FNC doesn’t include Ron Paul in NH Forum?
Big Head D.C. blogs about Ron Paul’s exclusion from the upcoming New Hampshire debate Forum and how Paul’s people are blaming FNC for the exclusion…
December 29, 2007
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Perhaps the reason for the exclusion is that Ron Paul is a crackpot. I used to like the guy, but recently he has acted strangely. His foreign policy is a joke. (Pulling out of the U.N. and NATO. etc.) Also, a big chunk of his support comes from 9/11 truthers, and much of his fund raising has been organized by shady people who probably have ulterior motives for supporting him.
Comment by jmkaib — December 29, 2007 @ 8:01 pm
Can (or should) Fox News invite Ron Paul to participate if the NH state GOP committee does not?
Comment by Goldfish — December 29, 2007 @ 8:37 pm
That article doesn’t exactly show that FNC dropped Ron Paul. It says that it seems like that state’s GOP dropped Paul, and that some people (message board posters?) are blaming FNC. But it has no proof that FNC dropped him at all.
Plus, considering how friendly FNC has been towards Ron Paul, that move doesn’t make too much sense. I’m not necessarily an apologist for any network, but I am going to wait for more to come out before I even think that a network executive had anything to do with this. (Or, really, ANYONE, since that article gives so little to go on…)
Comment by Charles — December 29, 2007 @ 9:07 pm
Most likely it is the GOP establishment in NH. They dislike Ron Paul.
Comment by jmkaib — December 29, 2007 @ 10:08 pm
jmkaib,
Yeah…. you sound REAL convincing… Get a life, Huckabot! How do I know you are a Huckabot? Because you morons have been using this stupid tactic for months now and were stupid enough to even make public record of the intention to do it.
Used to be a Ron Paul supporter, but his “foreign policy is a joke?” LOL
Do you really think everyone is as stupid as you?
Comment by James A. — December 29, 2007 @ 10:08 pm
I just wish he’d stop calling my house 2-3 times a day. If I pick up the phone one more time and hear the words, “Hold for an important message from Dr. Ron Paul” I’m ripping the phone out of the wall.
Comment by Alison — December 29, 2007 @ 10:13 pm
@jmkaib - Your comments are exactly the comletely baseless accusations that are propogating via FNC and similar talking heads.
If you go back and look at interviews with Paul over the last 20 years, he has been saying virtually the exact same thing, so how do you figure he has been acting strange lately?
Pulling out of the UN and NATO have valid arguments, but if you just dismiss them as crazy without listening to them, who is the crazy one?
His fund raising and support does not come from shady resources. That one has no basis in truth at all. If you want to back up that statement, I’d like to hear it as long as you don’t use $500 from a white supremest as your only evidence.
Even better, if you think he is a wacko, them put him on TV and let him show it off in person.
Comment by Bil — December 29, 2007 @ 10:15 pm
Hannity hasnt been friendly towards Ron Paul. Hannity hates it when Ron Paul wins the poll on the fox debates.
Comment by celeste — December 30, 2007 @ 12:20 am
Chuck, FNC has not been friendly towards Ron Paul. It’s primetime line up has ripped him. As Celeste said Hannity was always furious when Paul won the Fox debates. I am not surprised FNC dropped him because I think most of us know that some on FNC are supporting a particular candidate.
Comment by Aaron — December 30, 2007 @ 12:28 am
“Friendly” to these people means that they invite him on - it has nothing to do with his on-air treatment
Comment by elmonica — December 30, 2007 @ 12:31 am
The NH GOP dropped Ron Paul from the debate, Aaron. They are organizing it.
Comment by Goldfish — December 30, 2007 @ 8:47 am
Elmo just made sense. Time to put our heads between our knees and kiss our butts goodbye, because the end is surely near.
He’s gotten more air-time on FNC than someone that low in the polls and who trucks with some of the worst fringe elements should be getting.
^7: Bill, are you going to deny that He’s been taking money from the likes of Stormfront (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hp_7eNYJJfvcUXW2po0M40ePbMeQD8TKRLCG0)? They’ve been shilling for him. If that’s not a “shady resource,” I don’t know what is. It says a lot about you that you’re trying to brush off that association as if it’s nothing.
He sucks up to the looniest of the 9/11 Troofers and looks like he’s a few sniffles away from a total psychotic break with reality.
The Paulistinians have to finally come back to Earth and accept that he has about as much chance of getting the GOP nomination as I do - and I’m not running. The reason he’s been getting so much time on FNC is that he’s a walking, talking freak show. That Blame-America/Suck-Up-to-Our-Enemies/Hang-Out-With-Nazis shtick is repulsive to the overwhelming majority of decent people in the GOP - but it does make for good TV.
