You know Ron Paul has no shot when the 0.01% of the population supporting him rip off bad car commercials from the 1990s to support him.
Time to pass the buck and point fingers ... ============================ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date: December 31, 2007 Contact: Fergus Cullen, Chairman, New Hampshire Republican Party NH REPUBLICANS: DON’T LIMIT DEBATE PARTICIPANTS CONCORD – New Hampshire Republican Party Chairman Fergus Cullen releases the following statement regarding primary weekend debates: “Limiting the number of candidates who are invited to participate in debates is not consistent with the tradition of the first in the nation primary. The level playing field requires that all candidates be given an equal opportunity to participate – not just a select few determined by the media prior to any votes being cast.†“Therefore, the New Hampshire Republican Party calls upon all media organizations planning pre-primary debates or forums for both parties to include all recognized major candidates in their events.†“The New Hampshire Republican Party has notified FOX News of our position, and we are in ongoing discussions with FOX News about having as many candidates as possible participate in the forum scheduled for January 6.†- 30 -
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Press Releases › Ron Paul Supporters Donate Nearly $20 Million in Fourth Quarter January 1, 2008 9:55 am EST Message of freedom, peace and prosperity rallies record support ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA –Texas Congressman Ron Paul’s presidential campaign had a record fundraising quarter, exceeding its original goal of $12 million by over 50 percent when it raised nearly $20 million during the months of October, November and December. “Only Dr. Paul has the ability to inspire Americans to contribute and take action that is necessary if Republicans want to defeat the Democrats in November,†said campaign chairman Kent Snyder. In two 24-hour periods on November 5 and December 16, the campaign raised over $10 million dollars. The total of over $19.5 million represents an increase of nearly 300 percent from its third quarter total of $5.28 million. For the quarter, the campaign had over 130,000 donors, including over 107,000 new donors. The total was reached with an average donation size that was just under $90. Of the other Republican candidates, only Mike Huckabee – who reported $5.04 million this quarter – discloses his fundraising total online. However, Dr. Paul’s total is over $9 million more than any Republican candidate raised in the third quarter.
updated 6:50 a.m. EST, Tue January 1, 2008 TV cuts candidates from debates, angering Paul backers <!-- google_ad_section_end --><!--endclickprintinclude--><!--startclickprintinclude--> Story Highlights<!-- google_ad_section_start --> ABC, Fox narrow debate field to top-polling candidates Some Paul supporters are calling for a boycott of Fox advertisers ABC basing participation on results of Thursday's Iowa caucus NEW YORK (AP) -- ABC and Fox News Channel are narrowing the field of presidential candidates invited to debates this weekend just before the New Hampshire primary, in Fox's case infuriating supporters of Republican Rep. Ron Paul. <!--startclickprintexclude--> <!----><!--===========IMAGE============--> <!--===========/IMAGE===========--><!--===========CAPTION==========-->Fox News says it has limited space in its studio, which leaves Rep. Ron Paul out of a weekend debate. <!--===========/CAPTION=========--> <!--endclickprintexclude--> The roster of participants for ABC's back-to-back, prime-time Republican and Democratic debates Saturday in New Hampshire will be determined after results of Thursday's Iowa caucus become clear. Fox, meanwhile, has invited five GOP candidates to a forum with Chris Wallace scheduled for its mobile studio in New Hampshire on Sunday. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee received invites, leaving Paul of Texas and Rep. Duncan Hunter of California on the sidelines. The network said it had limited space in its studio -- a souped-up bus -- and that it invited candidates who had received double-digit support in recent polls. In a nationwide poll conducted December 14-20 by The Associated Press and Yahoo, Thompson had the support of 11 percent of GOP voters and Paul was at 3 percent. Paul's support is at 6 percent in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll conducted in early December. Paul was tied with Thompson for fifth in New Hampshire in the most recent Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, each with the support of 4 percent of likely voters. Among all New Hampshire voters, Paul led Thompson 6 percent to 4 percent, but that was within the poll's margin of error. <!--startclickprintexclude--> Don't Miss Paul rakes in millions <!--endclickprintexclude--> Jesse Benton, Paul's spokesman, said it was a "big mistake" not to include Paul, especially given Paul's recent success in fundraising. He said the campaign has been trying to reach Fox News to get an explanation for the decision, but its calls had not been returned. "There very well might be some bias," Benton said. "Ron brings up some topics that aren't very popular with Fox News, as in fiscal responsibility and withdrawing from the war in Iraq ... that does leave us scratching our heads a little bit about whether it was deliberate. Based on metrics, I don't see how you can possibly exclude Dr. Paul." Some livid Paul supporters are distributing e-mails calling for a boycott of Fox advertisers. A Fox representative did not immediately return calls for comment about the complaints. Paul has been invited to a GOP forum that Fox News is sponsoring in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on January 10, Benton said. To participate in ABC's Saturday night debate, Republican and Democratic candidates must meet at least one of three benchmarks: place first through fourth in Iowa, poll 5 percent or higher in one of the last four major New Hampshire surveys, or poll 5 percent or higher in one of the last four major national surveys. ABC News anchor Charles Gibson said the criteria were actually quite inclusive. He defended the network taking the initiative in effectively narrowing the field at a point when no actual voters had cast a ballot, except for Iowa caucus-goers. "You will have had a year's politicking," he said. "You will have had, I think by count, about 641 debates. You will have had national polls and state polls and one state's vote. I think that's pretty indicative." Gibson said ABC explained the rules for participation in a conference call with all the campaigns and "nobody said, "How dare you!' "<!--startclickprintexclude-->
Ron Paul Supporters Could Cause Millions of Losses for Fox News 2008 US Presidential candidate Ron Paul supporters raised an unprecedented $10 million plus during two single day fundraising efforts. Real supporters putting their money behind a candidate they truly believe can become the next President of the United States. Fox News doesn't see it that way. That organization has excluded the long time Texas Representative from participating in an upcoming televised New Hampshire debate. In response, supporters of Ron Paul have called for boycotting the cable news network and its sponsors. With nearly $20 million raised for the Paul campaign during the 4th quarter, there is speculation that a "boycott" move could seriously affect sponsors. Fox News May Want to Look to its Own Past Back in 1997, I was one of many who worked on a case involving Fox News Corp, which at that time was a small upcoming cable news organization going up against powerhouse CNN. Chicag0-based law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, represented Fox News at the time. CNN was owned by Time Warner. Time Warner dominated cable television in New York City and, while Fox news tickers flashed from its state-of-the-art studio in Midtown Manhattan's most prime real estate along Avenue of the Americas, few if anyone in the city could actually view Fox News. That's because Time Warner excluded them. When Time Warner bought out Ted Turner's Turner Broadcasting, a federal antitrust consent decree required Time Warner to carry a second all-news channel in addition to Time Warner's own CNN. Time Warner selected MSNBC as the secondary news network, instead of Fox News. Fox News claimed that this violated an agreement to carry Fox News, and Ailes used his connections to persuade Mayor Giuliani to carry Fox News and Bloomberg Television on two underutilized city-owned cable channels, which he did. New York City also threatened to revoke Time Warner's cable franchise for not carrying FOX News. A lawsuit was filed by Time Warner against the City of New York claiming undue interference and for inappropriate use of the city's educational channels for commercial programming. News Corporation countered with an antitrust lawsuit against Time Warner for unfairly protecting CNN. This led to an acrimonious battle between Murdoch and Turner, with Turner publicly comparing Murdoch to Adolf Hitler while Murdoch's New York Post ran an editorial questioning Turner's sanity. Giuliani's motives were also questioned, as his then-wife was a producer at Murdoch-owned WNYW-TV. In the end, Time Warner and News Corporation signed a settlement agreement to permit Fox News to be carried on New York City cable system beginning in October 1997, and to all of Time Warner's cable systems by 2001, though Time Warner still does not carry Fox News in all areas. The end result was that a lot of people residing in New York City felt jilted by Time Warner's decision not to run Fox News. Once they were required to do so, many tuned in en masse and found themselves liking the product that Fox News had to offer. Ron Paul supporters, likewise, have suggested that exclusion from this upcoming event could backfire. "They (Fox News) are scared of me!" Ron Paul himself is quoted as saying. Unfair Playing Ground The Fox affiliate in New Hampshire has said it had limited space in its studio — a souped-up bus — and that it invited candidates who had received double-digit support in recent polls. Yet analyses of recent poll results suggest that Fred Thompson (who was invited to take part) is in a dead heat with Ron Paul. Prediction markets have Ron Paul way ahead of Thompson Likewise, Ron Paul continues to be the most searched for candidate on the Web. Paul himself has suggested that his supporters are less likely to be reflected in national and local polls since many have never voted before and a large percentage do not have access to land-line phones. Also, it is widely speculated that many of the so-called "undecided" votes will go towards Paul. The Republican's treasure chest is being utilized wisely via last minute ad campaigns that paint the Texas Congressman as a pro-life, pro-gun Patriot who served his country well during Vietnam. Jesse Benton, Paul's spokesman, said it was a "big mistake" not to include his candidate, especially given Paul's