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Telling Numbers from Latest Presidential Poll in Montana: Independent Voters Choose Gary Johnson (If They Know About Him)

A recent poll conducted by Public Policy Polling among 737 likely voters from Montana, and released October 10, 2012 showed that, among independents that had an opinion either way about Gary Johnson roughly 56% would choose him for president over Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. The problem is, only 18% of those independents polled had an opinion about him (and 10% selected him over Obama and Romney), numbers that show that Gary Johnson is not getting anywhere near his fair share of publicity from major media outlets, which is where most people get their information from. Compare this to 42% of independents who had an opinion of Barack Obama choosing Obama and 48% of people who had an opinion of Mitt Romney choosing Romney.

Among all likely voters in the poll, Gary Johnson pulled in 6%, but that equates to roughly 35% if you only include people who had an opinion of him, one way or the other (17% of voters had an opinion of Johnson). These numbers show that simply put, voters do not know Gary Johnson. It appears that if Johnson were to get his voice and opinions heard by more of the public, he would have a legitimate shot at having a significant impact on the election, perhaps even pulling off an upset.

One of the biggest things that has hurt Johnson is his exclusion from the Presidential Debates, where they arbitrarily require a third-party candidate to poll at or above 15% in a national poll to be included. A major reason for this is the fact that the Committee of Presidential Debates, which determines who is allowed to debate, is controlled by the two parties: democratic and republican, and they know that if they include other candidates, it will only hurt the chances of their two candidates. Gary Johnson is doing his best to be included in the debates, so people who don’t agree with either Romney or Obama, can have more choices but so far the Committee has been more than reluctant to give up their stranglehold.

The American Vote and My Endorsement for President of the United States of America (2012 Edition)

There are three main points to this article.

1. I encourage every American citizen out there to spend some quality time on how to cast their invaluable vote for America’s next president. You have a voice – don’t let it be marginalized. No vote is more “wasted” than the next – every vote counts the same. Use all available resources: the growth of the internet has brought a wealth of information to your fingertips – you can find information on all the candidates, including their history, where they stand on important issues and so forth. If you are against wars, for example, and that is an issue that is important to you, find a candidate who has stated and shown that he is against wars as well. The easiest way to start is with a simple web search, but be sure to use several sites/resources in order to help ensure that you are getting factual/more objective information. Many seemingly “objective” articles or shows often have hidden or even visible subtext trying to sway you in one direction or another, so be wary. I suggest taking a visit to the website www.ontheissues.com to see where an objective assessment matches you to each candidate. Again, this is simply another resource to help you decide how you want to use your precious vote.

2. While many people put a lot of weight on endorsements, your vote is just that – it’s your vote. Don’t be pressured into things you don’t feel perfectly okay with. Just because you and your best friend share a lot of the same beliefs doesn’t mean you have to vote for the candidate that they think you should or that they are voting for. An endorsement shouldn’t really affect the way you are going to vote, because you are voting for a person, and other people endorsing that person does not change who they are and what they believe. There is a possibility that you could learn some information about the candidate by the endorser’s reasons stated for choosing the endorsee however. A vote is a very individual thing and you should vote for whom you think is best suited for the position. A lot of people are going to try to convince you that you are “wasting” your vote if you don’t vote for their guy, but this is never true. The mindset that elections are predetermined prior to the vote is false – if everyone does their research and votes for the candidate they actually agree with the most on, then good candidates can actually emerge as the lead vote-getter, especially in this day of modern communication. Never compromise your vote.

