JarrodHunt.com

My buddy Andy over at MarketingPilglrim.com, recently released his 2008 Presidential Election Candidate Reputation Study, which shows Ron Paul as having the best online reputation.

While this study is pretty basic it is a great starting point for the kind of research I would like to see more of. Andy’s model consisted of taking the top 20 results for each candidates name in Google and Yahoo, then counting the number of positive and negative results.

While having the most positive top 20 results in a search engine isn’t an absolute gauge of a candidates reputation, it does say a lot. Some Candidates are paying millions of dollars to build positive online reputation through marketing firms etc.. we all know that isn’t the case with Ron Paul…

If you haven’t already seen it please view my recent analysis of website traffic trends for the presidential candidates with the most web traffic.

Technorati Tags: ron paul, marketing, reputation, andy beal

http://www.usaelectionpolls.com/

Quotes from their site:

I was checking out the traffic to this website (usaelectoinpolls.com) in depth and noticed that Ron Paul supporters dominated in every way. Comments posted on this site are mostly by Ron Paul supporters. The straw polls on my site show 70-80% support of Ron Paul. The highest search keyword people use to enter my site is Ron Paul on Google, AOL, Yahoo, Digg, and Technorati. The Ron Paul pages have the most traffic on my site, the competition is not even close.

And for our straw polls to still show 70% Ron Paul supporters, there is something very interesting about that. Part of it is that there is a lot of Ron Paul supporters online but the other part is that the Giuliani, Romney, Thompson, McCain, Huckabee supporters really need to get motivated.

Ron Paul is dominating every other candidate in online polls. If they truly make up just 2% of the Republican support that he is getting but consistently gets 70% in our straw polls, that would suggest that his supporters are 35 times more passionate than the supporters of Giuliani, McCain, Romney, and Thompson combined

As a result of all this, Ron Paul is now back into our list of top candidates in the right menu.

Who needs tens of millions in their war chest when you have a huge following of active supporters. You can’t buy support like that! not even with 100 million dollars!

Kudo’s to USAElectionPolls for coming to the realization that Ron Paul is a top tier candidate, he just isn’t getting the love from the Old Media (as a member of the RonPaulForums.com prefers to call them instead of Main Stream Media or MSM).

Indeed we are witnessing a true indication about how the New Media (Wikipedia) is going to have an effect on every future election. That is if the internet remains unregulated

Vote Ron Paul, not because I said so but because you have done your own research. Watch videos about him, and by the others, and see which one voices the issues you know to be true. Take a test (survey) and find out what candidate really represents your views, based on what you know to be true.

Technorati Tags: ron paul, politics, ron paul blog

While Ron still has significantly less money then Rudy and Mitt, there is no doubt that he is on the up-slope.

Ron Paul on ABC news

IMHO there is very little chance that Rudy will get elected, there are simply too many people that dislike him, and a large portion of Mitt’s money is from his own pocket.

Ron Paul has a large base of “fanatical” supporters and doesn’t need 100 million to win the republican nomination. While the others have to pay for the majority of their support, Ron’s support comes at a very low cost, as its the supporters who are shouldering the cost.

True to his beliefs in small government, Ron empowers the people to make change, rather then taxing them to death then poorly/inefficiently spending their money to govern others to make those same changes.

GO RON!

Technorati Tags: ron paul, john mccain, politics

This is an awesome video!

Our Declaration of Independence is a remarkable document that everyone should read, or better yet hear, often. Especially so, in a time when our Government is in such disrepair.

Listen to the words, if it doesn’t light a fire under your ass, nothing will.

Ron Paul - The defender of the Constitution and the only candidate fighting for true liberty!

Hmm,

They said invading Iraq had nothing to do with Oil. This is a very entertaining cartoon highlighting the details of a secret bill being introduced to Privatize Iraq’s oil fields. I’m definitely going to have to research this a bit more.

To learn more, here is a link to the PriceofOil.org’s info page on the Iraqi Oil Law

Technorati Tags: iraq, oil, politics, video

I’m impressed with the work the guys over at the DailyPaul.com are doing.

Be sure to check them out. They seem to be on top of most of the big Ron Paul news.

DailyPaul.com

Btw, I made a RSS Widget for their newsfeed. You can copy the code if you want to put it on your own site.

I really wish I would have known about this sooner. I would have have been there for sure!

