From Revolution SuperPac
AMES, IOWA – August 13, 2011 – News reports, as well as Ron Paul himself, indicated that the twelve-term Texas congressman was expected to do well in today’s straw poll in Ames. Today’s second-place finish – by a razor-thin margin against local favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann – is a clear victory for Congressman Paul, who neither hails from Iowa nor espouses the foreign interventionism that continues to resonate with some Iowa Republicans.
“Any candidate has reason to celebrate a strong showing like Congressman Paul’s in Iowa,” said Thomas Woods, Revolution PAC advisory board chairman, “but given how radically different Ron Paul’s message is, he should be especially delighted to have come within a handful of votes of first place – a poll in which he placed fifth four years ago.
“Ron Paul is taking dead aim at issues no one else will even touch,” noted Woods. “No one was talking about the Federal Reserve System until someone of Ron Paul’s boldness and knowledge came along and showed us how this institution was making our economy so unstable and ripping us off in the process. No one questions the premises behind our government’s disastrous foreign policy. Ron Paul is trying to undo 100 years of brainwashing, from both official Left and official Right. The Left has its faith in Big Government at home, and the neoconservative Right an equally misplaced faith in Big Government abroad. Both have embraced fairy tales over real history.
“Ron Paul rejects it all. The same corrupt political class that has wrecked our economy is the same corrupt political class that has us mired in these trillion-dollar wars. It’s about time both sides woke up and realized they’ve been had. That’s what Ron Paul is trying to tell his countrymen. And in light of his strong showing in Ames, the message is getting through.”
According to Woods, the Congressman’s willingness to take politically unpopular positions on the very eve of the straw poll was an indication of the strength of the candidate’s convictions. “Congressman Paul said things in that debate – reminding the crowd that people tend not to like it when the CIA installs dictators and secret police in their countries, as happened in Iran in 1953 – that were not calculated to curry favor with the crowd he was wooing at Ames. But that’s who he is. He would rather tell unpopular truths than win cheap votes or applause. He’s not a blowdried phony out of central casting, like most of the candidates our system serves up to us. He is a real person with real principles, and he has stuck to them since entering public life 35 years ago. Even his bitterest opponent has to respect that.”
To be sure, in the days leading up to the straw poll, media sources were already trying to downplay the event’s significance. “This is typical of the media,” said Revolution PAC President Gary Franchi. “If it looks like one of the officially anointed candidates isn’t going to win, they grab their toys and whine all the way home. But even the media is going to have a hard time pretending it doesn’t really matter that Congressman Paul did so well in a state where his limited-government philosophy is a hard sell even to many self-described conservatives.”
What’s more, strong showings in Ames have often translated into strong showings at the important Iowa caucuses at the end of the year.
“This was a great day for the Congressman,” said Franchi. “But it’s the end of the beginning. Much hard work remains ahead of us. We can now carry out that work with the confidence that the message of freedom is resonating as none of us could have imagined.”
Contact:
Mary Putnam
mary@revolutionpac.com
3149 Dundee Rd. #176
Northbrook, IL 60062
Ph: 866-202-9367