3. Now it’s time for my endorsement (again, this is simply my choice and should not affect your vote). I endorse Ron Paul for 2012 President of The United States. I will briefly explain this decision because some of you might be saying, “Wait, Ron Paul isn’t even running for President”. I have come to this decision because I don’t think Americans will have the chance to vote for a candidate as strong and right for the job as Ron Paul in a very long time. When it comes to defending the Constitution, Ron Paul’s record (over 20 years in congress) is better than any politician in history. If you listen to him speak, at any point in his long career, he says the same things (and they are things I believe in: a limited, constitutional government and a strong, non-interventionist foreign-policy based around making friends not enemies, among other things). His consistency and integrity have given him a label (even by his opponents) that speaks for itself: incorruptible. He truly is the “good-side” of politics. Everything that comes to mind when you hear the word “politician” describes the exact opposite of Ron Paul. Extremely modest, but with real passion about what he believes in, Ron Paul never wanted power, he simply wants to help America. To go along with all this, Ron Paul’s idea of a “happening” Saturday night is sitting down with an economics textbook. The doctor reads everything. His knowledge on all subjects which he addresses is remarkable; for every point he makes he has sound reasoning backing it up. Some of the bills he has proposed during his tenure in Congress have been the most innovative ways to help out America that I have ever come across, and yet they are time and time again struck down by a Congress that has an approval rating at dangerously close to zero. I could honestly go on for pages and pages, but I have arbitrarily decided to stop here. These are a few of the reasons I have decided to endorse Ron Paul. Jotting down a list of reasons why you support the person you plan to vote for can be a good exercise.  Even if his “chances” of being elected sit squarely at zero, I will not miss this opportunity to endorse the man I think is the closest America will ever have to a perfect candidate for President of the United States.

A Major Disconnect: Violent Crimes, Public Perception, and the American Prisoner

Complete 2012 RNC Delegate Roll Call Vote Results

Congratulations to the 190 delegates who stayed strong, stood up for their beliefs and gave their votes to Ron Paul at the RNC. I know for a fact that there were countless other delegates who wanted to vote for Congressman Paul but were either forced to vote for Romney, coerced into it, or had their delegate positions illegally taken away from them - the GOP Establishment will not go unpunished for their devious acts. There were plenty of shenanigans and rule-breaking by the establishment GOP but the Ron Paul folks still managed to make themselves be seen and heard.

Here is a complete state-by-state list of the results from the roll call:

New Presidential Poll: Barack Obama and Ron Paul in a Statistical Tie

In a poll conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, released August 8th, 2012, which matched up presidential candidates Barack Obama and Ron Paul, one thousand likely voters said that they have equal preference when given a choice between Barack Obama and Ron Paul.

Here are the results from the poll, when a randomly selected group (via phone) were asked the following question “Suppose in this year’s Presidential Election you had a choice between Republican Ron Paul and Democrat Barack Obama. If the election were held today would you vote for Republican Ron Paul or Democrat Barack Obama?”.

45% Ron Paul
47% Barack Obama
6% Some other candidate
2% Not sure

NOTE: Margin of Sampling Error, +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

Another interesting take-away from the poll was the results of the favorability ratings. 58% of those surveyed have a favorable view of Ron Paul, while just 36% have an unfavorable view. Compare this to Mitt Romney (50% favorable, 45% unfavorable) and Barack Obama (51% favorable, 48% unfavorable).

Ron Paul is viewed in a favorable light by significantly more people than Obama or Romney. While many people think that the Republican Nominee has already been decided, the delegates of the Republican National Convention know that this isn’t true, and with the ultimate goal of getting Barack Obama out of the White House, these poll results certainly suggest that Ron Paul very well could be the better man to take him down.

Results from this poll are in line with past polls that included Ron Paul’s name. Paul has defeated or tied Barack Obama on numerous occasions in the polls, including a tie in the last one he was included in (May 8th). Since then, Paul has inexplicably been left out of the polling, and this latest poll was actually commissioned by supporters of Ron Paul in order to show just how electable this man is.

Ron Paul: Searched the Most by the People, Reported on the Least by the Pundits

Here is an interesting graphic, taken from Google Trends that displays two different sets of data. The first (top) is the search volume index, aka the number of searches that have been done for a term, relative to the total number of searches. The second (bottom) is the news reference volume, or the number of times the topic appeared in Google news stories.

