Entries Tagged as 'Blimp'
8 December 2007 · Comments Off
In case anyone was wondering, it looks like the initial fundraising for the Ron Paul blimp was successful, and it will fly.
Organizers have released a tentative flight plan for the beast, beginning with a departure from Elizabeth City, NC on Monday, 10 December, followed in quick succession by stopovers in Washington DC and New York City; a flyover of Worcester, MA (apparently Connecticut is too socialist to merit a formal flyover); tea-dumping in Boston Harbor on the 16th; and general hovering over New Hampshire afterwards, except for buzzing Times Square on New Years Eve.
Even though I’ve been increasingly annoyed by the overexuberance of some of Ron Paul’s supporters…it seems like an oddly entertaining gimmick that I kinda want to see…..
Tags:
2008 Elections · Blimp · Ron Paul
8 December 2007 · Comments Off
Wow—an article on the plan for Ron Paul’s horde to rent a blimp that doesn’t focus on the unorthodoxy of renting a blimp! From Politico:
If a whimsical publicity stunt goes as planned, a blimp hyping the long-shot Republican presidential campaign of the Texas congressman will launch next week.
The Ron Paul blimp is set to fly from North Carolina, over Washington, New York and Boston, before heading to New Hampshire, where the Jan. 8 primary offers the iconic libertarian perhaps his best chance of translating his zealous Internet support into votes.[...]
It also tests the reach of campaign finance rules by employing an innovative funding structure that could expose a new way to pour largely unregulated money into politics.
If the model is successful, hypothetically it could allow a media consultant to produce slick attack ads and — without ever disclosing how much was raised or spent — solicit millions from “sponsors” to air the ads in key states.
“It’s much more than just Ron Paul’s campaign,” said Jerry Collette, a former California Libertarian Party official who’s managing the effort.
“It’s a whole new way of presenting opportunities to individual people to be able to participate in elections in a way they’ve never really done before.”
A couple of nights ago, while running errands, I caught a spot on the POTUS ‘08 XM channel where a branding specialist was assessing the various candidates’ efforts. He was positively giddy with the amount of fodder for future analysis and discussion that the Ron Paul campaign is generating, due to its unorthodoxy and extreme grass-roots orientation, even in spite of the extreme unlikelihood of Dr. Paul winning the nomination.
Some of what’s happening with that campaign is extremely cool…or at least entertaining. (A blimp?!)
However, I hope that another lesson that won’t be lost on the pundits is that obnoxiousness of a candidates’ supporters can do harm to the process of recruiting additional supporters. Judging by the comments I receive on this (admittedly very low traffic) site, I’ve got to believe that there’s a small army of Paul supporters (and of Hillary supporters, too) trolling the net looking for any mention of their candidate’s name to engage in a bit of spinning…..
Tags:
2008 Elections · Blimp · Campaign Finance · Ron Paul
