama’s or Thompson’s candidacy for their even lower numbers, right?

My prediction is this: On December 16th, when the mainstream media is in a frenzy over Ron Paul’s second record-breaking fundraiser, they will take the opportunity to ridicule Kucinich for falling far short of Ron Paul’s success, while making absolutely no mention of the other candidates who fared much worse and who truly have little or no serious grassroots support. This not only gives them the opportunity to belittle Kucinich, which they love to do, but it also allows them to keep Ron Paul in the “fringe candidate” category, rather than compare him, favorably, to the “first tier” candidates. Honest candidates, such as Kucinich and Paul, are always labeled “unelectable” by the mainstream media.

I am obviously a supporter of Ron Paul. But I am also a supporter of honest reporting and fair elections, which I think go hand-in-hand. The media’s manipulation of the news and the presidential debates, would be comical in its predictability, if it were not such an important part of our democracy. If I am right on December 16th, then I can pat myself on the back and tell all my friends how smart I am. If I am wrong, I can do what all of these other political wonks do – take comfort in knowing that in this internet age, where political opinions are a dime a dozen, no one will remember or care that I ever made this prediction in the first place.

[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Google] [Ma.gnolia] [MySpace] [Reddit] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Yahoo!] [Email]

This post was filed under Politics. You can leave a reply, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “Prediction: Media will use Ron Paul Tea Party to ridicule Kucinich”

  1. Johnny Lemuria Says:
    November 20th, 2007 at 5:31 pm

    Very interesting analysis. It will be interesting to see the fallout from all this.

  2. Katherine/Aunt Kathie Says:
    November 20th, 2007 at 7:55 pm

    Just a trivial response, but whoever is doing Ron Paul’s graphics stuff is awesome. I love his Revolution logo with the backwards love and the teabag is also brilliant.

    I don’t know about this predicting stuff. Are you sure you want to become a next generation media pudit?

  3. Kirsten Says:
    November 20th, 2007 at 10:29 pm

    I fear your prediction could be true, but I don’t think that should deter Kucinich supporters from donating to a candidate they believe in – I know it won’t stop me.

    Watch: http://alternet.org/blogs/video/68202/
    Read: http://www.dennis4president.com/….com/go/issues/
    Act: http://www.december152007.com/

  4. Katherine/Aunt Kathie Says:
    November 21st, 2007 at 12:30 am

    Ah, Kirsten,

    A woman after my own heart. I’m a Kucinich fan too. I think it would be interesting (unlikely but interesting) to have a Kucinich vs. Paul presidential race.

    By the way, for anyone who didn’t hear about it, Scott McKlellan (former press secretary) is coming out with a book in which he says that Bush and Cheney lied about Scooter Libby.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/11/19/scott-mcclellan-grabs-a-s_n_73386.html

    I don’t see how they’ll be able to continue keeping impeachment off the table now, but then I don’t understand how they have kept it off this long.

    Vote for Kucinich!
    Katherine

  5. Gloria Says:
    November 22nd, 2007 at 1:03 pm

    Excellent analysis, and quite likely to come true.

    Katherine– Ron Paul’s official campaign has nothing to do with the rEVOLution logo or with the Tea Party logo. Those are all done (and made up by) dedicated supporters. The rEVOLution logo was composed by diehard supporters in New Hampshire, I believe, at the beginning of this year. No one else has any type of unofficial logo for their campaign; it really shows the grassroots nature of the Ron Paul campaign and the level of dedication of his supporters.

    The Nov. 21/Nov. 22 USA Today also has a full-page graphic ad, made (and paid for) by Ron Paul supporters, without the official campaign.

  6. Katherine/Aunt Kathie Says:
    November 22nd, 2007 at 11:04 pm

    Hi Glori,

    Thanks for the information. Both that logo and the tea bag are wonderfully creative, I think.

    You might enjoy this item that I ran across at Huffington Post. http://men.style.com/gq/blogs/gqeditors/2007/11/gqs-dark-horse.html

    Ron Paul is GQ’s Darkhorse of the Year.

  7. Heriberto Says:
    December 20th, 2021 at 11:27 am

    Wonderful blog! Do you have any tips and hints for aspiring writers?
    I’m hoping to start my own blog soon but I’m a little lost on everything.
    Would you suggest starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a
    paid option? There are so many choices out there that I’m completely
    overwhelmed .. Any ideas? Thanks a lot!

  8. Jonah Says:
    December 20th, 2021 at 12:04 pm

    Hi, every time i used to check web site posts here early in the break ofday, as i like to learn more and more.

  9. Erma Says:
    December 20th, 2021 at 5:59 pm

    Hurrah! At last I got a webpage from where I know
    how to genuinely take useful information concerning my
    study and knowledge.

  10. Shin Says:
    December 20th, 2021 at 6:18 pm

    Your way of describing everything in this article istruly nice, all be able to easily be aware of it, Thanks a lot.

  11. Summer Says:
    December 21st, 2021 at 10:00 pm

    These are in fact wonderful ideas in about blogging. You have touched some pleasant factors here.
    Any way keep up wrinting.

  12. Stanton Says:
    December 22nd, 2021 at 12:22 am

    I was suggested this web site by my cousin. I’m not sure
    whether this post is written by him as nobody else know such detailed about my difficulty.
    You are wonderful! Thanks!

  13. Bernita Says:
    December 22nd, 2021 at 12:52 am

    Hey There. I found your weblog using msn. This is a very neatlywritten article. I’ll make sure to bookmark it and return to learn extra of your helpful information. Thank you for the post.I’ll certainly return.

  14. Gilberto Says:
    December 22nd, 2021 at 9:23 pm

    Good post. I will be facing many of these
    issues as well..

  15. Rufina Says:
    December 22nd, 2021 at 9:39 pm

    Oh my goodness! Amazing article dude! Thank you, However Iam going through troubles with your RSS. I don’t understand the reason why I am unable to subscribe to it.Is there anyone else getting the same RSS issues? Anybody who knowsthe solution will you kindly respond? Thanx!!

  16. Jospeh Says:
    December 22nd, 2021 at 9:59 pm

    Hi, just wanted to tell you, I enjoyed this blog post.It was helpful. Keep on posting!

  17. Elida Says:
    December 23rd, 2021 at 12:13 pm

    It’s very simple to find out any topic on net as compared to textbooks,
    as I found this post at this website.

  18. Makayla Says:
    December 23rd, 2021 at 6:19 pm

    Howdy! Do you know if they make any plugins to help with SEO?
    I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good success.
    If you know of any please share. Many thanks!

  19. Filomena Says:
    December 23rd, 2021 at 11:56 pm

    I have been browsing online greater than 3 hours nowadays, but I never
    discovered any fascinating article like yours.
    It’s lovely worth sufficient for me. In my view,
    if all site owners and bloggers made just right content material as
    you did, the internet will probably be much more useful than ever before.

Leave a Reply