At the top of this page you say your are 'blogging for the majority."
Well, the majority wants and needs Ron Paul for President in 2008! Why isn't he in your poll?
Do you not understand the Constitution of the United States of America?

Why isn't Ron Paul listed on the poll?

I refuse to place a vote in this poll. You have not included the best option. I also would like to be removed from you mailing list now. Shame you consider your site a GOP site, yet leave out the best Conservative candidate.

Where is Ron Paul?

The best hope for America is Ron Paul. why isn't he on thr list? DOES THE CONSTITUTION OFFEND YOU?

As a Ron Paul supporter I am very distressed at your decision not to include him in your poll.

I would suspect that Mr. Benton was making inquiries about your security to ascertain rather or not your poll could be considered a reliable barometer of his candidates relative support.

Should you have plans to exclude him from next months poll, please also exclude my email address from your mailings.

If conservatives at every political level don't warn the majority of the general public about the possibility of the entire U.S. soon becoming a socialistic country for the long-term, then it will definitely happen, starting in January '09! If the Democratic Party at every political level as well as "RINO" Republicans at every political level do end up controlling everything important throughout the U.S. as a "political majority", then long-term, full socialism will definitely end up taking over long-term, full capitalism throughout the entire U.S.!

I find the accusations about Ron Paul's supporters highly suspect. In case you hadn't noticed, Ron Paul has been doing very well in Real straw polls where people have to buy a ticket to get a ballot, only get one vote, and have to select their candidate by checking the box next to the name. I was recently at the Strafford County (NH) Republican Picnic, where Ron Paul received 73% of the vote. I suspect that this fellow "Jesse Benton" wanted to make sure that the poll was secure enough to be considered valid. I support Ron Paul, but I don't spam or cheat. Honestly, most of the candidates are unacceptable in my opinion. Huckabee is OK, and I kind of like him, but Ron Paul is the first presidential candidate that has gotten me really excited about the prospect of him winning. I voted for Bush because I couldn't stand the idea of Gore or Kerry becoming the POTUS. IMO, Bush has been a real disappointment.

Your poll includes Gilmore, who has dropped out; while it fails to include Paul, who is still running.

please put up ron paul on the poll and stop making up fictious excuses on why you dont have him there.

OK... that may be all you have to say about it... but I am a new Ron Paul supporter... I have not spammed anyone... and I STILL do not find any of the other candidates acceptable.

You inadvertently omitted Ron Paul from your poll. Please correct this egregious oversight on your part. I'm sure you have no wish to engage in corruption. Thank you.

As usual, this blog and the Republican party are ignoring Ron Paul. For most of the other candidates that the party is pushing, I'm having a hard time seeing any difference in the 2 parties! This is SAD! The worse thing is that they would support Rudy Giuliani! We are in trouble! There is hope, though, in my opinion: Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, and Tom Tancredo all look acceptable. Mike Huckabee looks very acceptable to me, and he did well in the straw poll. Maybe I'll put my support to him. I'd especially support Ron Paul, but the party seems to not want him, hence won't promote him, he probably doesn't stand a chance, sadly!

Cheating the poll? Do you think that just maybe Ron Paul has more active, online supporters than any other candidate? I don't see people all that excited about Rudy or Mitt even though they lead in the msm polls. BUT I do see people actively campaigning for Paul.
People like me. I've never been to this site before and many never come here again, but I ended up here through a link from another blog saying how bad Paul was. Why is everyone to threatened by the best candidate the Republicans have? Oh yeah, because he is the best...

The reason people who have Ron Paul as thier number one vote have no second choice is because he stands alone in defense of the constitution. The reason a Romney person might accept McCain or Guilani is because of thier similarity.

Isn't it possible that the Ron Paul campaign were interested in the same thing as you are? Maybe they found the surge in Ron Paul votes incredible and they wanted to see if that reflected the views of the majority or just spamming.

It's not spam. I am a real person and voter who would have voted for Ron Paul and I am far from alone.

None of the other candidates are acceptable to me other than Ron Paul. Do you want me to lie just so your numbers come out like you want them to?

Ron Paul is pulling a lot of support from Democrats and also many people who haven't voted for a long time because they have been disgusted with their choices. So they too probably feel that it's Ron Paul or nothing for them.

How can you tell that the supporters for any of the other candidates aren't spamming your system? If you feel your poll has been hacked by Ron Paul spammers, then it must be vulnerable to other hackers. So until you have confidence in your system, you're just wasting time doing your poll. It's meaningless so why even bother?

Honda, your acceptables are good, but IMHO don't have a prayer of beating Hillary!. Do you want a good nominee or do you want to win the presidency?

Ron Paul's supporters (I am not convinced they are not basically lefty isolationists) do NOT want to win the presidency. They want purity (impossible) and they want to make a loud statement devoid of reality. We are not living in a world that supports their worldview. Just like with lefties.

I'm voting for Ron Paul. I've registered Republican for the first time in order to support him.

Truely desperate and depressed. I'd say they are seeing what has been obvious to the rest of us for 8 months. Ron Paul is no where near the center of the GOP. Not all his ideas are bad, but too many are unacceptible to the vast majority of the GOP.

I've never been involved in Politics previously. Sure, I have always taken my responsibility to vote very seriously but I have never really supported a candidate before. Sadly, I would always vote "straight party".

This year, I have come to realize how precious my vote is! I will never again waste my vote by voting for "the lesser of two evils". I will vote Country before Party. I will vote Ron Paul. Even if I have to write him in!

I am weary of politicians who say one thing to get elected and do another when in office.
I am confident in what Ron Paul says, Ron Paul does. Ron Paul's integrity is not something I have to worry about.

I want a candidate who understands the constitution. No, REALLY. I want my freedoms back. I want a candidate who understands the real monetary policy. No, REALLY. Our country is nearly bankrupt.

I want a candidate who understands Sovereignty. Not only OURS but respects other countries as well. Little boys often find that if they poke at a hornets nest enough, the hornets will attack because they feel threatened - not because they are jealous of the little boys freedom to poke the at the nest. LESSON: Live and let live.

McCain - excuse me? don't try to railroad the amnesty/immigration piece down America's throat ...

Guiliani - are you sure you're on the right ticket? I think you might be a democrat ...

Romney - you seem fake to me - I don't care for how you flip flop on the issues.

Thompson - have you heard of the phrase ... Shit or get off of the pot? If you're running - run!

Gingrich - please go away -

Huckabee, Gilmore, Hunter and Tancredo - you might just be alright!

I am a Ron Paul supporter and I do not spam the polls.

If you are unwilling to say how you found supposed 'spammers' then we cannot think you are very credible.

Thank you for exposing your lies.
Even if 100 people figured out how to crack a poll, Ron would still be winning and YOU DON'T LIKE IT.

Ron is winning all the boots on the ground polls here in NH and will continue to do so.

