Ron Paul Wins FreedomWorks GOP Presidential Straw Poll, but I’m concerned about how accurate their poll is. The following statement sets off my bullshit meter:
“The FreedomWorks GOP Straw Poll was engineered to allow for only one vote per e-mail address, and all email addresses had to be validated to count in the poll, making it one of the most accurate online polls.”
No, never mind. It must be remarkably accurate — because, you know, I don’t have at least 5 different e-mail addresses, and I don’t use a different name with any of them.
[Note: This is not a judgment of Ron Paul, any other candidate, or their supporters.]
UPDATE: After some Ron Paul supporters left a few comments, I decided I’d clarify a few things.
I don’t doubt Ron Paul’s support on the internet, and I wish him the best because I’d really like him to shake up the Republican Party, even though I will not ultimately support him or any other Republican candidate for president in the 2008 elections. Furthermore, Ron Paul has an actual record of limiting government, unlike the Security Demagogue, Rudy Giuliani, or the platitude-machine, Fred Thompson.
I guess my real point is the press release’s silly “one of the most accurate online polls” claim. The security hole is there, I’ve pointed it out, and I pass no judgment on the candidates, any of their supporters, or the true state of support for anyone. I changed the title of the post (from “Ron Paul Wins Online Poll, But…”) to further reflect that.
I wish Ron Paul’s supporters the best of luck at the Ames Straw Poll. I’d love to see Mitt “Double Guantanamo” Romney go down in flames.
Yes, I personally have over 10 email addresses and I did vote in that poll, for Ron Paul. I only voted once though. I don’t believe in spamming internet polls, it would be useless and a a waste of time.
Ron Paul does have a tremendous amount of real support and it is well deserved.
I urge anyone who believes in freedom to read up on him.
Your point is well taken, but you impose the assumption that some people did multiple vote, which you have no proof of, just speculation.
I indeed voted for Paul, and I indeed have a dozen or so email accounts, but I ONLY VOTED ONCE. Why? Laziness more than anything else, in my particular case. However, RP supporters tend to be a sh*tload more honest than say Clinton’s or Rudy’s. Hence why we like Paul: he’s not a lying, scamming socialist weasel like the rest.
So, you know, maybe you’re just a bit paranoid?
Within the RP support community, most of us were not surprised that those who build pre-hacked voting machines called us the cheaters when their worst nightmare keeps winning polls. But we did indeed LAUGH at the notion. We don’t NEED to multiple vote, there’s just that many of us.
Get over yourself. Or more likely, apply agnoiology to your root premise: that transparent grassroots support MUST be “spammers”, because your worldview fails to include the possibility that an antiwar, pro-constitution candidate would be popular in America.
:P
Be well.
I haven’t really delved into the whos and wherefores of the GOP candidates primarily because I hope none of them win the White House in ’08. Enough is enough and the Republican Party (and not just Bush/Cheney/Rove) itself has to be held accountable for the disaster we’re all enduring now.
That said, the Ron Paul grassroots support phenomenon has indeed impinged on my consciousness even so (my Libertarian brother probably supports him). But isn’t it saying something about the GOP lineup that somebody who sounds like a Libertarian is the most sensible of the lot? More power to him, then.
Stealing Sullivan’s onetime tagline line, I am of no party or clique, but will support whoever the Democratic candidate is anyway, just to be rid of the execrable GOP White House regime and the likely sycophant who is sure to follow. (I say “likely” because I haven’t heard any of the leading GOP candidates repudiate the war, torture, Guantanamo, overturn the habeas corpus ruling, FISA, I could go on and on…)
p.s.: Speaking of accountability, I happen to think—as Glenn Greenwald put it quite well yesterday, and as I’ve ranted on in my weblog about—that the Democrats themselves are equally responsible for the mess.
It’s funny how Republican friends of mine keep saying, “But Congress is about as unpopular as Bush himself!” Well, duh?! The American people want the Democratic congress to do something about the corruption and mismanagement at the top. That was the loud message of November ’06. But have they done so? Noo. Latest proof of their spinelessness is this weekend’s FISA debacle in the Senate.
You know a media poll is bullshit when they ask questions with only two possible answers, like “Would you vote for Hillary or Rudy?” Concluding Hillary will be elected in 2008 falls prey to the fallacy of false alternative. There are more choices (and parties) than republican or democrat. I would vote for NEITHER. My choice will be Ron Paul or the Libertarian candidate.