As you can see, Ron Paul dominated the searches (if you’re not impressed by the graphic alone, here is the data: During the last year, Ron Paul was searched 90% more than Barack Obama [almost double] and 59% more than Mitt Romney). These are very significant results.

Despite the fact that Ron Paul was searched for, by the people, much more than his political opponents, he was covered, by the news, substantially less than either Mitt Romney or Barack Obama (see the bottom graphic, above). What this tells us is that people wanted to learn information about Ron Paul, but the media refused to broadcast that information. At virtually no point during the election season was Ron Paul given anywhere near as much attention by the pundits as either Mitt Romney or Barack Obama. And as you can see from above, Ron Paul’s news coverage completely disappeared after May 2012, despite Ron Paul continuing his campaign and having success. This is a big problem with the election process in today’s world - the media, hence the big corporations, can control (or at least heavily influence) the outcome of the elections. If Ron Paul had been given equal coverage as his opponents, the election season likely would have looked completely different.

Food for thought.

The Ultimate Mind-Boggle: Why on Earth are people voting for Mitt Romney?

With the Republican National Convention approaching fast (August 27-30 in Tampa, FL), the battle for the GOP Nomination will soon be over. The only two men left vying for the chance to face off against incumbent Barack Obama in the General Election are Ron Paul and Mitt Romney.

Two very different men, each with the same goal - to get the Democrat out of the white house. And while they share this goal - they really don’t share much else.

When you look into Mitt Romney’s policies and political stances, he does not differ much from Barack Obama. Romney has done a very good job during this election season at keeping his mouth closed. He has relied on his reputation as an entrepreneur and the former Governor of Massachusetts to lead his campaign. He has refused multiple debates, and has repeatedly dodged questions that would require real substance to answer. What Romney has said is mostly rhetoric portraying the failure of Barack Obama’s first term as president. This is hardly something you would expect from someone who actually has solutions to solve difficult problems of a country.

This “silence” from Republican Candidate Mitt Romney, on the issues, is the complete opposite of what his Republican Nemesis Ron Paul has been doing. Ron Paul makes it his business to bring up the issues himself and to tell Americans exactly what his stance is on every issue. Ron Paul is a man of solutions - and he uses his words systematically to state the issues, complete with possible solutions. This is a quality that I would want in a leader.

While the race for the Republican Nomination is far from over (that will be decided in August at the Republican National Convention), Mitt Romney has received more popular votes than any other Republican Candidate (over 40% of the votes as of May 22nd). This leads us to the question of the year: Why are people (Republicans) voting for Mitt Romney, even though they don’t know where he stands on most issues (because he either hasn’t said where he stands, or he has changed his mind so many times in the past that it’s difficult to judge where his mind might be at the current time)?

One possibility that has been written about is that the media is saying that Mitt Romney will be Obama’s competitor in the general election, and so people aren’t actually making a choice, they are just listening to word of mouth. I hope that this isn’t the reason, because it would mean that the media, rather than the people, are choosing our elected officials.

Another possibility is that the fact that Mitt Romney refuses to discuss real issues has actually had a positive effect on voter’s opinions of him because he has not said something that they disagree with (because he’s said nothing at all). This would mean that somebody like Ron Paul is actually hurting himself when he discusses the issues and his policies, because even if 90% of the viewer’s agree with what he is saying, there are 10% who disagree. Compare this to 0% of people who disagree when Mitt Romney dodges a question, by bringing up an example of where Obama failed. This possibility does not, however, take into account whether people lose respect for the candidate because he repeatedly avoids the issues.

The method to which each voter chooses who to cast their vote for is certainly an interesting topic - but is likely to be largely a mystery, as each individual has such different priorities and opinions. One thing is for certain, however, and that is that the more time and thought that each voter gives to his or her decision, the more satisfying and authentic it will be.