How Will Ron Paul Win?

Second Place.

Ron Paul supporters far and wide kept an eye on Nevada this past Saturday as we watched the returns start to come in. The only Republican to purchase TV ad's, the only Republican to actively work his butt off and win the state, the only man who had a real concrete plan on making sure America became strong again... Ron Paul came in second. A distant, but strong, second, to a Mormon in a Mormon state with 14% of the vote, to Mitt Romney with 51%.

Disappointing? Not at all! It's about 2 weeks before Super Tuesday, when a good estimate of 25 - 45% of all likely voters in the country would have made up their minds on who they would want to be their nominees. To this point, Ron Paul has not won a single state. Although, neither have Fred Thompson and always-last Rudy Giuliani.

No, in fact, the only people who have won states have been a businessman (Mitt Romney), a liberal-Republican turned Neo-Con (John McCain), and a psychopath (Mike Huckabee). And, admittedly, they all make good points at times about the economy and quality of life. They just plain suck when it comes to solutions. So, now that Florida is racing ever so closer, about a week from now, does Ron Paul stand a chance?

Now, mind you, I am a STRONG Ron Paul supporter. I have him in my top friends on MySpace, I have his yard sign on my yard and his button on my backpack, and Ive done 3 pro-bono designs to support him (albeit on merchandise I'm selling myself). So it is with a love and respect for the only person on earth who has made me swoon over an economic policy and ending needless wars (I feel faint), or the only man period who has. Damn, man crush... I've got one. But I still love women, don't get me wrong. That said, Ron Paul can still win this election.

Obama. Now, now, stop the boos for a second and hear me out. Ron Paul and Obama have 1 thing in common; they both have a large youth movement following that has translated into internet success. The problem is that Obama's supporters, while not even close to being as passionate, smart, or clever as Ron Paul supporters (who have basically turned this campaign into their own), Obama supporters are doing the main thing that counts; They are out there VOTING IN BIG NUMBERS. If Ron Paul wants to win, he has to win one state by Super Tuesday. Period.

I don't want to make it so do-or-die, but lets face a sad fact; the media sucks. They aren't respecting Ron Paul or his campaign, and if you hear anything about him coming in second in Nevada, your lucky. You would think that coming in second for any candidate would be worth noting, good, bad, or otherwise. Ron Paul winning Florida means one thing; He has what it takes. Nevada should have been just that; a shot in the arm for the Ron Paul campaign and a way to show that, yes, he CAN win a state. Instead, it may not show he won a state, but it shows that he has a LOT of pull! Right now, he needs to start advertising like crazy in Florida. Bus ads, TV ads, radio ads, skyscraper wraps, billboards, hell, tattoo the Ron Paul Revolution logo on people's heads if you have too, RON PAUL MUST WIN!

The question is how?

The grassroots efforts have been great, but it isn't translating into votes. Democrats aren't being converted in time and Republicans aren't being told that, yes, a REAL Republican is running who wants to save money and, more importantly, the USA, for President who can win! Instead, a malaise is falling over that we are going to have to pick from 6 people who don't know jack (3 dems, 3 reps) and just want to bend America over and, as George Carlin put it, "provide customer service"!

It boils down to Ron Paul and the revolution to admit that, yes, in this case, the revolution MUST be televised. Otherwise, who's going to believe it happened?

Why The 2008 Presidential Race is the Best in Years!

Back in January of 2007, I commonly said the same thing over and over again; I'm already sick and tired of the 2008 Presidential Election. And frankly, who could blame me? For a country that basically brought Democracy back, we sure haven't come close to acting like it. We have one of the longest election processes in the world, and really, the talk about the 2008 race started two days before the 2004 race was over, with reports then that Clinton and Junior-Senator Obama would run for 2008.

So it is nothing short of amazing that 2008 has proven to be a banner-year for our lovely Republic!

Let's focus on the Media. Anyone who knows me knows this; I don't think the media sets up people to win and manipulates elections, I KNOW they do. And, more than ever, they have made it operant than ever this year. Despite nearly inaugurating Hillary Clinton before even the first vote or caucus was held, it seemed that they decided, not us, the voters, that Clinton was our new President. Then... Obama won. So what happened? What else! With less than 1/2 of 1% of Americans voted, 3 people dropped out of the race and Obama was declared the Democratic Front Runner.

On the Republican side, Huckabee, the man considered a joke and who could never win... did just that, beating out all the other front-runners. Instead of him being crowned Front Runner, the race was, and still is... "wide open."

New Hampshire, despite a media push for Obama, the voters of the state that will not be told how to vote (Because they are way too smart for that crap!) instead voted for Hillary Clinton. And the media, despite being proven wrong and idiotic for picking a front runner... continued to do the same exact damn thing for the rest of this election! And with less than 1/2 of 1% of Americans voting, another person or two dropped out.

Republican-wise, John McCain won and still no front runner. The odd thing getting lost in all of this, since the race was now being called "A delegate count" which, in essence, it ALWAYS is, Mitt Romney had been in the lead all along. Some states simply hand out delegates in back rooms like cash, something that... well, it isn't reported.

Nevada and South Carolina was yesterday, and in the dust that is settling, Hillary Clinton has now won 2 states, McCain has 2 states, and Mitt Romney won Nevada with 51% thanks to a large Mormon population. Ron Paul, my favorite and the only man who can save America, came in 2nd in Nevada with 14%. A notable accomplishment since... well, he came in SECOND. Hell, even Dennis Kuchinich lost to "UNCOMMITTED" in ever election and caucus!