Take the red pill, won't you? Bwahahahahah

http://www.redpills.org/?p=300

Peg: I don't disagrre with any of your comments, but notice that I stated that I've dropped support for Ron Paul, for the reason that it is highly unlikely that he could win. That's why I am now supporting Mike Huckabee. If one of my choices don't beat Hilary, then heaven help us! Talk about left wing! What makes her so great? I don't understand New Yorkers voting for her! She bought a house there so she could be considered a resident. I'm a retired union man, and have been a union officer several times, but I find I seldom support a Democrat! And now, as I stated in my first post, I'm having a hard time finding a good Repiublican candidate! Those that I listed are acceptable to me, when I see the party suppoerting one of them, or someone like them, then my pursestrings will open, and not before. Rest assured that I will not vote for Hilary!
Honda

Peg C - Remember, in 1991 Bill Clinton was polling at 3% nationwide, and no one thought a Governor from Arkansas had a shot at the White House... Now there is a conservative governor from Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, who has the message AND the hope to win America a TRUE conservative in the White House...

Supporting Huckabee is not blindly supporting ideals... but it is standing up for a cause.

The more that we (you) make statements like "do we want a good nominee or do you want to win", the more we have to choose between the lesser of two evils, and the more we feel a disconnect with our government.

Face it. The political parties have divided this country, maybe to a point not seen since the Civil War days... It is time that we all stand up and demand a representative government. Doing so is not demanding "purity", that you synically claim is impossible, rather it is demanding that our government remember that they are empowered BY the people, FOR the people... not to RULE the people!

Pick your leaders wisely... or you get the leaders that you deserve.

You're a complete wimp for not including Ron Paul in your poll. We're not spammers; we are individuals whom do not like the other choices because they are not conservatives.

Ron Paul supporters, there is a way to express yourselves. Vote ALL of the other candidates unacceptable and don't pick a first choice.

You emailed me to vote . How can I vote for anybody when the man I want to vote for is not offered? How could I possibly be a spammer when I found out about this from you and not from any organized effort from anyone else?

Why is Jim Gilmore still on the ballot? I wouldn't be surprised if the Paul people just use him as a proxy.

You are deceiving yourself if you think the high number of votes for Ron Paul is due to spamming. The high number of votes the Congressman receives is due to the fact that he and Chuck Hagel are the only two candidates or potential candidates who are identified as anti-war Republicans, and because anti-war Republicans are exceptionally strong participants in online political discussions.

Any poll that doesn't include one of those two names in a list of potential Republican nominees has no credibility.

I'm voting for Ron Paul and I don't consider any other candidate as acceptable. They are all corrupted crooks that sold out the US. Ron Paul is the only choice.

-david

The reason Ron Paul supporters find the other candidates unacceptable is that we are against the war. If you are a warmonger, it doesn't matter who gets elected, but there is only one choice for ending our policy of democracy-with-bombs.

I would have chosen Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo, had you given me the choice. The only other choice was Duncan Hunter (I do like him!), but he's not my first, or second choice! Just how accurate will this poll be under those circumstances?
Please note that Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo ARE my first choices!

Honda, Mick Huckabee seems like a very good man. I don't see him beating Hillary! but would love to be proved wrong. Personally, I like Fred, but his "campaign" and enthusiasm seem in disarray. If they get both fixed, great and he is the only one I am giving $$ to. I don't see a perfect conservative on the horizon and doubt very much he (apparently there are no she's) could win in this political environment. In that vein, I don't see Hunter or Tancredo having a prayer, either.

I can vote for Mitt or Rudy without holding my nose too tight but I totally understand conservatives' aversions to Rudy at least. I share them, but the GWOT is my #1 issue -- nothing else matters if we lose that. (Personally I think it's way closer to a 100 year war.) With Mitt, I know so many libs that would vote for Satan rather than vote for a Mormon that I just don't see him taking the WH. The worst religious bigots are the Dems.

It's not that Hillary! is so great; it's that most of the rest of the cast of characters over there are total nutjobs. Braindead, fools, or both. The ones who do have experience and sense will NEVER be nominated by a party in the grip of fevered insanity. I don't really believe a majority will vote for H, but her repugnant hubby won with way less than a majority and if this bunch can use manipulation and vote fraud to grab the WH, they'll do it. And one of the biggest problems is how much Dems still love him and would thus vote for her. Gaaa!!

I'll vote for anyone against her, except McCain. I don't think he has a prayer, but if it came down to him and her I would not vote.

This poll is utterly worthless. You have omitted the only candidate who will make a difference once he gets into office, Ron Paul.

A mere oversight?? I don't think so!!!

Any online poll is subject to tampering and often times it happens so to put the blame on Ron Paul's group is out right foolish. I know first hand Democrats who vote in Republican polls and encourage other democrats to do likewise to fool people into supporting people they feel their party can beat simply because they want to make those like Honda out there believe the good choices have no chance.

Ron Paul is doing VERY well in live in person polls. In a tax payers group picnic in NH he came in first hands down over everyone else... tell me how exactly can you fool a LIVE in person vote?

And doesn't the fact that so far 50% of the comments here showing support for Ron Paul tell you something?

For kicks, I blogged about this on my site. The response from the fanatics is no different than every other response. The even linked to me from two of their sites so they could spam my blog and whine about how we talk about their hero.

I'm not a spammer. I'm a real person, and Traverse City, MI. I found your blog on Google, and I really do support Dr. Paul. Leaving him off this poll is childish.

The whole purpose of a poll is to determine what candidate has the most support and therefore most likely to win. Since when are you in the business of dictating who is electable? Ron Paul is electable, that's why he is winning online polls, because his supporters care enough to make their voice heard. Obviously supporters of other candidates are completely apathetic about their support. The only reason you think the other candidates are more electable is that they receive a free ride from the media.

http://www.whowouldtheworldelect.co...Ron Paul truly has an international following or would you believe this is hacked information too?

I have known Ron Paul for 37 years and have never met a person with stronger integrity. He has devoted his life to service to others. You have no right to decide to take his name off of your ballot. You have invalidated your own straw poll. Ron Paul has just won several straw polls with very high percentages. Of course his campaign manager wants to know what measures you have taken to protect your election. There have been some unusual results in other elections. Let’s face it; you don’t care what the people want. You just want to get numbers that the GOP wants. They don’t support Ron Paul because he is a constitutionalist. If a bill is written is such a way that it isn’t supported by the Constitution, the Honorable Ron Paul will not vote for it. An example of that was the current WAR in Iraq. It is a great
insult, to those of us who think Ron Paul is the very best choice in the election for our next President, that you would call us cheaters. There are millions of us across the country. Shouldn’t you have been responsible for having a ballot that allowed all voters to support one candidate of their choice? The media has done things like you have just done to the Honorable Ron Paul for years. That is why the grassroots voters have risen up to fight for him. The GOP and the media have done everything they can to make sure that he doesn’t win. Here is a report one of our college members of our Meetup group has done:
http://ok4ronpaul.ashlux.com/wiki/index.php?title=2008_Presidential_GOP_straw_poll_results . Do you actually believe Ron Paul supporters were cheating all across the land? That’s like saying that everyone in Washington, D. C. is a liar and flip-flopper. What you have done goes against the rights given to us by the Constitution: Liberty and Justice for All.
Karen Somers

Imagine my surprise when I receive your email telling me about your GOP straw poll and I can vote for people who haven't even announced (Fred & Newt) or people who are polling much lower than Ron Paul, but not Ron Paul.

You are eliminating Ron Paul to make it more scientific? Whatever. Lame.

Tim

Matt, Mark, and everyone...

I just wanted to apologize for the vote-spam that came through my site from the Ron Paul supporters.