recent success in fundraising. He said the campaign has been trying to reach Fox News to explain the decision, but its calls had not been returned. "There very well might be some bias," Benton said. "Ron brings up some topics that aren't very popular with Fox News, as in fiscal responsibility and withdrawing from the war in Iraq ... that does leave us scratching our heads a little bit about whether it was deliberate. Based on metrics, I don't see how you can possibly exclude Dr. Paul." New Hampshire Republican Party Chairman Fergus Cullen releases the following statement regarding primary weekend debates: “Limiting the number of candidates who are invited to participate in debates is not consistent with the tradition of the first in the nation primary. The level playing field requires that all candidates be given an equal opportunity to participate – not just a select few determined by the media prior to any votes being cast.†“Therefore, the New Hampshire Republican Party calls upon all media organizations planning pre-primary debates or forums for both parties to include all recognized major candidates in their events.†“The New Hampshire Republican Party has notified FOX News of our position, and we are in ongoing discussions with FOX News about having as many candidates as possible participate in the forum scheduled for January 6.†Short It! Gambling911.com reporter, Jennifer Reynolds, who was brought on specifically to cover the lucrative Ron Paul campaign, had this to say in response to the Fox News exclusion: Ron Paul supporters will be holding rallies, writing letters to the editor, boycotting all sponsors, calling Fox news and in an additional move there is even talk of contacting all shareholders of the company that owns Fox news (I will let you look that up yourself) and is advising everyone to sell sell sell and for those of you not able to sell, buy short. I am not offering any advice, I am only reporting what I have seen in print. It should be noted that Gambling911.com certainly doesn't advocate shorting News Corp stocks. Reynolds is simply passing along information she gathered across the Net. A look at the News Corp Yahoo! finance forums display what Reynolds is alluding to. That board was inundated with Ron Paul supporters blasting the company even though trading would not commence for a full 36 hours from press time. "Fox is playing the AMERICAN PUBLIC for FOOLS. How dare they!" cries out one poster. "Murdoch and Fox are desperate and could care less about the first amendment and the truth. Complete cowards," voiced another disgruntled Ron Paul supporter. On Monday, News Corp's shares had fallen .19%.
If Ron Paul supporters are watching Fox News in the first place, it tells you what knobheads they are.
Now realistically that would be a good solution. But I will say that Paul has been gaining some ground in New Hampshire so it would be a crime for him not to participate. If he was flat or declining in the polls, I would agree with leaving him out. But he has actually gained a couple or 3 percentage points in most NH Primary Polls.
No one who wants "prayer time" in schools is going to get elected president. Ron Paul's not going to be elected. Why waste airtime on his right-wing message?
Here's a story in a New York paper about Paul that made the front page. Basically, they're saying he will beat Rudy in Iowa. It's more about how that's embarassing to the Guiliani campaign and less about Paul doing anything special. http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uspaul0102,0,2760846.story
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Yesterday i found out this wasnt even a debate. This is just a round table discussion with Chris Wallace on Fox & Friends. The top candidates will be sitting at a table answering questions from Wallace himself. Basically an Interview. ::
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Should Big Media Choose Our Candidates? <!-- end: headline --> <!-- start: byline --> By Rory O'Connor, AlterNet. Posted January 2, 2008. <!-- end: byline --> <!-- end: headline and byline --> <!-- start: teaser --> Why should ABC and Fox get to decide who is a viable candidate for president? Should Big Media decide for the rest of us who is -- and more importantly who is not -- a viable candidate for president? It's bad enough that thus far the reporting of this year's quadrennial presidential pursuit has been even more insubstantial than ever, focused on the horse race, the fundraising, the polls, the pundits, the haircuts and assorted other bits of silliness -- anything other than actual issues of concern to voters and importance to the world. Now we find Big Media, (specifically its Fox/ABC News wing,) determined to narrow the field of presidential candidates before any of us, other than a handful of white people in Iowa, even get a chance to vote! Both television networks plan to winnow out presidential candidates they deem unacceptable and prevent them from participating in important debates to be held this weekend -- just before the crucial New Hampshire primary. Fox has invited just five of the seven remaining Republican candidates to a forum with Chris Wallace scheduled for Sunday in the Granite State -- only two days before the nation's first presidential primary. Although Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Mitt Romney and even the barely breathing Fred Thompson were all invited, two current candidates, both current Members of Congress, were not -- Duncan Hunter and Ron Paul. The Fox excuse? "Space