Ron Paul: Cure For BlogWriter's Block

The Latest Ron Paul story

Ron Paul's results in the Texas straw poll only prove one thing. Whether you adore or loathe him, Ron Paul is the cure for blog writer's block. Commentators on both sides of the Ron Paul question jump into the saddle to adorn every story with their own spin.

For example: The Hill's David Hill reports that there's trouble back home for Ron Paul.

While Texan Ron Paul’s stock is soaring nationally, there is trouble on the home front. In September, Paul finished third in a straw poll of 1,300 Texas Republican activists who had been delegates to recent Republican conventions.

The congressman corralled just 17 percent of the votes cast, trailing California’s Duncan Hunter with 41 percent.

Hill's reaction is that these numbers are too high. That Texans are more concerned with making a statement or following a leader than they are about whether Paul can actually win the election.

This outcome says Texas Republicans aren’t terribly concerned about viability. Otherwise, one of the national front-runners like Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney would have beaten these long-shots. But if they were willing to “waste” their votes on Hunter, why didn’t most back a fellow Texan? The truth is that Ron Paul, the angry prophet, has little honor in his own land. He’s about to lose his congressional seat.

This interesting article details the history of Ron Paul's elections in both Texas and nationally.

It also touches on the anxiety felt at the national level by some Republican leaders about Paul.

David Freddoso at the NRO's The Corner disagrees with Hill's assessment. In Ron Paul's Trouble at Home? his rebuttal consists of three points, including this observation about the straw poll's results.

Hill's other piece of evidence is a September straw poll in Dallas (six hours from Paul's district), which Duncan Hunter won with 41 percent. None of the major candidates participated in the poll, partly because it was limited to current and former party convention delegates and alternates. Paul, despite being in his home state, received only only 17 percent of the votes cast. Paul did not do as well as he'd hoped, but how this is representative of anything that's going on in Paul's district — or anywhere — is completely beyond me.

Still another look at the news is Spree's at Wake Up America. She says, "Ron Paul, the angry prophet, has little honor in his own land".

She points out that the story is about the 2008 Congressional elections and ends by warning off any possible comment hijackers who try turning the discussion to the 2008 presidential election.

Ah, the name of Ron Paul sparks debate throughout the blogosphere. Whether he's running for president or Congress, the Texas Congressman is most probably the most polarizing figure on the national political scene today outside of Hillary Clinton.

Among those who have heard of both Paul and Clinton, Paul may have the edge.

Thank goodness for Ron Paul.

He is the savior for blogosphere writers looking for material about an election that is almost still a year away.

Without him, there'd be a lot less to write about.

by Mondoreb
Mondoreb at BNN: Ron Paul Cure for Writers' Block



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Democrats' Amygdalae Problem: Cold and Calculating as A Town Drunk

The Right Wing Queen of Mean, Michelle Malkin, relates the contents of an internal Democratic Party memo, courtesy of The Hill. The memo states the hypothesis: Democrats' Message Doesn't Appeal to Emotions. An excerpt:

Democrats are losing the battle for voters’ hearts because the party’s message lacks emotional appeal, according to a widely circulated critique of House Democratic communications strategy.

“Our message sounds like an audit report on defense logistics,” wrote Dave Helfert, a former Appropriations spokesman who now works for Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii). “Why are we defending [the State Children’s Health Insurance Program] instead of advocating a ‘Healthy Kids’ plan?”

His memo is sharply critical of Republican policies but also suggests a neurological explanation for Republican message success: By using emotional appeals and warning of dire threats, Republicans can trigger neurons called “amygdalae” in the temporal lobe, which is the seat of the “fight or flight” response in the brain.

To which MM replies:

This is high-larious.

Malken goes on to conclude:

The Democrats’ problem isn’t understimulation of the amygdalae. It’s overstimulation. Perhaps a political lobotomy–separating the nutroots lobe from the party’s thalamus–might be a far more effective prescription.

One only has to recall the Code Pink members of the Democrat base being dragged, screaming, from the room during the Patraeus hearings to understand the cold analysis of the Dem's arguments. Too much logic and resorting to facts; not enough emotion is the problem alright.

Democrat leaders would have had to douse themselves with gasoline and strike a match to get anymore emotional than they were during the SCHIP debate. Every time questions arose about this expansion of government, Democrats would haul another ailing child in front of the cameras and scream "Why do you hate the kids?" Have to admit that prompted visions of a party of CPAs at work.

The Hill had it right: the Democrats' message is a problem with voters. It's the same problem a college student has when faced with the dilemma of a weekend of binge drinking: sure it'll be fun, but you're going to feel like hell when you come to on Monday morning.

The Democrats are as cold and calculating as a town drunk.

The Code Pinks, the welfare lobby, the big-government types of the Democrat base are binge drinkers. But it's the voters, their children and grandchildren, who are going to be paying for their financial debauchery.

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