Mostly it was just yard signs – a Romney here, a Tancredo there – but the signs of politics in the air have increased to where even I cannot avoid them. First it was the Romney hanging door tags on the front door in the morning. "Please join Mitt and Ann Romney outside Hilton Coliseum for food, fun, and entertainment..." Then the Ron Paul DVDs began appearing. (Hmm, I think Paul ought to lay off that 'no income tax and abolish the Federal Reserve' stuff, because (IMHO) it makes him sound like a kook.) Then letters, addressed to me – personally! by hand! – by random people from out-of-state urging me to vote for this person or that person. (Ok, I lie. I only got one of those, and it was some woman in Arizona urging me to vote for Rep. Paul.) Then yesterday, as some co-workers and I headed for the lunch buffet at the local Old Chicago, we found our progress blocked by the Brownbackmobile, a huge silver-gray Winnebago with Brownback's kindly-yet-Republican visage staring down from all sides. (We looked in vain for the Senator himself within.)
According to one of my colleagues, you don't have to be a registered Republican to show up for the straw poll, and seeing how it's being done about three miles from our house, I'm tempted to drag the offspring there just so she can witness "the largest political event in America" (hey, that's what Romney's door tags call it). On the other hand, it's going to be nastily hot and humid today, and I doubt it would maintain either of our interests for long.
*Though if you seek them out, they're pretty easy to find.
UPDATE. Skimming through the Ron Paul DVD – hey, we have to do something to keep ourselves amused in this heat – I notice that there are several clips of enthusiastic Ron Paul supporters, carrying signs, some of which say 'Ron Paul REVOLUTION' ... but wait, the E, V, O, and L of REVOLUTION are a different color and the letters are ... reversed, spelling "LOVE" backwards. WTF? Some kind of secret message? This tends not to dispel the 'kook' vibe. "Ron Paul and the Love Revolution", or "Ron Paul and the Lovolution", a good name for a sixties psychedelic band out of 'frisco, no? Of course, when you're talking Lovolution, it's best to go to the source.
UPDATE II. Thirty-five bucks? Not bloody likely.
UPDATE III. Best comment on straw poll strategy, from a Ron Paul supporter commenting on the Des Moines Register website: "...the plan is to get all of Mitt's supporters drunk as they get off the bus and then steal their [tickets] and vote for our candidate. Okay, I'm just kidding. We can't afford the beer."
UPDATE IV. There ought to be a name for this phenomenon: Somebody writes blog post entitled, "Is Ron Paul Being Sabotaged By His Own Supporters ?" positing that the average Paul supporter is a bit of an angry nutjob, and his comments section immediately fills up with comments from – you guessed it – enraged Ron Paul-supporting nutjobs!
They say Ron Paul is a UNIX man. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Posted by: Jonathan on August 11, 2007 07:34 PM
...it makes him sound like a kook.
In October 2001 Ron Paul introduced a bill calling for Congress to issue letters of marque and reprisal. This is a power allowed to Congress under the Constitution, but it's not a foreign policy tool for the 21st century. In short, a kooky idea.
They say Ron Paul is a UNIX man.
Ron Paul believes that your computer ought to understand any OS you want to use. It's your right!
Now watch Alien Corn's server crash under the weight of indignant Paulists.
Posted by: Angie Schultz on August 12, 2007 08:20 AM
Paul definitely has a "back to the 19th century" vibe to him. I think he wants to put the U.S. back on the gold standard. Another alarming moment in the Paul DVD is when he and some other person get themselves worked into a lather about the gold in Fort Knox. "Where is the gold in Fort Knox? Doesn't Congress know??" I mean, Goldfinger stole it, right? Or are my youthful memories getting short-circuited again?
...UNIX...
Actually, it wouldn't surprise me if a relatively high percentage of his supporters are Linux/Open Source software types, what with his anti-corporatist themes. I believe they're probably working up an anti-Diebold lawsuit as we speak.
Posted by: David Fleck on August 12, 2007 09:31 AM
"Indignant Paulists" is right. I wrote a negative blog post about Paul and received several INDIGNANT comments from his supporters. I don't think they helped their cause. They may be ideologically libertarian but their rhetorical style is similar to that of the hard Left and conspiracy enthusiasts.
Paul is an odd mix of reasonable, erudite libertarianism (including his gold-standard position, IMO) and idiosyncratic wackiness.
Posted by: Jonathan on August 12, 2007 02:31 PM
BTW, today the "Fox All Stars" discussed the Iowa poll, and none of the wise men even mentioned the $35 entry fee. That fee seems likely to be a huge factor in biasing the poll results, yet it doesn't rate a mention. Amazing. It doesn't seem as if any of the commenters on Fox even read blogs (not that the mavens on the other networks are any better).
P.S. I suggest you add a link to your home page on your comments template. Without such a link, if I post a comment I have to page back through my drafts in order to return to your home page.
Posted by: Jonathan on August 13, 2007 09:07 PM
Now watch Alien Corn's server crash under the weight of indignant Paulists.We have a secret weapon against such a contingency. We call it "very low readership." It protects us from many Internet perils.
J- I'll look into the link idea. I just assumed that most people edited their comments in a popup window, and therefore had no need for a return link.
Posted by: David Fleck on August 13, 2007 10:14 PM
Better now?
Posted by: David Fleck on August 13, 2007 10:26 PM
Hmm. I now see that the problem was that I didn't have NoScript configured to allow your domain, so the comment window appeared as a regular page instead of a popup. Now that I have allowed your domain in NoScript, the old popup comment window appears again. So the issue is moot and I am an idiot. Thanks for accommodating me, though.
Posted by: Jonathan on August 13, 2007 10:43 PM
We have a secret weapon against such a contingency. We call it "very low readership." It protects us from many Internet perils.
Security through obscurity! That never fails.
Posted by: Angie Schultz on August 14, 2007 03:00 PM
Unfortunately it doesn't scale well.
Posted by: Jonathan on August 14, 2007 09:47 PM
Ron Paul people are nuts....
Posted by: Angie Fleck-Rawlings on August 16, 2007 08:36 PM
they really are....
Posted by: Angie Fleck-Rawlings on August 16, 2007 09:35 PM
they really are....
Posted by: Angie Fleck-Rawlings on August 16, 2007 09:35 PM
Is there an echo in here?
You wouldn't happen to have any ancestors from the southwestern parts of Pennsylvania, would you, Angie F-R? Just curious, with the name and all.
Posted by: David Fleck on August 16, 2007 09:59 PM
OOPS, sorry about the double comment my computer has a mind of it's own (ha ha) sometimes. Actually, I have know idea where any of my Fleck relatives are from it's my paternal fathers name who I've never met. In my searching I stumbled across your site and ended up looking at beautiful photos instead:) I am from southeastern Michigan though...
Posted by: Angie Fleck-Rawlings on August 17, 2007 02:28 AM