In all of this, we are seeing INCREASED voter turnout in every state on almost both sides. Democrats are coming out in droves and, yes, the youth are voting!

Right now, Obama leads the Democrats at 38 Delegates, Clinton with 36, John Edwards at 18.

Mitt Romney leads the Republicans with a whopping 66 Delegates, John McCain at 38, Mike Huckabee with 26, and Ron Paul with 6.

On Being 23 and Getting Old

I know what your thinking already; 23 is Not Old. Your right, it's not. It just means I'm getting older. Nonetheless, it still means I'm getting on in years to a degree. I'm starting to notice this physically. My knees are starting to kill me, and my skateboarding isn't what it used to be. I've got some weird twitch with one of my eyes... You know what made me feel the oldest? I was on the train yesterday in a rather bad mood. All of a sudden, a teenager sits next to me, taking away all my room, and driving me nuts. A lady who it appears he knew talked to him periodically and he later moved.

So what does all this mean? During all of this, I realized I just became the same type of adult who I absolutely hated growing up; lame. The teen liked all the same stuff as me; skateboarding, art... but I still was just in a mood.

Growing up doesn't mean losing stuff, like hair or mobility. In reality, age boils more and more down to sheer responsibility and doing things for yourself and others. I may live on my own and have no real need to support anyone other than me, but I began to notice that a few things in my life are directly connected to others in ways I never saw before. Call it something you get with age or experience, but it's starting to come out.

That's really is about it. Yesterday was my Birthday, and I didn't get a cake or present this year, which I don't mind. I'm just glad I have some good friends more than anything.

My Feelings on the New Hampshire Primary

Once again, a cartoonist sums up my idea nicely. Tony Auth of The Philadelphia Inquirer did this cartoon.

Going into Tuesday, I was afraid for Democracy. I was afraid that we had lost our way. Instead of having a primary process to weed out the weak and protect the strongest candidates, we instead simply publicized that the candidate that would be picked was, instead, just who the media wanted to win. After the Iowa Caucus, it seemed that was exactly what was going to happen.

In this case, the "Golden Boy" was Barack Obama, the 2-year-old Senator from Illinois. Ever since his upset of then-media darling Hillary Clinton, who was all but officially dubbed "President" at this point, the media were on him like flies on honey, calling his campaign "a message of hope and change" that was nearly "derailed by Clinton and Huckabee". That is actually a quote from Reuters. You can see it here. And people laugh when I tell them the media is biased.

So after preliminary polling showed Obama with a 10 - 15% lead (which, they later admitted, they didn't do enough of and too fast to get a story) was terribly, terribly, TERRIBLY wrong and Hilary Clinton was the winner, the media began it's spin once more and decided that the people of New Hampshire were, in fact, lying racists. The reality, though, is that they're not. Instead, you have an electorate that either said, "No, your not going to tell me who to vote for, I'm an adult who can make up my own god-damn mind!", or they enjoyed The Simpsons Sunday and decided that, yes, they were going to screw around with the overall media and instead pick someone else and keep this interesting. Or, even better, they just liked their candidate

The other news is that John McCain won New Hampshire. It's amazing, considering the fact that he was all but dead in June of 2007 and next to no one had any faith left in him. The fact that he has pretty much sided with Bush in terms of the war, and the "surge" working, helped him gain in the polls. It's interesting to note that most Independent Voters actually did vote for John McCain as well.

Mitt Romney finsihed Second, but despite that, he is still in First Place in the Republican ticket with the most votes and delegates. Not being reported, but I don't know why. It's interesting because now the media is trying to get him to drop out if he doesn't win in the next battleground, Michigan.

On that same note, Senator Obama is currently beating Clinton in terms of delegates and votes. He will not be in the ballot in Michigan, along with John Edwards, so it should be an easy win for Hillary and she will be in the lead again. My question: How will this effect Dennis Kuchinich, and could he, the lone GOOD Democrat, pull off a major upset and, if not win, get more than enough to come in a MASSIVE second?

Ron Paul finished in 5th again, narrowly losing to Rudy Guliani. Disappointing to some, but not Ron Paul! Ron has been spending his money wisely and is doing everything he can to make a MASSIVE showing on Super Tuesday, when Ron Paul strongholds such as California and New York vote. This could make it interesting! GO, RON PAUL, GO!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Don't Kill Anyone!

Well, 2007 didn't end with a bang! The murder rate in Philadelphia has actually sunk for the year. In 2006, the city saw 406 murders and in 2007, we saw a drop to 392.

During most of the 4th Quarter of 2007, Philadelphia saw an overall drop as well, and... well, I don't know why. Maybe the drop is because everyone is just sick of all the crap that's been attached to it, or maybe more criminals are getting arrested and staying in prison. Maybe they're all in Camden.

At any rate, Philadelphia is considered the worst of the Ten Largest Cities, but that really doesn't mean much overall since we're still 5th out of all the major cities. Detroit? More like DEADtroit! HA! Not fun when it's you, huh? And, oh my, WASHINGTON D.C. is STILL worst than Philadelphia, despite a hand gun ban and Charles Ramsey declaring MULTIPLE CRIME EMERGENCIES!

So, something in Philadelphia is working, and we don't know what.