I made a comment agreeing with your rationale to exclude him from the poll which was nothing more than "it's about time" and that caused a lot of people to generate negative votes.

I know you guys work hard at making the polls accurate, and I sincerely apologize if this compromised the August poll.

Thanks for all the work you guys do. If there's anything I can do to help mitigate this issue, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Regards,
William Smith

Seems like you just put together a shoddy poll that doesn't even do basic checking and duplication prevention. Why blame those who are submitting their opinion when you have failed to program an efficient and tamper-resistant poll to begin with?

Your removal of Ron Paul from the poll of Republican candidates is about as dishonest an action as one can take.

Don't like the results, simply eliminate a candidate from contention.

If you want meaningful data, put Ron Paul back into the poll at once.

The problem with this poll is incompetence on the back end. There are ways of guarding against hacking, spamming, double-voting, etc. Entering keys from cryptic pictures, validating through email, and quizzes (like the one used to make a comment here) and great ways to add validity to a poll, especially when used together as layers of security. The problem is with the agendas of the hosts that want to have a reason to dismiss a legitimate Ron Paul victory. The real straws are only giving credence to his support.

Those of us that are Ron Paul supporters find all of the other candidates unacceptable. Please put Ron Paul back in the poll. End the war, Vote Ron Paul.

This is not a serious poll because it doesn't include the most popular candidate in NH.

It simply isn't necessary for Ron Paul supporters to "spam" your poll or any other poll. There are over 38,000 dedicated ACTIVE Ron Paul supporters organized through MeetUp.com. Once news of a poll hits this network, a couple of thousand of us take the time to click through to the poll. It's just that simple.
The fact that supporters of other candidates are so lacking in enthusiasm for their guy that they don't take the time to vote in these polls is proof that not one of them inspires people the way Ron Paul does.
For those who say Ron Paul can't win I offer one simple fact: Ron Paul has support from the left and from the right, Democrats and Republicans, Libertarians and independents. Thousands of Ron Paul supporters are people who were never inspired enough by any candidate to get involved. Many have never seen a reason to vote before. Labels divide us, Liberty unites us. Ron Paul's message of Liberty and Peace resounds with a majority of people who hear it.
Here in the Tampa Bay area of Florida we have over 300 activists. We are virtually the only campaign on the ground here. Fred Thompson has 15 supporters in the area. Giuliani has none. Romney has none.
Get your head out of the clouds and look out on your street corner. See any Romney signs? See any Giuliani or McCain signs? No, I bet you don't. But I bet you see Ron Paul signs. Does that tell you anything?
Wake up. The Ron Paul revolution is real. Get on board or get out of the way.

Good thing you took Ron Paul off the site. What conservative would ever want a President that advocated minimal government, lower taxes and individual liberty? Not to mention that international peace leads to free market profits, while war leads to government funded profiteering. Excluding Ron Paul was the best decision you have made yet.

Like all the other online polls, uncomfortable with the results showing Paul's online support, you scream "SPAM!" and give no evidence whatever to support that assertion!

Tell you what. Why don't you go over to www.slashdot.org and ask a bunch of the geeks over there to monitor your results. Sure, you'll have to give them access to all the data, but I'd wager that you'd find plenty of folks over there quite qualified to interpret the hits.

Then, if the polls ARE being "spammed", you can present some actual evidence from somebody that knows what he's talking about.

Otherwise, you're just a hypocrite making unfounded assertions - just like your old buddy Al Gored does in his stupid movie.

I was going to vote for THE FIRST TIME IN THIS HERE POLL but, alas, no Dr. Paul.

If it was Rudy was getting the kind of internet support that Dr. Paul is getting, and winning the States' straw polls, it would be all over the news and it would be hailed as a paradigm shift from traditional media to new media.

What a bunch of wusses y'all are.

Your accusation about Jesse Benton seems rather childish. The obvious answer would be that he wanted to know what amount of substantiation each vote had so that the campaign could have some idea of how relevant your poll is.

Why is this sneaky. To suggest that the campaign is making an effort to spam is so silly it's crazy. I've been a "member" of this campaign from day one and I've gotten exactly ZERO emails or notifications urging me to even participate in any online polls.

Having a lot of supporters online who search for Ron Paul in "google news" on their own time and volition does not constitute spamming.

BS. You're not including Ron Paul for personal reasons.

"As you may have noticed in the previous poll, people who voted for Ron Paul as their number one choice also only put Ron Paul as the only acceptable candidate -- a voting behavior not mimicked by supporters of other candidates."

Perhaps that's because Ron Paul supporters are the only Republicans not willing to sacrifice their principles and stray from the Constitution. If you truly respect and believe then Constitution then Ron Paul has to be the only acceptable candidate.

Thank you for removing Ron Paul from the poll. He's a fake Republican joke in my book after his comments durring the debate on Iraq. Good riddance!!!

I just voted all the other candidates UNACCEPTABLE. I have a problem with you basically accusing all of us Ron Paul supporters of being dishonest without offering to show proof of it, and to top it off, you refuse to be responsible for securing your poll.

Here's the deal: If you accuse, you better have proof. If your poll can be easily gamed, you don't get to whine and cry if people game it. Man up and secure your poll if it means that much to you. How do we know YOU aren't skewing the numbers? After all, you didn't like the results you got, so your answer is to remove Ron Paul? How old are you being? Where's the integrity in that?

And if you secure your poll, and don't like the results you get, that's no excuse to go blaming people.

It isn't our fault the other candidates don't inspire much excitement.

Boy, it sure was hard for me, the lone Ron Paul spammer, to write all those comments about this poll in variegated styles. I hope they never catch on to the secret of how I keep Rudy McRomney supporters' comments from showing up.

Seriously Matt and Mark, consider for just a moment that Paul might be right - freedom is popular. After that little academic exercise, you can go back to your strange little world where blind, status quo, liberty-destroying idiocy is expected to improve the condition of a failing country.

At least consider calling each of the Pro-Paul comments a vote.

Hmmm... Now let's see if I can come up with some more fake comments now to continue my diabolical Spam scheme. Oh, I know, here's one...

The RINOS and the neocons in the GOP can not stand the heat of the truth of Ron Paul's message of limited constitutional federal government, sound money, and nonintervention. Any who do honest reearch will find, as Jon Stuart said, a consistently principled stateman. Close the unconstitutional federal reserve with it's private bankers, end the IRS, stop anchor baby abuse of the 14th Amendment, and abolish the Dept of Educaton so we can reclaim our republic and the next generation of free thinkers.

I've been voting Republican for 25 years. they have promised me smaller Government every election. They finally got a majority in the House, Senate and the Presidency all at once. And I got the biggest, most intrusive, largest expansion of Federal power ever. More spending than ever. Biggest deficit ever. Yeah, I'm voting for Ron Paul. Still wonder why, we are ALL voting for Ron Paul.

I would rather have a Democrat in office then any Rebooblican on your list except for Dr. RON PAUL!!

If the only thing Republicans can offer is money misspent on useless wars, no-bid military contracts and pork-barrel boondoggles, an erosion of civil liberties and the Constitutional rights of the citizenry and a further erosion of National Sovereignty--like Comrades Hillary, Obama, or Edwards--at least the Dems are more honest and forthright about it.