Comment by Amused — December 30, 2007 @ 9:17 am
Sure, Ron Paul has wanted to pull out of the UN for a long time. Its some of his other behaviors. For example, trying to say that we should not have fought the Civil War. Historians have been over this a long time. Ron Paul supporters are incredibly angry… They think everyone is out to get them.
BTW, I don’t support Huckabee. Still, he makes more sense then Ron Paul and has a better chance of winning. I happen to like John McCain. Unlike Ron Paul, he understands foreign policy. OK, so Ron Paul knows the constitution better than everyone, I give him that. I don’t like the PATRIOT Act. Still, Ron Paul takes it too far.
Comment by jmkaib — December 30, 2007 @ 10:16 am
This might be obvious, but I’ll go ahead anyway: Hannity gets upset about Ron Paul winning the Fox polls after the debates because it’s clear the Paulites are just flooding the vote. Paul’s popularity in ANY poll EVER TAKEN is nowhere ner what it registers when these Fox text polls are taken, and Hannity is just stating that the Paulites are distorting reality.
Comment by Missy — December 30, 2007 @ 11:39 am
near not “ner”!
Comment by Missy — December 30, 2007 @ 11:39 am
It doesn’t really matter who the GOP nominates this summer. After the way “bring it on” Bush has screwed things up since he snuck into office through the back door of the Supreme Court the GOP couldn’t win a job cleaning rest rooms at the Minneapolis airport.
Ron Paul makes more sense than the right wing neocons but they will never nominate him.
The GOP has been taken over by the far right conservatives and that’s become a dirty word with most Americans since Bush took the country downm the tubes.
Comment by John B. — December 30, 2007 @ 11:51 am
At least they have Ron Paul on, to balance out others talking bad about him. That is, if nothing else, fair.
So, correct me if I’m wrong, but FNC text polls are to Ron Paul supporters what American Idol voting is to 14-year-old girls?
Comment by Charles — December 30, 2007 @ 12:35 pm
If FNC or Hannity can’t “handle” the results of polls.. perhaps they should leave them to somebody else, eh.
Comment by Terance — December 30, 2007 @ 1:03 pm
Amused, if you have ever seen a Ron Paul interview, you would know that he IS not a truther. It’s not Dr. Paul’s fault that a few loons decide to support him.
Comment by Aaron — December 30, 2007 @ 3:29 pm
Get a life, Huckabot!…Do you really think everyone is as stupid as you?
Are the commenters here unable to discuss someone else’s position without name-calling? this place is getting as rank as the mediabistro boards.
Comment by Arthur — December 30, 2007 @ 3:52 pm
It’s not Dr. Paul’s fault that a few loons decide to support him.
While I haven’t been following the Ron Paul campaign, it is often the case that a candidate appeals to a particular group’s biases ‘under the radar’, fully intending to the positions important to them if/when elected. The GOP has been doing this to the fundamentalist Christian right for decades without anyone noticing. It’s quite possible that Paul is playing the loony-tunes for their cash.
Comment by Arthur — December 30, 2007 @ 3:55 pm
“fully intending to the positions important to them” - should read “fully intending to dump the positions important to them”…
(Proof-read, proof-read…)
Comment by Arthur — December 30, 2007 @ 3:56 pm
If Ron Paul is not a 9/11 truther (which I don’t think he is), then why does he go on the Alex Jones show to court them?
Comment by jmkaib — December 30, 2007 @ 5:46 pm
Unfortunately all this hubbub seems to be over a story that was untrue and possibly an intentional hoax:
http://www.nolanchart.com/article797.html
Comment by johnny dollar — December 30, 2007 @ 6:53 pm
And if he’s just courting these people for their contributions, then how is he better than the rest of them?
Comment by laural — December 30, 2007 @ 8:03 pm
^19: Aaron, most decent (and sane) people would run screaming from the support of Troofers, not to mention neo-Nazis. But not Dr. Paul! That tells me all I need to know about him and his followers.
Comment by Amused — December 30, 2007 @ 9:12 pm
^25: Laural, that’s because he’s DR. PAUL and he is the only person alive who truly knows and understands the Constitution.
(I’m just saving his fans some time.)
Comment by Amused — December 30, 2007 @ 9:14 pm
BTW, Dollar, there is a forum that Ron Paul was not invited to. So actually this is a true story. Its just that some people think it is a debate, but it is not. Its a forum. (What is the difference?)
Comment by jmkaib — December 30, 2007 @ 9:17 pm
After reading J$’s link (which is really confusing… and the comments only make it more confusing)… I gotta ask, what is your evidence for their being a forum that Paul was not invited to?