is limited" in the "souped-up bus" that is serving as a mobile studio. As a result, Fox executives say that, for space reasons, they decided only to invite those candidates who had received double-digit support in recent polls. Forget the fact that Ron Paul actually is ahead of Thompson (6 percent to 4 percent) among all New Hampshire voters in the most recent Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, or that the two were tied with the support of 4 percent of likely voters ... Forget as well the fact that Paul recently shattered the record for online fundraising in a single day, raising nearly $6 million in 24 hours -- a little more than a month after he amazed the pollsters, pundits and political professionals by hauling in $4.3 million during the same time span. (Not bad considering that on the day that John Kerry accepted the 2004 Democratic nomination, he raised $5.7 million on the Internet -- the biggest online fundraising day on record until the supposedly non-viable Ron Paul surpassed it.) But consider at least these facts: in just the last three months, Paul collected more than $19.5 million, bringing his total for the year to more than $25 million. More than 130,000 contributors gave to Paul during the fourth quarter, including more than 107,000 new donors. "This is exciting. It's crazy. I can't imagine any other Republican raising this kind of money this quarter. This means Ron Paul's message is really resonating with people," Jim Forsythe, who leads Paul's New Hampshire MeetUp group, told the Washington Post. But Big Media doesn't seem as impressed -- at least now. Remember just a few months ago, however, when how much money a candidate was able to raise was the Big Media imprimatur of viability? Now that Ron Paul has vaulted near the top of the fundraisers, it seems the bar is being moved, and is set a little higher for him. Could it be instead that his stance on the issues is the real barrier to letting American voters see and hear him debate on Fox News just before the crucial first presidential primary takes place? After all, it's no secret that Paul's outspoken opposition to the Iraq war, to mention just one 'deviant' policy position, is what really sets him apart from all the other Republican candidates. Paul's spokesman Jesse Benton says the campaign has been trying to reach Fox News representatives to get an explanation for the decision, but calls have not been returned. (Meanwhile Rudy Guiliani has appeared so often on the Fox News channel -- run by his close friend Roger Ailes -- that it's rumored he's having a private line installed in the Control Room there.) Is Fox prejudiced against Paul because of his perceived lack of viability -- or his policy stances? "There very well might be some bias," Benton told the AP. "Ron brings up some topics that aren't very popular with Fox News, as in fiscal responsibility and withdrawing from the war in Iraq ... that does leave us scratching our heads a little bit about whether it was deliberate. Based on metrics, I don't see how you can possibly exclude Dr. Paul." Based on metrics, you can't ... And if the small size of the mobile studio is really the issue, I'll gladly chip in to help rent a larger space if necessary. But if Ron Paul isn't added back into the debate, I'll also gladly join his supporters, who have begun calling for a boycott of Fox advertisers. After all, whatever happened to "We Report, You Decide?" For their part, ABC executives say they will decide who gets to show up for their back-to-back, primetime Republican and Democratic debates Saturday in New Hampshire -- but only after the results of Thursday's Iowa caucus are known. To participate in the ABC debates, Republican and Democratic candidates must either place first through fourth in Iowa, poll 5 percent or higher in one of the last four major New Hampshire surveys, or poll 5 percent or higher in one of the last four major national surveys. ABC News anchorman Charles Gibson defended the network's decision to determine who was a viable candidate before any actual voters -- except for Iowa caucus-goers -- even had a chance to cast a ballot, and contended that the new 'viability' criteria were still inclusive. "You will have had a year's politicking," Gibson told the Associated Press. "You will have had, I think by count, about 641 debates. You will have had national polls and state polls and one state's vote. I think that's pretty indicative." Sorry, Charlie -- but nobody asked what you think. Once every four years, you're supposed to ask us what we think. You report, remember. We decide, right?
Narrowing the field a year before the actually election is criminal. Now as the primaries start pointing toward definitive favorites, then yes, go ahead and narrow the field.
In the early days, all the kooks get to take part in the debates. Now it's time to weed out the idiots with no chance of getting elected, like Alan Keys and Ron Paul.
Where's Michael Moore when you need him? Alan Keyes deserves to be a part of this roundtable discussion!
it is a debate. when a group of people sit down in a form of round table discussion where a moderator asks questions it is a debate. it's not in the typical election format where there's a panel asking questions and what not. but when a group of people get a chance to express different opinions and defend them is a debate. in fact, most debates are done that way.
good. which means it is a better one. you can actually express yourself and not bs for 30 seconds and not say anything at all.