Over 150 people gathered at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport to greet Ron on his way to the Arizona Republican Assembly convention on June 16th.

This is one supporters video series of the event. The second part is where Ron starts speaking and taking questions from the attendees.

Good Stuff… Go Ron!

Dr. Ron Paul at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport - Part 1 of 4

Dr. Ron Paul at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport - Part 2 of 4

Dr. Ron Paul at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport - Part 3 of 4

Dr. Ron Paul at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport - Part 4 of 4

Technorati Tags: ron paul, phoenix, speech, politics

While being interviewed by politico.com, Ralph Nader announced that he might join the 2008 Presidential race to provide competition from outside the two parties.

During the interview he calls Hillary a “Coward”…”"She goes around pandering to powerful interest groups on the one hand and flattering general audiences on the other. She doesn’t even have the minimal political fortitude of her husband.” says Ralph.

In the same interview he gives praise to Ron Paul and Mike Gravel.

Technorati Tags: Ron Paul, Hillary Clinton, Mike Gravel

This is a great video of Ron Paul from 1996. It really is amazing how someone can be consistent for so long about their beliefs. But I guess thats what happens when your beliefs are grounded in your belief in our Constitution. Isn’t that what the Constitution was created for?

Here are some quotes that were shown in the video:

“Ron Paul is one of the outstanding leaders fighting for a stronger national defense. As a former Air Force Officer, he knows well the needs of our armed forces, and he always puts them first. We need him fighting for our country.”

Ronald Reagan - Former President

“This courageous and quiet Congressman has made a worldwide name for himself as the defender of liberty in this country… a persistent fighter for the reduction of the power of bureaucrats everywhere… and one politician who cannot be bought by special interests.”

Maxwell Newton — The New York Post

“Ron Paul has a record of philisophical consistency unmatched in recent congressional history. He seeks to limit government at practically every turn. His refusal to compromise is legendary.”

Wall Street Journal

“I strongly support Ron Paul, We very badly need to have more representatives in the House who understand in a principled way the importance of property rights and religous freedom.”

Milton Friedman - Nobel Prize Economist

Technorati Tags: ron paul video

I was doing some research on Alexa.com for a site I am marketing and decided to check out the traffic trends of some of the top presidential candidates websites.

I looked at HillaryClinton.com (Democrat), BarackObama.com (Democrat), Rudy Giuliani (JoinRudy2008.com Republican), MittRomney.com (Republican), and RonPaul2008.com (Republican).

The candidates with the most significant traffic scores were Hillary, Barack, and Ron Paul. The rest of the candidate’s websites had less traffic. In order to keep the chart readable I have removed all sites except Hillary’s, Barack’s and Ron’s, but feel free to check the other candidates sites yourselves to verify what I am reporting.

The Blue represents Ron Paul, Yellow is Hillary Clinton, and Red is Barack Obama. I have added lines to represent the average trend for the past 3 months. You’ll notice that Ron Paul is the only candidate with an upward trend.

Please note that Hillary received a huge bump from the release of the Sopranos Parody Video around June 17th. It is a great example of viral marketing online, and I definitely give her campaign staff credit for a job well done, but this is a short term bump created by a single viral campaign, not a trend.

Now let me quickly point out some obvious differences between Hillary, Obama, and Ron Paul.

As of the first Quarter of this year Hillary reported $36,000,000 in her war chest. Barack reported roughly $25,000,000. Ron Paul reported a paltry $650,000.

This just goes to show that Ron Paul internet popularity isn’t because he has paid millions of dollars for viral marketing and video campaigns. He is popular because his message is naturally Viral. Watch some of the real video’s of Ron Paul in action and you might see for yourself why he is so widely popular online, despite receiving a fraction of the main stream media coverage the “front-runners” receive.

I think it’s also worthy to note that Ron experienced tremendous jumps in traffic after each of the three republican debates. He is not just popular on the internet, every time he is heard in a major forum, his popularity grows compared to those around him. Will he ever break into the mainstream? Will corporate controlled media outlets with political interests ever allow Ron Paul to be heard?

Btw, You can always count on San Francisco to be ahead of the times. Here’s a great article from the San Fransisco Chronicle referencing Ron Paul’s popularity on Technorati and Youtube..

Technorati Tags: Ron Paul, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Politics