It seems (and hopefully I was reading it correct) that Paul has another event that day, and that’s why he’s not attending the forum… if in fact, he’s not attending the forum.
It’s all very confusing… and seems to be made worse by people who want to believe they are being slighted. Read some of the comments from the article J$ linked to… many of them have the theme, “It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, FOX is still bad for how they’ve treated Paul, and we want Murdoch’s head.” Strange stuff.
Comment by ImNotBlue — December 30, 2007 @ 9:29 pm
The facts on the link have changed several times since I posted it! From what I’ve been able to piece together, it appears that there is going to be some sort of forum that night, different from the afternoon event, that’s strictly an FNC production. Five candidates have confirmed that they will take part. What’s still unclear to me is whether Ron Paul (and/or Duncan Hunter) were specifically excluded, or whether they just hadn’t confirmed attendance yet.
Comment by johnny dollar — December 30, 2007 @ 10:07 pm
Even Ron Paul’s website doesn’t make it any clearer!
*Sheesh*
This is just bizarre.
Comment by ImNotBlue — December 30, 2007 @ 10:19 pm
Spud, I don’t think you should have put this up its just riling and now confusing.
Comment by Aaron — December 31, 2007 @ 12:51 am
Meanwhile, all these guys who are trying to bash FOX News are just bringing more and more attention to the situation and it’s going to make more people watch. FOX PR doesn’t have to do much work these days… all the nuts will do it for them. Let MSNBC have their “forum” or whatever to go up against FNC… nobody will watch, as usual. With MSNBC letting itself get dumped off cable systems left and right, there might not be an MSNBC left to watch in the new year.
Comment by Nobody — December 31, 2007 @ 4:27 am
^19: Aaron, most decent (and sane) people would run screaming from the support of Troofers, not to mention neo-Nazis. But not Dr. Paul! That tells me all I need to know about him and his followers.
Does that mean that since one of John McCain’s followers asked, “How do we beat the bitch” and he said “That’s an excellent question” that he is a sexist? No it doesn’t so please follow the same logic with Dr. Paul Amused.
Comment by Aaron — December 31, 2007 @ 2:42 pm
From the Chicago Tribune’s political blog:
Fergus Cullen, chairman of the New Hampshire State Republican Committee, confirmed Sunday evening to the Tribune that, yes, there will be a televised Fox News presidential candidate forum on Jan. 6, and yes, Rep. Ron Paul was not invited when the other candidates were a week or so ago.
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2007/12/ron_paul_indeed_outfoxed_for_n.html
In the story, Mr. Cullen uses hazy language to intimate that Paul and Duncan Hunter might be invited to appear at the forum at some point.
Both FNC and the GOP have their reasons for wanting to exclude the marginal candidates. Still, those reasons don’t seem to be worth the anger it will cause among people usually inclined to vote for the GOP and watch FNC.
Funny that the reasoning echoes that of the Democrats when they foolishly decided to spurn FNC.
Comment by chalmers — December 31, 2007 @ 10:00 pm
chalmers - after reading that Ron Paul fan site… I’m convinced the die-hard Paul fans are not FNC viewers or GOP voters. They are at best, dictionary definition Republicans… who would be more likely to vote for a third party candidate (like a libertarian) than a Republican or Democrat.
They can hoot and holler all they want, but if nobody’s paying attention… they’re only amusing themselves.
Comment by ImNotBlue — January 1, 2008 @ 1:54 am
ImNotBlue–You may be right. I didn’t read the Ron Paul fan site and perhaps I am foolish to still think of him as a true-believer conservative on fiscal issues. Even his Iraq stance is consistent with the traditional conservative strain represented by Pat Buchanan.
It’s certainly possible that his record means very little to most of his current supporters.
Comment by chalmers — January 1, 2008 @ 4:23 pm
An update that I didn’t see posted here.
Date: December 31, 2007
Contact: Fergus Cullen, Chairman, New Hampshire Republican Party
NH REPUBLICANS: DON’T LIMIT DEBATE PARTICIPANTS
CONCORD – New Hampshire Republican Party Chairman Fergus Cullen releases the following statement regarding primary weekend debates:
“Limiting the number of candidates who are invited to participate in debates is not consistent with the tradition of the first in the nation primary. The level playing field requires that all candidates be given an equal opportunity to participate – not just a select few determined by the media prior to any votes being cast.”
“Therefore, the New Hampshire Republican Party calls upon all media organizations planning pre-primary debates or forums for both parties to include all recognized major candidates in their events.”
“The New Hampshire Republican Party has notified FOX News of our position, and we are in ongoing discussions with FOX News about having as many candidates as possible participate in the forum scheduled for January 6.”
Comment by STP — January 2, 2008 @ 12:55 am