Will $2.4 million cash on hand at the end of the last quarter earn long-shot presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul enough credibility to warrant a spot in upcoming presidential debates? It should.
The ABC News Political Radar blog reported today that the nine-term congressman from Texas has $400,000 more cash on hand than his Republican rival Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
Upon reading that news, I had to wonder whether or not groups sponsoring future presidential debates would follow the sad precedent set by Iowans for Tax Relief and Iowa Christian Alliance — co-sponsors of a presidential candidates forum in Des Moines June 30 — and refuse to consider Ron Paul a “credible” candidate. [To read previous Bob McCarty Writes posts on the Iowa forums, click here.]
Any group with even a shred of decency and self-respect must now include Ron Paul in any presidential debate it sponsors — or exclude John McCain, too!
Stay tuned to this blog to see how everything pans out!
12 responses so far ↓
1 Rich // Jul 6, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Lets hope!
2 Bruch // Jul 6, 2007 at 4:41 pm
What is Ron Paul doing with all that money! He should be spending it!
OK, he did spend a lot to make sure Rudy’s mic was left on and a certain was used. (Paul’s psych-ops said the word to use was “invited.”) That did take big bucks! At the first debate the psych-ops told em what would remind Rudy of a crude abuse-of-corpse joke, but the guy who was supposed to leave the mic on so we would catch Rudy laughing chickened out. It takes big bucks to overcome that! So spend it! And not on piddly resume ads like Richardson, send in the psych-op team again! And more than those 3 ban-Paul guys! They were easy to manipulate. We want a big splash! Get Bush to say something interesting!
3 hotoffthepress // Jul 6, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Bruch — I think the operative words in your comment are “something interesting”. Thanks for posting. — Bob
4 Mike Kraft // Jul 6, 2007 at 8:54 pm
Thanks for the post on our site. I think Ron is saving and biding his time like chess.
He is getting alot of mileage out of the free resource of the web and the support he enjoys on it.
Why spend money when you can hang back in 4th or 5th place for free.
Election is a marathon not a sprint.
5 hotoffthepress // Jul 6, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Mike — I think you’re right. Money spent today will likely be forgotten by year’s end. January-February is the time when people will remember what was spent. Thanks for posting. — Bob
6 Andrew // Jul 6, 2007 at 9:35 pm
Ron has already been included in the first 3 major televised debates (MSNBC, FOX, CNN) and has confirmed he will be included in the upcoming debate hosted by ABC. Are you unaware of this or am I misunderstanding your post?
7 criminyjicket // Jul 6, 2007 at 9:58 pm
what nobody is saying is that John McCain came out for the immigration reform bill, and for bush’s position on Iraq, and still raised similar amounts to Ron Paul. McCain is dead as a result, so why the hype for Ron Paul? All this shows is that his online base is tight with their contributions. It’s a horrible figure. He needed to raise 7 to 9 million for anyone to take him seriously
8 hotoffthepress // Jul 6, 2007 at 10:09 pm
Andrew — I was under the impression Ron Paul has been excluded from all of the upcoming debates. I’ll do some more research and publish an update this weekend. Thanks for posting. — Bob
9 hotoffthepress // Jul 6, 2007 at 10:12 pm
Criminyjicket — I think things would be better for everyone if Ron Paul (or any candidate for that matter) could win the presidency without having to raise and/or spend $100 million or $200 million during a campaign. Let the power of the internet activist help win the White House. Thanks for posting. — Bob
10 Andrew // Jul 6, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Aug. 5 in Des Moines (broadcast on ABC)
It’s confirmed in Ron Paul’s official campaign blog here:
http://ronpaul2008.typepad.com/ron_paul_2008/2007/06/ron_paul_exclud.html
And Kent Snyder (campaign manager) confirmed it in this radio interview (interview starts at 1:01:16 – better to download than stream)
http://media.libsyn.com/media/mickelson/mickelson-2007-06-20.mp3
11 criminyjicket // Jul 7, 2007 at 4:49 am
lordy, so do i, but the fact remains that in the current climate that number is trouble for Ron.
12 hotoffthepress // Jul 7, 2007 at 6:46 am
Andrew — Thanks for that tidbit! — Bob
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