RSS 2.0 FeedRemember The 5th Of November
by Doug MataconisRon Paul’s supporters are doing a money bomb today, and it appears to be going rather well.
And, it’s helped raise the 4th Quarter fund-raising total by nearly 100% since October 31st, which fell short of the campaign’s $ 4 million per month goal by nearly half.
Nice job, although I don’t quite get the idea of doing this on a day that the Brits set aside to remember a guy who tried blow up Parliament.
Update: It’s now a little after 3pm on the East Coast and the 4th Quarter total has, apparently already exceeded the $ 5,000,000 that was raised in the 3rd Quarter, or about $ 2.3 million in one day. Yea, you’d be right if you said that holding back donations and dumping them all on one day like this is a publicity stunt, but its a good publicity stunt, the kind that’s likely to get the media to take notice again.
something to do with the elimination of alot fo what people don’t like in government.
I believe the literary term is hyperbole.
Comment by Greg — November 5, 2007 @ 9:58 amI like the Nov 5th thing… Most people won’t understand it, but those who do will enjoy the “inside joke”.
Comment by Brad Warbiany — November 5, 2007 @ 10:33 amEvey Hammond would approve.
Comment by Tom G — November 5, 2007 @ 10:34 amYou claim to be supportive of Dr. Paul, and I can certainly understand, appreciate, and even encourage constructive criticism, but even the most positive reports of the campaign’s progress, such as raising $1.8 million in 13 hours, are tinted with the slightest bit of subtle deconstruction. You need offer no explanation, but I wonder: what’s the deal?
Comment by Brian T. Traylor — November 5, 2007 @ 11:22 amBrian,
Where’s the negativity ? Like I said, they’ve done a pretty good job.
I’m not going to get up and do high-five’s over it, because that’s not my style and, as I’ve said before, I am a campaign shill.
Comment by Doug Mataconis — November 5, 2007 @ 11:25 amBrian,
I’ve been very critical of Doug at times, but there’s nothing wrong with this post.
Comment by Jeff Molby — November 5, 2007 @ 12:13 pmDoug
You need to get your facts straight. From my understanding they never had a goal of getting $4 million in October. I believe they expected each month to grow in amount given so that October could be something like $1.5-3 million, a bigger number in November and then an even bigger number in December totaling at least $12 million.
While they may have been short of their hoped for amount in October it certainly wasn’t nearly half of what was expected.
Comment by TerryP — November 5, 2007 @ 6:13 pm3.47 million as of 8:11 p.m.
Comment by Chris Kachouroff — November 5, 2007 @ 6:13 pmYour negativity is in the false statement about how much they raised in October compared to what I guess you thought they projected.
Your negativity also comes in the statement about blowing up Parliament. Who cares about that other than someone who is trying to find something negative.
Comment by TerryP — November 5, 2007 @ 6:16 pmI’m pretty sure they did have a goal of 4 million for October, but they didn’t need to make that goal for it to be a successful month. Add in the offline contributions and it’s probably a 2.7 million dollar October, impressive by any standard considering Paul’s track record.
But today is just amazing. Who knew that much money was going to be thrown in all at the same time. The current rate keeps up, they’ll be looking at close to 4 million in a single day. Anyhoo lay off Doug. It’s fine to be skeptical and/or cynical.
It’s smart for a small portion of us to be that way. It keeps the irrationally exuberant people in check so that everyone doesn’t go out and undertake asinine activities. In fact I would say that the world really lacks a proper number of skeptics and cynics, ’cause look at the mess we’re in right now.
Comment by TanGeng — November 5, 2007 @ 6:28 pmDoug and the rest of you,
You all need to get a grip and watch this training film brought to you by the Ron Paul Girl who made the 5th of November possible:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/892703/great_moments_in_u_s_history/
BTW, 3.54 million as of 8:26 p.m.
