Who or what is behind this whole Ron Paul obsession?

[Hugabear]

Really interested to know which corporate or political entity is behind this whole thing. Started back in 2008, when these mysterious "Ron Paul" signs began appearing all over the place. May very well be the first example of "viral campaigning" - but I don't believe for one minute that this was some unorganized grassroots organization.

[leftyohiolib]

1. theyre fired up cause they think he has a shot

[TheWraith]

4. Then they're even more insane than he is. nt

[leftyohiolib]

14. yes they are, they hear one thing from him they like and

rationalize off all the other horrible things he says

[FarLeftFist]

2. People that despise American unity.

[tridim]

3. Based on my FB feed, it's made up of dangerously politically ignorant people.

And people who believe that congress doesn't exist and the President is a king.

[TheWraith]

7. That sounds about right to me.

Combined with the young folks who will grow up to be Freeper types once they no longer care that much about drugs and sex.

[Ian David]

5. Not grass roots. Just grass. n/t

[zappaman]

6. fuck Ron Paul n/t

[leveymg]

8. When I knocked doors for Obama in '08, I found a lot Ron Paul supporters who

weren't quite yet willing to come over to the Democrats, but who were sick and tired of the BushCo way of warfare and state capitalism. There was a lot of agreement there, and the Paul folks would have come over had Obama been more populist and less Establishment in his economic and national security policies. An opportunity lost for the Dems, IMHO.

Paul has had a grassroots following for years. He's not a corporate plant -- corporate types and the GOP establishment think he's stranger than we do.

[alc]

15. from other sites I read, I'd say

It's people who are sick of the party they used to follow, or just sick of both parties.

He's had an enthusiastic (but relatively small) following for decades. With the internet, they are able to present their case to LOTS of people. Not their entire case, but the appropriate case for where they post: the feds should stay out of marijuana laws, and allow gay marriage, or leave abortion to states, or decrease regulation. It's pretty easy to get someone from either side to agree with PART of what Ron Paul stands for.

[leveymg]

16. That makes him part of the problem, and part of the solution.

But, some seem to want people to view everything in "black-white" terms, which can shift suddenly. This Ten-Minute Hate thing being cultivated here is just bizarre.

[CJCRANE]

9. Maybe it also helps that he has only two syllables

in his name, so it's easy to say and fit on signs.

Plus it's also cool to have two first names e.g. (Ron Paul), Jon Stewart, Ray Charles etc.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TwoFirstNames

[think]

10. Much of the success started with the term "money bomb" as a campaign strategy in late 2007.

...The phrase "money bomb" has had other usages in the past, but the coinage of "moneybomb" or "money bomb" to describe a coordinated mass donation drive for a political candidate[7] came to prominence in 2007, during the campaign of American presidential candidate Ron Paul with the help of his technology team, Terra Eclipse.[8] His supporters initiated multiple grassroots fundraising drives; New York City musician Jesse Elder[9][10][11] is said to have coined the usage of "moneybomb" for such an event.[9][12][13],[14] and active-duty service member Eric Nordstrom[15] registered the dotcom domain on October 16,[16] and designed the first moneybomb site.[9]

A large moneybomb involving over 35,000 donors[17] was created and proposed by James Sugra on Oct 14th through a YouTube video and organized by Trevor Lyman[18] took place on November 5, 2007, Guy Fawkes Day. The fundraising drive raised over $4.2 million in one day, making it at that time the largest one-day Internet political fundraiser ever,[17][19] and was backed largely by new or disaffected voters....

source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moneybomb

During this time he also wrote many articles that were posted at Antiwar.com where he is a guest columnist:

http://antiwar.com/paul/archives.php

[leveymg]

11. That seems pretty netroots to me. Unless you want to call it a corporate "conspiracy".

When are people here going to acknowledge that there are probably more similarities than differences, and it's the Wall Street-K Street Axis that's our enemy in common?

[Bluenorthwest]

12. Well, it did not start in 08, he's had a national following for decades. He started in

Congress in the 70's. Far from sudden, this was a creeping from of crud. A cult following unlike any other in Congress, for ages and ages.

[BarbaRosa]

13. They certainly have found Washington Journal.

I listen to WJ on C-Spin when ever I can stand it -not much lately- but it's getting that every two or three calls is a Paultard. The calls are very much similar, Complain about this, complain about that, blah, blah, yadi, yadi, pause, then "THERE IS ONLY ONE CANDIDATE WHO CAN GET OUR COUNTRY BACK!"

Also a bunch of "I used to be a ______, but nowI've found RonPaul, THE ONLY CANDIDATE WHO CAN GET OUR COUNTRY BACK"

:barf: