But you are right he needs three and possibly up to five distinguishing platforms on issues that make him stand out from the other candidates.

Brownback will probably have to quit the race. It depends also on how much money he can raise. 3rd place isn’t so bad, but he lost out to Huckabee with whom he had been vigorously competing for the evangelical vote. If evangelicals switch in large numbers to Huckabee, Brownback is probably finished. But it’s a little early to predict that.

Tom Tancredo’s finish was a real surprise. But he’s just too nutty to go anywhere.

Ron Paul’s performance wasn’t bad when you consider how much time and money he invested. The puzzling question is, “Why did he invest so little?” He had more than enough money to wage a vigorous campaign and surely could have spent more time in Iowa when Congress was in session. Brownback and Tancredo managed to find a lot of time.

But Paul might have done a good deal better even at that if he had honed his message. His standard speech, unfortunately, ranges all over the place. Ronald Reagan knew to keep it simple. He ran on three basic issues: reduce taxes, build a stronger military, deregulate industry. Of course, he had positions on other issues but these were the one’s he hammered away at.

Ron Paul needs to reduce his campaign theme to just three issues and the first of these should be his opposition to the Iraq War. FIFTY-THREE PER CENT OF IOWA REPUBLICANS WANT US TO WITHDRAW FROM IRAQ WITHIN SIX MONTHS. Ron Paul was the only candidate on the ballot who opposed the war in Iraq, and yet he got fewer votes than the guy who wants bomb Mecca!

He needs to stress three key issues:

Get out of Iraq.
Secure our borders.
Abolish the income tax.

http://www.iowaindependent.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=785

Figure most of those votes he got came from fair tax supporters.

Out of the 200+ people in my meetup group, I was the only one to drive 600+ miles one way 12 hours duration to Ames Iowa on my own dime (gas, food, & two nights hotel stay) and volunteered holding signs, passing out flyers and shouting to the top of my lungs while my skin baked in the sun for 8 hours with no shade.

In doing all that, how many people did you convince to vote or consider voting for Ron Paul? Or, even just enlighten them about Ron Paul?

* Immediately upon taking office, Governor Huckabee signed a sales tax hike in 1996 to fund the Games and Fishing Commission and the Department of Parks and Tourism (Cato Policy Analysis No. 315, 09/03/98).
* He supported an internet sales tax in 2001 (Americans for Tax Reform 01/07/07).
* He publicly opposed the repeal of a sales tax on groceries and medicine in 2002 (Arkansas News Bureau 08/30/02).
* He signed bills raising taxes on gasoline (1999), cigarettes (2003) (Americans for Tax Reform 01/07/07), and a $5.25 per day bed-tax on private nursing home patients in 2001 (Arkansas New Bureau 03/01/01).
* He proposed another sales take hike in 2002 to fund education improvements (Arkansas News Bureau 12/05/02).
* He opposed a congressional measure to ban internet taxes in 2003 (Arkansas News Bureau 11/21/03).
* In 2004, he allowed a 17% sales tax increase to become law (The Gurdon Times 03/02/04).

Ron Paul is the only real conservative choice.

I also talked to one of the Brownback Staff who said Romney spent about $5 million on it and from what I saw Brownback wasn’t far behind. This same Staff member was shocked to see how many people were working for Ron Paul as unpaid volunteers. Their whole volunteer base was paid for.

I also saw hundreds of buses from the Romney and Brownback campaigns who were hired to go vote with a simple offering of a ticket to vote and a day paid for by the campaigns.

The exit poll I assisted in taking revealed many so-called Romney supporters couldn’t even vote because they didn’t live in Iowa. LOL! What a joke and what a Spin by the media.

The only candidates that had real support were Huckabee, Tancredo, and Paul. Ron Paul supporters were the most excited and enthusiastic of all of them as could be seen from the Colliseum waiting for the results on CSPAN and Fox. Fox still refused to acknowledge anything about Paul which is starting to become blatant to the public.

Regardless of the “Official Press”, Tommy Thompson getting 7% is a joke. His tent was basically vacant the whole day. 7%? Yeh right.

As for the votes, there were 26,000 tickets purchased for the Iowa Straw Poll, and only 14,000 people voted. What gives?

A detail that doesn’t seem to have been covered directly: let alone the fact that there’re all sorts of eats and goodies provided at this event(presumably these rules apply to the Dem Straw Poll too, eh), there is this detail that should be kept upmost in mind:

the candidates are allowed to pay each attendee $35!

I suspect that explains Romney’s ‘big hit’(as the author alludes to), and the fact that the Sunday morning shows are using this showing to say, this has given Romney and Hucklebee a promising boost. Which, given it is permissible to buy votes at this event, is just more media lies, and this event a farce. Well excepting for those who didn’t buy any votes.

So! If you know how to obtain such information, I would be delighted to know, as that might be the most telling detail of this entire event. In which instance, that is what needs to be publicized far and wide, WHO DID NOT BUY VOTES.

Any help appreciated?

respects

Undeclared Presidential candidate Fred Thompson and internet powerhouse candidate Ron Paul did the most with the least in the Iowa Straw Poll.

Ron Paul received nearly 77 votes for every day he campaigned in Iowa, the best of all other candidates. Fred Thompson came in second with 50.75 votes received for every day he campaigned in Iowa.
The worst performers were Sam Brownback of Kansas, who spent 115 days in Iowa and only received 19 votes per day, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani who actually spent more time than Ron Paul, but only recieved about 7 votes for every day he campaigned in Iowa.

17 days in Iowa R. Paul(1) 76.76 votes per day

04 days in Iowa F. Thompson(2) 50.75 votes per day

89 days in Iowa M. Romney(3) 50.74 votes per day

70 days in Iowa M. Huckabee(4) 36.95 votes per day

66 days in Iowa T. Tancredo(5) 29.71 votes per day

115 days in Iowa S. Brownback(6) 19.06 votes per day

26 days in Iowa R. Guliani(7) 7.03 vote per day

Source:
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2008-presidential-candidates/tracker/candidates