SOmetimes something good is surrounded by so much bad? Like when someone puts for a 3000 page law that has a great sounding title and an even better sounding summary the people are sold! Do they read the law? Do the congress critters read the law? DO their staff members read the law? Or do the just vote for it so that latter that sponsor will vote for one of theirs? Sometimes no mater how good it sounds it needs to be voted down until it can be reworked.
HERE IS A NICE ARTICLE ABOUT THE IOWA THING!
Downplayed! … Ron Paul’s Tax Rally Outdraws Iowa Tax Forum ...
Sunday, July 01, 2007 - FreeMarketNews.com
News Analysis
According to eyewitnesses, the Ron Paul tax rally taking place next door to the Iowa Tax Forum - and competing with it - actually outdrew the official forum and its many GOP candidates.
GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-Tex) had not been invited to the forum, according to sponsors because he was not a serious candidate with a serious, successful campaign, or an organization in Iowa.
Two reports - from the Des Moines Register and Iowapolitics.com - put Ron Paul’s rally numbers around 600-800. But eyewitness attending the rally put the numbers at 1000-1200, or 200-600 more than the formal GOP forum.
Ron Paul's campaign, in a press release posted at
www.RonPaul.com on July 1, put the number at 1,000.
http://blog.ronpaul2008.com/ron_paul_2008/2007/07/ron-paul-speaks.html
These latter numbers are seemingly confirmed by eyewitnesses and attendees of the rally. According to these reports, the Ron Paul rally had 1,000 seats to fill, and all of them were filled – plus other onlookers were standing on the sidelines, up to 200 of them. The numbers thus begin to tell the tale of a rally that outdrew the “official rally” by either 200 attendees at the low end, or actually doubled the turnout of the official forum at the high end. Additionally, the Ron Paul affair was reportedly “raucous” and high energy compared to the lower-key official forum.
While an argument over numbers may sound somewhat “petty” to those not directly involved, the numbers are actually fairly important. By banning Ron Paul from the forum, the GOP establishment – which has already floated the idea of banning Ron Paul from televised debates – was trying to deny an official GOP candidate a voice in the critical state of Iowa at a critical time in the campaign.
If Ron Paul had not drawn well, the lack of attendance would have been noted and the numbers used by those who favor big government to once more marginalize his constitutionalist, small-government platform and Jeffersonian point of view.
In fact, it is unusual to say the least that a candidate such as the GOP’s Ron Paul - marginalized by the media and subject to various bans, or attempted bans, on his presence - continues to pick up support. It must also be fairly unusual in the annals of organized American politics in the 20th and 21st century that a candidate banned from an official party forum manages, apparently, to outdraw that same forum in the same venue a little later on the same day.
If the reports of Ron Paul’s rally outdrawing the official Iowa tax forum - perhaps even doubling its numbers - are accurate, this is the obvious story that media should be covering. Questions should be asked once more, if this is the case, as to why so much of Ron Paul’s coverage seems oddly muted, or tilted toward disparaging what may be shaping up to be one of the bigger ongoing stories of the GOP campaign itself.
What’s that story? How a single constitutionalist without much initial funding or corporate support has managed to become a contender in both Iowa and New Hampshire despite apparent mainstream party opposition.
Mainstream media ought to be analyzing the ongoing “Ron Paul phenomenon” just as critically and in depth as it analyzes other political stories.
If not, why not?
A blogger called “Stanky” reports the turnout this way:
=====
I got such a treat Saturday, June 30th, 2007 folks! I got to see Ron Paul speak in Des Moines, Iowa, after being excluded from the Presidential Candidates Forum put on by Ed Failor of Iowans for Tax Relief.
Dr. Paul was in the same building as Failor’s event, except in a different room, and let me tell you, whoever said Ron Paul’s support came from a handful of internet geeks who know how to game the polls, is an idiot. This place was PACKED! There were 1000 chairs and they were all filled, with more folks standing! Know what that means???
That means that Ron Paul alone pulled in more people than the roughly 600-700 that Mr. Failor’s Forum pulled in, and they had 6 candidates speaking! You will see stories in the news today stating that 500-600 attended Dr. Paul’s event. They are lies, I WAS THERE and the video below doesn’t lie! I urge you to call them on their lies! Of course, I expected as much. ...
I don’t know exactly how many attended Failor’s event, I didn’t count the chairs, but Dr. Paul’s event, was a big success I also have video of almost the entire speech for you. Unfortunately my battery ran out before the end. But here is what I have:
http://stanky.wordpress.com
=====
In contrast to Stanky’s report, the Des Moines Register reported the turnout this way: “Outsider Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul headlined a raucous campaign rally Saturday after a multi-candidate GOP forum in Des Moines to which the Texas congressman was not invited. An audience of more than 600 GOP activists turned out for the Paul event, held in Hy-Vee Hall next door to where six candidates addressed a subdued crowd of much the same size earlier. … ”
http://www.dmregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070701/NEWS09/707010342
Iowapolitics.com meanwhile placed the Ron Paul rally attendance figures around 600 and the Iowa Tax Forum around 800. Some comments received either by FMNN from its previous article on the controversy earlier today (
http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=44940), or in response to the Des Moines Register article, can be seen below.
=====
-Yep I was there ... You say that there were about the same in Dr. Paul’s gathering as there were next door. Well I looked in there and there were plenty of seats available next door. We had all 1000 seats filled and there were at lease 200 people standing. So what you should have said is that one man drew twice as many as the forum.
-I was also there, I live in Des Moines and I have video of the event and the crowd. I also counted the chairs, there were 1000 and they were filled, with more folks standing. But don't take my word for it, watch the video and see for yourself. (See Stanky video above.)
-The only controversy that I can see is them lowballing the Ron Paul numbers at 600. I was there and I would put the number between 900-1000. I think the biggest difference that I noticed were the 10+ security guards and 4 metal detectors for the other candidates compared with only one lost security guard and no metal detectors for the Ron Paul rally.
-As others have already said, that place had over 1000 people there. To say that it was about 600 people is either ignorance or distinctly censorship.
-There are over 1000 people at the Ron Paul rally, not over 600. It’s definitely biased to try to make it look like just as many people attended both, because the "official" event was held to empty seats, while Ron's event was held to a standing room only crowd of over a thousand cheering supporters. Failor, that bought-and-paid-for McCain consultant, ended up getting exactly the opposite of what he wanted.
-I WAS THERE - CAPACITY WAS OVERFILLED.- Arrgghh.... the media is a absolutely nuts in my opinion! I was at the event and had to STAND AGAINST THE WALL to listen to Dr. Ron Paul as ALL the seats were filled and even the walls were occupied. Next door you could have heard a cricket..... BHHHHAAAA BBHHHAAAA.... (Edited, additional numbers added.)