Comment by Chris Kachouroff — November 5, 2007 @ 6:29 pmI seriously doubt that the effort on behalf of Ron Paul was to remember Guy Fawkes’ day. Mataconis would be right to question that insanity because Guy Fawkes did not succeed whereas Ron Paul has. It makes no sense. Rather, I believe it comes directly from the 2005 movie, “V for Vendetta” that references Guy Fawkes’ effort and the Fawkes’ poem “Remember, remember the 5th of November…”
And yes the campaign did have a goal of $4 million in October.
Comment by Chris Kachouroff — November 5, 2007 @ 6:35 pm[...] The Liberty Papers:tt Ron Paul?s supporters are doing a money bomb today, and it appears to be going rather well. [...]
Pingback by The Crossed Pond » Blog Roundup of This November 5th — November 5, 2007 @ 6:51 pmTerry,
1. The goal is $ 12 million in three months, with the specific mention of $ 4 million in October. They fell short, there’s nothing wrong with pointing that out.
2. Guy Fawkes was a terrorist who wanted to replace a Protestant tyranny with a Catholic one, hardly worth celebrating in my opinion. Chris is right that this was more a node to the movie than the terrorist, though.
3. Facts are neither positive nor negative, they are simply facts.
Comment by Doug Mataconis — November 5, 2007 @ 7:47 pmIt’s more than just a stunt though.
I guarantee we got a lot of money that otherwise wouldn’t have been donated. I’ve mostly been donating my time, but with a force-multiplying event like this, it made sense to put in a few hours of OT and chip in some cash instead.
Also, the campaign now knows what it has to work with. It can pretty much count on getting the $12m, whereas the slow and steady approach would have left them hedging their bets for the next 6 weeks.
And It’s also a matter of flexing our muscles and proving to ourselves and the world what we’re capable of. If we come out of the early states with a couple strong showings, everyone knows we’ll deliver when the campaign asks us for a quick $10m to blitz the Super Tuesday states.
Yes, the money and the press are huge, but the intangibles of this event are even bigger.
Comment by Jeff Molby — November 5, 2007 @ 8:47 pmDoug
I stand corrected. It was I guess $4 million a month. I was earlier under the immpression that they thought it would build each month to total $12 million.
This huge fundraising effort seems to be getting a lot of press with MSM. No matter what anybody says this is a huge step forward for the campaign, especially in the eyes of the media.
I hope he can ride this wave and turn it into votes.
Comment by TerryP — November 5, 2007 @ 9:40 pmI think they recognized their mistake early, Terry, but they decided to just take their medicine rather than adjusting the goal. At a press conference a few weeks ago, Bydlak stated that they were really shooting for 3-4-5. The 4-4-4 idea was just plain stupid. Even if they thought they could get 4 in October, they should have shot for 4-5-6 or some such.
No big deal though. It was just an interim goal, so no outsiders were paying any attention.
Comment by Jeff Molby — November 5, 2007 @ 10:41 pm“You claim to be supportive of Dr. Paul, and I can certainly understand, appreciate, and even encourage constructive criticism, but even the most positive reports of the campaign’s progress, such as raising $1.8 million in 13 hours, are tinted with the slightest bit of subtle deconstruction. You need offer no explanation, but I wonder: what’s the deal?”
The “deal” is that Mataconis is a hooked-in neocon shill pretending to be a libertarian, as I’ve been pointing out here for months.
Go to lawyers.com and Google him. You’ll be surprised at what you find.
Comment by Buckwheat — November 6, 2007 @ 12:05 amBuckwheat,
You’re always good for a laugh, if not an actual substantive comment resembling the truth.
Although if you’re right I’d better call Karl Rove, because I haven’t been getting my payments from the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy recently.
Comment by Doug Mataconis — November 6, 2007 @ 4:28 amAnyone heard the rumour that there are still unprocessed credit card payments?
Comment by Chris Kachouroff — November 6, 2007 @ 5:33 am