I wonder how today’s decision will impact this negotiation.

Interesting that the mainstream media has been picking up Ron Paul over the last month or so. Here’s a clip of him on Glen Beck from April 1.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you probably know that I’ve come to be a big Ron Paul fan. However, I must admit, from a branding perspective, I don’t remember a presidential candidate who has done a better job than Barack Obama. His purveyance of hope and change is not only compelling in speeches but it permeates all of his marketing materials, not least of which is his website. The “glowing mist” along with his portrait and strategic placement of key messages is very well done. The whole Obama experience conveys hope, which as an innate human desire, naturally attracts people to the feel good message.

The problem, of course, as I’ve heard opponents protest, is that although the message is clear, it is at the same time very vague and mysterious. I tend to agree with this assessment, but it is difficult to deny this campaigns branding prowess.

I’ve got an idea to do a campaign site showing how similar all of the “mainstream” candidates are and how unique Ron Paul is. I am a designer and want to team up with a flash programmers and possibly illustrators to create this site. I bought candidatemashup.org and the general idea is that people can click an issue (Iraq, medical coverage, etc) and the various candidate switch heads, torsos, legs, etc creating “mashed up” candidates like Hillarack and McRomney and we put together audio clips of the candidates sounding exactly the same (or not making any sense, or contradicting themselves, etc). In contrast, Ron Paul is the only candidate who remains intact after each mashup happens.

Key elements to the site would be:
- humor, so it would get sent around (similar to the dancing / singing elves campaign site that Staples? ran this Christmas)
- showing how the “mainstream” candidates don’t have real positions on any topic, that it is all rhetoric
- show that ron paul is not fringe, but believes in the same principles that past heroes of our country have

I think if we put our talents together we could get a lot of exposure for Dr. Paul and his message! Please leave comments if you are interested.

I was admittedly a little bummed out about Ron Paul not doing too well last night, but decided that I’m going to continue to support his policies. So I signed up as a Precinct Leader on his website and would encourage anyone who supports him to do so as well. The fact still remains that Dr. Paul is still the most conservative candidate and as Romney and Huckabee likely give way to McCain’s “momentum”, Paul may remain as an intriguing alternative to McCain. On top of that there are still 21 states left to vote.

According to the results from today’s elections Ron Paul is getting owned. I heard one commentator say today that he’s not popular because he “doesn’t play by the rules,” which, is sad, really, because the “rule” he is trying to play by is the constitution, which, I thought was what all politicians were supposed to play by. Where has critical thinking gone? Sad, sad, sad.

From Saturday night. (Paul’s audio on the first clip is terrible, but gets better.)

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

“We don’t have to start a brand new revolution, all we have to do is restore the original Constitution.”

- Ron Paul to supporters at the Colorado Convention Center last night

I’m going full steam ahead with my backing of Ron Paul. I was under the impression that he had no chance, but according to a recent LA Times entry, he out raised every other GOP candidate in the last quarter of 2007, raking in a whopping $19.95 million. More impressive, he was the ONLY candidate to spend LESS than he raised. Way to report the facts, Fox and CNN. I’m officially never paying attention to either of your networks or websites again.