The Dems campaign like socialists, and govern like socialists. The Republicans campaign like libertarians (like Ron Paul) and GOVERN like socialists!!

Food for thought!!

PEACE AND FREEDOM!!
David K. Meller

would you mind posting Mr. Benton's comments that were "less than amicable"? i have no reason to believe that they were--i have a hard time trusting someone who so formally rejects the democratic process.

Supporters of Dr. Paul are paying money to start MeetUp groups, print their own signs, and contribute to his campaign in impressive numbers. This defines "enthusiastic". So yes, they will come in droves to vote in the poll. This does not define "spamming".

Your insinuation that Jesse Benton is looking for ways to get around your poll's spam protection is insulting and juvenile, and it reeks of CYA. You don't have to invent a reason to exclude Ron Paul from your poll. Many Republican party apparachniks do it without so much as shrug. So go ahead and be honest: you don't like his politics and wish he would go away. Why conjure this conspiratorial nonsense?

Frankly, I find your lack of support for Ron Paul silly. If anyone can defeat Hillary it is Ron Paul. He is the only figure in the Republican party that has the ability to pull in support from every political paradigm, the ability to make a reasoned and justified response in debate, and the ability to keep a Federalist Democratic government in majority for the next 4 years.

If you think the likes of a disingenuous lobbyist like Fred Thompson can defeat Hilary after the Bush years have destroyed support for Republicans you are fooling yourself.

I'm not sure that I fully understand or believe the logic for leaving Dr. Ron Paul out of your poll - certainly you have the right to do so, but not including all of the candidates certainly puts your credibility severely in question.

I'm sure that people spam for all of the candidates; it is just as easy to disallow that sort of spamming for the whole poll, rather than try to discredit one of the candidates that you don't personally like by leaving him out.

I'm a person who has always voted for a candidate (on all levels) based on what I understand of their positions, their voting history and their ethics (in relation to my own).

Mostly I have voted for a Democrat or Independent candidate, though I have certainly voted for Republicans in the past.

As I continue to learn about Dr. Paul, I become more and more energized and passionate about his message and his adherence to the Consatitution of the United States. I will be voting in the Republican Primary in my home state, and will be attending the Republican debate in NH next week (09/05/07) - 2 things that I would NEVER have imagined even a short year ago.

I have corresponded and met with over 100 people who feel the same way, many of whom have similar voting histories (ie: not party-line Republicans) - and these are just people from the Boston, MA area.

I have donated to Congressman Paul's campaign and will do so again (and again). I find myself buying pocket-sized U.S. Constitution booklets so that I can spread the word about supporting the Constitution to my friends and family - not to talk about Ron Paul, but to talk about the importance of the Constitution...anyone who truly spends some time learning about this highly important document can draw their own conclusions about which politicians actually want to protect it.

All of this information is an attempt to show that there are plenty of real, flesh & blood Ron Paul supporters, and that I'm one of them (and have interacted in very real ways with many more in my region).

As I said earlier, I'm sure that there are spammers for ALL of the candidates - however, the most rudimentary of controls will keep an online poll's results reasonably honest.
Keeping a candidate out of the poll is anything but...

Boohoo Boohoo, all of the young guns in the GOP so technologically savvy, but so many are followers instead of being leaders. What a generation of wimps we have coming up, a group of generation x and generation y who could not collectively fight their way out of a paper bag. Too much of cowards, most of you neocons, to join the military. Ah but that is your choice you whine, when confronted with the question of why aren't you in Iraq right now fighting this battle that you endorse? That is what this Georgia Marine Mom wants to know, why are you creating blogs when you should be defending our Country in Iraq or Afghanistan? Where is your intestinal fortitude, my young man?

I support Ron Paul, and you are a fool! Do you not see the writing on the wall or did you learn how to analyze anything in school other than how to use Cliff Notes to get that degree?

Semper Fi,

Linda

Your elimination of Ron Paul from this poll is pathetic, didn't your mummy ever teach you not to be a sore loser?

Let me first say that I do not endorse Paul, or any other republican for that matter. But I like to follow the political discussion.

I find the update to this poll rather extraordinary. Since I have been a web systems developer for many years, I find these "how to make sure hits are real people" things rather fascinating.

It seems this is especially a problem in online polls, which is why most poll engines include one or many technologies to make sure "one man - one vote" is enforced. This is often done through e.g. placing cookies on the surfer's computer hard disk drive or through keeping a list of IP addresses (the latter is not really possible to get around), but there are a number of these techniques.

Thus, following my interest I have followed the links to other blog posts and articles that supposedly explains the spamming of Ron Paul followers. But no matter how many links I follow it seems there is no real explanation. I even found and read through the 10-point list of sites that are claimed to violate the Digg rules.

If someone is really spamming the poll it is easy to find proof of it being so. Anyone who is not a complete computer illiterate should be able to find enough such proofs within an hour or two to be able to show - beyond any reasonable doubt - that there is spamming (or tampering with the poll) going on.

But there is nothing like this available. Not anywhere! I've even googled for such evidence, since I understand it is often claimed that Ron Paul followers are especially computer savvy and know how to tamper with online polls. But I couldn't find anything.

I did however find a lot of accusations and comments on that the polls "obviously" must have been tampered with. But that doesn't really prove anything, does it? Since it is so easy to prove someone's been spamming a poll (and trust me, it is) how come nobody seems to have done this?

The claims in this blog post update are based on a complete misunderstanding of spamming. Spam doesn't mean a lot of people are involved, it means a great volume is coming from the same source. Spam is thus the exact opposite of people telling others there is a poll and that they should partake in it.

I see no problem with people linking from one web site to another (which is really what we're talking about here!), that is what we call "WWW" or the World Wide Web - it is a web because it is based on hyperlink technology. If a poll is interesting for some reason people will link to it - all kinds of people will. Ron Paul supporters will surely link to such a poll, as will supporters of Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney or whoever. Does having a lot of people linking to the poll automatically make you a spam source? Does linking to a poll mean you violate the implicit rules of the poll? I don't see why.

I would suggest a bullet proof strategy: if you don't want people on the Internet to link to this poll and tell other people about it using digital means of communication, then don't do it on a web site. The web is all about linking and using digital means of communication to distribute information - to communicate.

I'm beginning to think the Ron Paul conspiracy theorists (you find quite a few of them when googling 'Ron Paul', 'poll' and 'spam') are really on to something. After all, no one has been able to supply any evidence that Paul's supporters are spamming or tampering with the online polls. But a lot of people are complaining that Ron Paul gets "too many votes." Concluding that this "must" be a result of organized spamming seems a bit childish, or perhaps even stupid. It is at least ignorant of what the Internet is about.

Excluding Ron Paul on the basis of spamming is soooo May, 2007. I have never once seen any of you guys provide any evidence.

I receive emails from the Ron Paul campaign. None have ever directed me to vote in a poll, let alone recommend me to use a certain tactic to defeat the poll. I do see blog post from time to time that aleart me to the presence of a straw poll. When that happens, I go vote, once.

Maybe Jesse Benton just wanted to know if your poll results were worth paying attention to.

There is nothing weird about Ron Paul supporters finding all the other candidates unacceptable. He is the only candidate who opposed the Iraq war, he is the only candidate who is willing to put his principles ahead of the Republican party line, and he also puts respect for the constitution ahead of his personal views on social issues.

Ron Paul is the only Republican I would vote for. All the rest are unacceptable to me and that is how I have voted in your poll. Your poll didn't ask me if I was a Republican, it only asked me how conservative I was. I am a Libertarian. I consider myself to be fiscally conservative and socially liberal. I want the government to stay out of my wallet and out of my bedroom.

Anyone with such a simplistic view of politics, probably shouldn't be in the straw polling business.

Thank your for excluding Ron Paul. Now if we could just exclude him from everything else. I've heard just about enough about getting rid of the income tax and replacing it with nothing, ending U.S. involvement in international governmental organizations and the affairs of foreign nations, and limiting the role of federal government to its Constitutionally prescribed functions. Let's get on with the discussion of real conservative principles such as how much healthcare should the government provide to the people, how can government function more efficiently to help people solve their problems, and how can government save us from scary things.

Mike

How wrong of you to not include Ron Paul. I would have voted for only Ron Paul as the only acceptable candidate because he is the only one who is not a talking head and who is not sold out to a globalizing entity in one way or another. I never thought I would see such fascist tactics employed by GOP supporters. Sad.

And, a 2nd point, why wouldn't a Pual staff member want information on how a poll was set up? Especially if Paul was winning. If it was set up to not allow multiple votes (easy to do) then it could be used as a reference for support and a way of advertising their candidates success. Makes sense to me.

Why is McFred Thompson, an undeclared candidate, in the poll and Ron Paul, who has won most of these straw polls, missing?

Was it? Or was it the fact that you could never stand the thought that people liked Paul? Maybe those who support Paul find the other candidates unacceptable for obvious reasons. I would never consider a Republican candidate had Ron Paul not stepped into the picture, and cannot stand the policies of the others wishing to continue the current administration's policies. Paul's supporters are not just on the internet, they are springing up everywhere and are not reliant on corporations to drive the campaign, but just the supporters themselves. "Paint the town Paul" campaigns have been highly successful, as well as other private functions. To quote an Iowa Democrat before Ames, "I've never heard of you, but you make sense." "But you're a Democrat, Paul is running as a Republican, what do you think about that?" "It doesn't matter, Republican, Democrat, if it's for Ron Paul that will help America"

Peg: Lefty isolationists? Paul's views are those of the true right, not the right that the people think is the limit of today.

Other sites have polls with all the GOP candidates....Ron Paul wins them because he has more young supporters on the computers out there and He has a message that is exciting (constitutional government as orginally intended by the writers)...Shame on this site since he has the longest conservative voting record out there and doesn't deserve this as a man that has been fighting for 2 decades out of control Federal gov. and spending!! He deserves better from his party, my party...I am ashamed of the current state of the GOP (2 homosexual sex scandals by our Congressmen and PORK politics)...Hopefully the party can find a reason for support other than "past" ideals...if you look at the voting records at the FREEDOM INDEX, sadly, most GOP vote barely above the Dems according to the Constitution which they swear to uphold...time to support Constitution party I guess, leave GOP losers of the election and maybe they will wise up. hopefully.

RON PAUL is my choice (and I'm NOT a WEB BOT!)

Please place him back on your poll for the following reasons:

1- I'm tired, yes tired, of playing the same game under the rules that are written by the REP and DEM parties and pushed through by MSM.

2- We NEED change. It's not just that we want change, we NEED it. NOW. Which one of the puppets listed on your poll is going to do that?

3- I've been registered as an independent voter my whole life, although I've always voted Republican. Yet it's the same thing, time after time. I want someone in office who'll make the RIGHT choices, not the POPULAR choices. RON PAUL is the man. Period.

Why give up on the candidate you want to win because the odds don't look good? Jesse Ventura won as Governor when the media gave him no shot even until about 10pm the day of the election. Ron Paul supporters may seem like spammers because they are ardent supporters. I read up daily on Ron Paul because I desperately want to see change in Washington so I hear about polls and vote, most people aren't doing anything for their candidate of choice. I don't condone dishonest behavior but Ron Paul will do well in straw polls and online polls and not so well in the national polls. Ventura hadn't done well in the polls, either, yet he won because many more young people turned out to vote than expected (or counted in polls). Some people are opposed to Ron Paul's stance of pulling troops back from around the globe. South Korea could defend itself from North Korea. It has 40 times the economy and double the population and North Korea's weapons are obsolete. Give S Korea a chance to prepare and then bring U.S. troops out of there. Just as the U.S. caused the end of the cold war by economic strength, so could S Korea defend itself. U.S. is very fortunate China does not see a need to provide a defense for N Korea since U.S. is defending S Korea. That could easily become another 'quagmire' the U.S. should not be inciting.

If Ron Paul's name isn't included, I won't take this poll. In this horse race, he's still in the lead as far as I'm concerned.

My only question is: Did you check the other candidates for poll spammers, or did you single out Ron Paul because he was at the top? I just think that it's a fair guess that people spam the polls for all candidates. Of course, this does not make it right, but still, I have a hard time believing that it is just Ron Paul's supporters doing this.

Sincerely,
James M.

In order for the GOP straw poll to be fair to ALL candidates, you SHOULD include Ron Paul. Yes, I am a supporter of Ron Paul and NO I DO NOT cheat or spam. I take that as a total insult that you would think that every one of Ron Paul’s supporters are cheaters and spammers.

The last time I checked this is the USA - to exclude one candidate because you do not like him or for whatever the reasons are is NOT acceptable as a free country. It is not acceptable to hamper someone's free right to choose because it does not fit your personal ideas or believes. When this occurs this it is called Communism – this seems to be where the great USA is heading.

I would appreciate if you would include Ron Paul in the GOP Straw Poll in the future.

Thank you

It's easy to dismiss Ron Paul supporters as nuts, and it's also easy to restrict online polls to one vote per person.

I would encourage everyone to recognize the fact that the Paul campaign attracts some overzealous, less than stable personalities. However, in my experience the vast majority of his supporters are rational, mature, thoughtful people who are aware that our political system is broken, neither party has been able to produce a candidate capable of restoring ethics, honor, and American values to the White House.

In reading letters regarding Ron Paul to various blog sites, I am consistently struck by the intelligent analysis of the issues, much like the approach Ron Paul takes in interviews and debates. He might not be the candidate for you, but we owe it to ourselves to research his positions, and more importantly the rationale behind those positions. As Republicans, and Americans, you might just be pleasantly surprised.

You claimed Dr. Paul's supporters cheated your poll. Mr. Benton asked you to back it up. You couldn't, because you're full of crap.

And now your response is to spread innuendo about Mr. Benton. And remove the only pro-American candidate from your poll.

Why do you hate America?

The problem here is what we define as "spamming" a poll.

If people vote twice, that's spamming.

If Ron Paul supporters encourage other Ron Paul supporters to vote, that ain't spamming, it's activism.

You might want to ask yourself why supporters of the other candidates don't feel strongly enough about them to encourage others to vote in your poll.

There's a reason for Ron Paul mania.

This is complete disrespect for a 10 term Republican congressman, Dr. Ron Paul.

I find the "lefty" comment particularly amusing, considering the field that is allowed to be in the poll. Abortionists, flip floppers, undeclared candidates and gun control nuts.

Face it, Dr. Paul has overwhelming support on the internet. The only "proof" offered for the exclusion is he wins online polls. This simply is proof of his support on the internet.

And the logic for the exclusion, lets say it is true, and people are "cheating". Does that also mean we should exclude Romney's Ames Iowa straw poll victory because he bussed people in and spent more per vote then any candidate, by far?

No, the exclusion is solely based on not liking what a Conservative Republican congressman has to say. I contend, the true "lefties" are those that want to exclude Dr. Paul. Are you so insecure in your believes that you must shut others out?

But lets give this guy the benefit of the doubt. How hard is it to construct a poll that doesn't allow multiple voting from the same IP address? (spamming) It is trivial. How hard is it to filter out all of Ron Paul's votes, and display two poll results, one with Paul, and one without? Again, trivial.

Ron Paul has the most well oiled, "internet machine" of any candidate. It is no surprise he wins these polls. Instead of the Republicans closing ranks, and running from this, they should embrace it. I'll be the first to admit that this may not translate to votes in the voting booth, but it is a big mistake to excluded him from the polls.

Respectfully,

Jeff King
CTO, Aero Data Inc.
Hillsdale, MI

Wow. I spend 16 years serving my country by flying in the Air Force. I've been a good Republican all my life. And then when my favorite Republican candidate starts getting some great grassroots support (BOTH on the internet and on the ground), people from that party exclude him. I feel betrayed. If this party wants to exclude Ron Paul, then it wants to exclude me. Considering how the base of the party has shrunk, I think that attitude will doom the Republicans to failure.

Peg/Honda : You both sound like you have fallen prey to collectivist group think to me. Where are you both getting this idea that Dr. Paul can not win the general election?? Most who actual hear Dr. Paul w/out mainstream media interpretations become fully committed Paul supporters. In a general election there is no way the media could suppress his message of freedom and Constitutional limited govt. from being heard by the public.
Furthermore, Paul support comes not only from Independants and libertians, but from Republican and former Democratic voters as well. All one has to do to verify this is to go to any Ron Paul meetup group or ralley. No other canidate can claim such a wide demographic support. With this in mind, I do not think a Ron Paul general election victory is that far fetched. The problem has been and continues to be winning the Republican Nomination. Win that and I honestly believe the general election is in the bag for the Republican party.

"When a true genius appears in the world. you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."

-Jonathan Swift

Ron Paul 2008

Heh,

Point out the obvious problems with Ron Paul's campaign, and the trolls start coming out of the woodwork....

Ron Paul represents American Values in the same manner that Cindy Sheehan represents the leftists. Both are living in their own fantasy worlds devoid of any contact with reality.

The only thing more sad than Ron Paul are those who would cast a vote for him.

Have at it, Ron Paul trolls! Let's see how deeply you can pile your childish invectives!

In case you haven't noticed there is another candidate for the 2008 Presidential Elections...His name is RON PAUL and I notice that he has not been included in your straw poll....I'm sure this is an oversight on your part....And I'm sure this will be rectified soon!

Dear Sirs, I am disheartened by your removal of Congressman Ron Paul, and by your portrayal of him as a pseudo-conservative. I have been active in the Republican Party for years, and am currently a precinct chair for the city of Rochester, Minnesota. I am president of the federalist society at my law school, and I have run campaigns for republican candidates across Minnesota. I am a strict constructionist of the U.S. Constitution, that is, one who believes that it should be interpreted literally, and according to the meaning given its words when ratified. I support the elevation of strict constructionists to the U.S. Supreme Court and all other courts...a position I hope all of you, though not educated in the law, support. I do not believe that it is inconsistent to support the elevation to the white house of someone who holds these identical views... Justice Scalia and Thomas hold views and constitutional perspectives on construction virtually identical with Congressman Paul. Yet the congressman does not reflect "our" Republican principles? There is a disconnect here somewhere. What happened to support among Republicans for the rule of law? Perhaps you should read Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, which reads states that the U.S. Constitution, and the laws made pursuant thereof, is the "supreme law of the land." The chief executive swears the same oath as a Supreme Court Justice, and yet you somehow believe that it is less important for a chief executive to fulfill his oath than a judge? Among the conservative law school community and within the federalist society, there is considerable support for Congressman Paul. At the last Student Chapters Conference in DC, I discovered that over a third of young attorneys there, young conservatives representing and leading the federalist society at 144 law schools across the country, were Paul supporters... this is odd isn't it? Paul is consistent, and for that, he is castigated and ostracized. He wishes to return the office of chief executive to the constitutional role it was designed to fill, not some position as temporary deity or popular demigod. Why you oppose this is beyond comprehension, and beyond rational explanation. I suggest you gentlemen who have come to the determination that the Congressman should be removed from the list due to overwhelmingly popular support on the net, reappraise your position. Revisit David Frum's article "Unpatriotic Conservatives" from the spring of 2003 in the NRO, and consider the current realities on the ground. History is not merely a subject for academics, nor economic reality for economists. In the end, the United States needs to revisit our first principles, our guiding principles, our supreme principles, to find our way. Acting according to "political reality" is a necessary part of a country's life, but acting in accordance with the history, longstanding traditions and rights of the people, in a manner consistent with the rule of law as expressed in simple English in the text of the U.S. Constitution, is something we as Republicans should demand from our leaders, and from our nominee for president. Sirs, I urge you to put in place a technological device to exclude spammers, and to allow loyal Republicans and all others who love liberty and our system of free government to vote according to the consciences for a candidate who will brush the barnacles of years of neglect from our country's foundation, the Constitution of the United States. Thank you.

I have been an active Republican all my life, working and running several campaigns. I find it very distasteful that I received an email to participate in this straw poll directly from GOP Bloggers, was given the choice to vote for people who haven't announced yet but can't vote for Ron Paul. The idea that this poll if more scientific by excluding a popular candidate is ridiculous! I am very disappointed in my party for their continued exclusion of the most conservative voice.

Tim Galvin

If Ron Paul supporters weren't running around breathlessly from site to site, stacking polls and hijacking blog threads, this wouldn't have happened.

I doubt they will be inspired to act like adults as a result of this action which they directly caused.

That is ridiculous!!
Ron Paul supporters are NUMEROUS, not spamming.
Look, it is relatively simple to prevent spamming; you require unique IP addresses and email. Disallow public emails, only allow corporate, university or ISP emails.

If you can't handle that, you are inept and deserve to be forgotten.

REGARDLESS, the Ron Paul Revolution will PREVAIL!

To the owners of this web site,

You and the rest of the GOP establishment just don't get it. Ron Paul is

popular on the Internet. You are taking an Internet, non-scientific poll.

What do you think is going to happen - do you actually believe you are

going to get some useful information whether you include Ron Paul or not?

Folks, this site is being dishonest in leaving Ron Paul out of the poll.
This site is not an unbiased GOP straw poll - it's just another Republican
establishment tool to try
to stamp out the excitement for Dr. Paul's candidacy.

I want to start off with I am an independent who believes one should vote on the merits of the candidate, rather than the party who backs him. In all honesty in todays day and age the idea of political parties should disappear. Recently I have found Ron Paul, from my home town. (dont live there anymore, up in NY)Why is it just because in general Paul supporters tend to be more tech suavy or want to push the grass roots effort on the web are considered spammers???

So what if they all meet up with each other on one site to support their candidate and jump from one to the other to the other etc.? All this REALLY means is that they are dedicated to their candidate. If the other candidates had REAL support rather than the MSM telling us that we support them, they would be here doing the exact same thing for their candidate.

Politics is a very important thing, no more than ever with our president acting like a dictator. Most people on both sides will be no better.

I find your accusations that Paul supporters spam or crack the system or whatever nonsense you try and claim. We are just dedicated and tech suavy.

As a Paul supporter and a member of the 2000 delegation to the Republican National Convention, I find it incredible that you can even begin to say that Paul shouldn't be up there, and apparently, only Paul supporters know how to cheat, and that you are just disallowing Paul's supporters because, by and large, they don't find any of the other candidates acceptable.

Moreover, it is clear that Paul's views on the war are more in line with the public's views, and he is MORE likely to win a general election than is a "I'll just bomb Iran if they don't fall in line" Duncan Hunter.

AND, if I hear one more person claim that Paul's supporters are trade isolationists, while excusing Hunter, Huckabee, and Tancredo, I'm going to scream. Paul would allow almost completely unrestricted trade, and certainly more than any of the other candidates. And he'd talk to every other world leader, instead of trying to isolate them. And he'd eliminate restrictions on trade with Cuba. I doubt that there is a less restrictive candidate running.

In conclusion, I'd state that the real problem with the results that online polls are revealing is that Paul voters tend to be more educated and more participants in the younger and more Internet savvy life. It is not cheating that provides these results, but the simple demographics of the electorate. The gray hairs that are going to be supporting Guiliani merely because he has shown a penchant for quick remarks and good TV appearance are not the same people that hang out in the web.

I can understand folks who are not fans of Ron Paul buying into the whole "spam" notion because the idea that there's a candidate out there who appeals to Republicans, Democrats and Independents as well as to people who have never donated to a campaign is hard to believe. Add to it that the neo-Con media (Fox news, especially) has done everything possible to convince the voting public that congressman Paul's candidacy has no real support (this video points out how ridiculous it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoeoc-E9DXk) and sure, it looks like spam. I see some of the same for the other less-known candidates, but it's extremely overt in the case of congressman Paul. The difference between Paul and the other candidates is that he is--according to his rival John McCain--the most honest man in Washington. The only way the Republicans can win in '08 after 8 years of Bush is with someone VERY DIFFERENT who has a clear vision of what needs to be fixed in this country and who knows how to fix it. The fact that the Ron Paul campaign is not about him so much as about his ideas is what I find so compelling. Folks that bash him have not taken the time to check him out or have just been duped by the MSM.
By the way, to the Huckabee supporter, I have heard from an Arkansan that Huckabee was the worst governor they ever had--worse than Clinton.
Besides Paul, I think the strongest candidate is Fred Thompson, though his lobbyist past and good-ol-boy Southerner persona remind too many people of Bush. I just don't see him or anyone other than Paul having a chance against the Dems after Bush and all the Republican scandals we've seen in the last few years.

Your decision to remove Ron Paul has diminished the validity of your polls as much or more than the spammers that you claim are stacking polls.

This decision has motivated me to attempt to find a way to illustrate how much support is really out there for Ron Paul. About an hour after reading this post I created the website myronpaulsite.com just to help prove that the support out there is real and that the high Ron Paul poll count has much more to do with real people voting than it does with supporters stacking the results.

I've wondered how I can support RP, now I know. For this I thank you!

In my life I have voted for Reagan, Bush the Elder twice, Dole, Bush the Younger twice, and have been a straight ticket Republican voter every year that I can remember. I made phone calls for Bush the Younger during his first presidential campaign, and have sent money to the national GOP.

However, I am sad to say that I am now extremely disappointed in the Republican party; which disappointment has been accelerated of late by the reaction of the Republican establishment and Republican chatterers and bloggers like yourself to Dr. Paul's candidacy. Your action in removing Dr. Paul from this poll is lame, and deepens the growing contempt this lifelong Republican has for the GOP.

Perhaps if the GOP had listened to Dr. Paul over the last 10 terms, it would not have found itself in the lousy position it's in now.

Maybe Dr. Paul won't do well in the primaries; maybe he will. But unless and until the GOP embraces Dr. Paul's pro-life libertarian outlook (at least to some degree), the party has lost me and probably many others.

I find it interesting that when a presidential candidate such as Ron Paul strikes a chord with the public and inspires people to get involved in the process, they accuse you of "stacking polls and hijacking blog threads".

Matt, your position is thoroughly unconservative.

1. You are singling out a single candidate for unfair treatment. Let's try how it sounds with another candidate.

"Some of you may be wondering about the absence of Willard M. Romney from this months straw poll. Let me explain .... we discovered a sophisticated coordinated effort to spam the poll, obfuscate [Willard's supporters'] actions, and even cheat the poll .... The communications director for Willard's campaign ... was a bit less than amicable .... Willard has been removed from this months poll in order to provide usable data on the acceptability/unacceptability of the candidates in the race. As you may have noticed in the previous poll, people who voted for Willard as their number one choice also only put Willard as the only acceptable candidate -- a voting behavior not mimicked by supporters of other candidates. This made the data severely flawed and useless as a barometer -- even for an unscientific one."

Doesn't that grate against your GOP principles of equal treatment under law? But in your domain, you make your own law.

2. You are publicly charging a candidate's supporters with unethical behavior without providing proof. I don't see from your results how we can tell that one candidate's supporters are marking every other candidate as unacceptable. Evidence to this effect could be easily published. Similarly, nonidentifying evidence about nonunique IPs, identical rare email domains, and the like could be easily published. You have neglected to back up your charges. If you had REAL PROOF, you'd be the FIRST to show the money to the Ron Paul camp and to demonstrate how many warm bodies the extra votes can be safely attributed to. Since NOBODY is posting such evidence, your charges are morally suspect.

3. Your results show Paul supporters find him the ONLY acceptable candidate, while other supporters do not find their candidate the only acceptable one. This is NOT "severely flawed" data. The truth is exactly as your results show! Most Paul supporters, like myself, DO find him the only acceptable candidate! You reject these results, which are directly responsive to the questions you asked as you asked them, because you do not believe them. That shows further bias.

4. All candidates' supporters have the same opportunity to "spam" polls. Why is it that NO other candidate (besides B. Hussein Obama) generates such high totals and potential spam? To attribute such a phenomenom to wholly unethical activity is thoroughly biased. I note that Obama beats Paul occasionally in internet polls and am disappointed, but I certainly can't say "Obama is cheating better than we are". Rather, Obama has a good internet following among teens and students, while Paul has a (usually stronger) following among bloggers and IT professionals. These trends naturally translate into poll results.

5. Further, you betray your loyalty when you speak of polling as to the "candidates in the race". You exclude Dr. Paul, who is definitely in the race, while including Gingrich and one of the Thompson Twins, who are definitely NOT in the race. It would be more honest if you said you wished to determine acceptability of potential candidates in the race among Republicans who are not the 40,000 Dr. Paul volunteers. Although this is your honest position, you try to couch it in doublespeak by declaring the unannounceds, but not Dr. Paul, as "in the race", attempting to confer in/out status by your pronouncements.

6. Not only that, but something is fishy with your IT as well. I voted twice (and I dare anyone to challenge the impeccability of proxying my wife, who will NOT vote in this poll but WILL vote in the Florida primary for Dr. Paul). The first time of course I marked all your chosens unacceptable and none of them first choice. The results showed about 3000 votes among the nine chosens. Because their totals equalled the grand total, I could see that my vote was NOT counted in this result. The second time, for my wife's benefit, I chose Hunter as first choice, while continuing to mark all other candidates unacceptable. This time, a minute later, there were 7000 votes, and Gilmore and "(none)" had been added to the nine chosens. (I refreshed, but only 2 votes had been added.) I don't know how you can call a poll honest when votes are not counted in some tabulations, and Gilmore appears without being on the ballot, while Paul does not appear except as "(none)" (which is polling 13%, eminently reasonable for online Paul support in a poll where he is forbidden).

In short, you have lost all respectability in my mind for producing honest results. Even if your bias had been hurled at a different candidate, all the same charges of malice aforethought would stand. One doesn't need to be a Paul supporter to see that.

Your only ethical response will be 1) to publish demonstrable proof of your charges; 2) to admit your bias, in that your meaning of "usable acceptability data" is intended to exclude the Dr. Paul segment of your readership, and your meaning of "candidates in the race" is unacceptably subjective (where's John Cox?); and 3) admit that the 13% showing of "(none)" is, in fact, a "usable barometer" of gauging Paul support. (Sure, it will include a few non-Paul supporters, but it has also already EXCLUDED a larger number of Paul supporters.)

I will defend to the death your right to be wrong.

Hmm.

Ya I seriously doubt his staff has nothing better to do than sit around and falsify polls on all of the 10,000 sites exactly like this one... totally bogus excuse for not having him on the poll.

"People, if we want to win this election, we're going to have to take out the gopbloggers.org poll."... right.

Why can't I vote for Ron Paul?

I am a Ron Paul supporter, and while disappointed in your decision to exclude him from this poll, I cannot blame you. Yes, there are many RP supporters who are over-the-top, spamming and racking up poll numbers through semi-coordinated torrents. This causes many more of us much chagrin as it distracts from the real purpose: supporting Ron Paul and getting his message out there.

I would encourage you to continue with this poll, and to perhaps find ways to safegaurd it's integrity. Please note that there are many, many of us Ron Paul supporters who do not condone childish behavior, but we do want every American to hear Dr. Paul's positions, as they are relevant, real, and vital to the continuation of our Great Experiment.

With so many disillusioned with the Republicans and running to the dems, I believe Ron Paul is the only one who can beat the dems. He has lots of support from people across the political spectrum because liberty is a popular idea! You hypocrites - especially the writer of this blog - are cannibalizing your own party.

Cool.

You think you can also get him out of the next debate?

Thanks!

I support Ron Paul and have never spammed anything. I have commented and voted where I can and I certainly don't apologize for that. Prior to learning more about Mike Huckabee, I would not have listed a second choice because the other clones want to continue the big government policies of Bush. Find me a true conservative and I'll support them, but with the exception of Paul and probably Huckabee, all you have is a bunch of free spending, foreign intervening, big government clones. I know you hate to hear that, but it is YOUR party that rejected the Gingrich revolution and decided the pretend conservativism is about jingoism, demagoguery and spending as much money as you can. Give the party back to the conservatives and you won't have this problem.

I work for a company with over 400 employees. I haven't spoke to ALL of them and we often talk politics. I have yet to find one Ron Paul supporter. I wholeheartedly agree with him being excluded from online polls. A few bad apples spoil the bunch.

Unfortunately, the left right paradigm is feeling pressure from the disillusioned and nonactive voters. These folks have been awakened by Dr. Ron Paul and his message of freedom. The chessboard rules have been shattered by the masses. WE THE PEOPLE are "thinking change" and are manifesting likewise! The game has new rules and the majority is playing again. "Freedom is Popular" and it will not go away without a fight.

lol, upper right hand corner of your page it says "Expose the Hypocrisy" and then you don't include Ron Paul in the poll.

You might want to consider exposing your own hypocrisy first.

In the interest of fairness to all concerned, publish the text of the letter from Jesse Benton.

I suspect he was merely interested in whether you had done basic, and obvious, things to secure the poll such as IP address checking. Very few online polls take even this simple precaution.

If you are truly that interested in maintaining the secrecy of your methods of fraud prevention because those measures are effective, then you should have no problem including Ron Paul

Moreover, if you merely include Ron Paul and let people discount the votes for him, you will still get the measures of other candidates.

I would like to write in Ron Paul.

Ron Paul's domestic message is just fine, in fact, I would love to see it all enacted, BUT his foreign policy ideas are nothing short of naive in a post-9/11, hell, post-WWII world.

What Ron Paul doesn't seem to understand is that after WWII, the United States became a world superpower, and with that distinction came new responsibilities. And a policy of isolationism is not one of them. If you might recall, it was American isolation during the first few years of both World Wars that made them drag out longer than probably necessary.

Some compare the United States with the Roman Empire. And those say that the US is destined for a fall like the Roman Empire. OK, let's compare what happened to the civilized world after the collapse of the Roman Empire. A period known as the Dark Ages started. And that is exactly what would happen in a world without the US. The US is the gloal policeman for a reason. If it weren't for us, the world would tear itself apart within decades.

It's dishonest and just flat out wrong not to have Ron Paul in your poll. The reason there are so many votes for no first choice in this poll is because they are all Ron Paul votes. Ron Paul supporters are more loyal and more commited to the ideals of true conservatism than the supporters of these other people. Neo conservatism is dying and Libertarian/ constitutional conservatism is the future. We're not going to accept the neocon vision for our future. Our resolve is greater than theirs. Tancredo and Hunter are acceptable to me but The GOP had better be prepared because the people are prepared to reestablish a true conservative movement in this country.

I always thought that spamming was one person, such as from one IP address or one e-mail address launching unwanted messages upon a large number of others. Apparently, it is a large number of people speaking out for something they believe in.

That being said, many people would put that all the other candidates are unacceptable because they all support the Iraq war, something that around 70% of the country is against. Why is this surprising to you?

I for one, did put Ron Paul as my number one candidate and also put acceptable choices (check my IP history here if you like) for a few other candidates, and said a few others were unacceptable.

The sad realization that you may have to face is that many people feel that our country needs a real change, a revolution so to speak, and they feel very passionately about it.

Keep in mind you have also removed the candidate who has received the most donations from our armed forces. My grandfather and uncle are high up in the navy, my other grandfather served in world war 2, and I plan to go into the FBI. I don't feel that removing the troop's candidate is a good way to show support for our troops.

I pray that you put Ron Paul, a pro life lifelong conservative, doctor, and active duty air force veteran back on the list.

God bless,
Greg

WE THE PEOPLE want Ron Paul.... you need to get a clue. You think if you wish him away that we will go away.... NOT SO

What kind of mickey mouse organization do you dimwits run anyway?

Pam,

The kind which doesn't have Daffy Duck candidates like Ron Paul in its straw poll...

Dear Mark Noonan,

Why don't you respond to a substantive post instead of attacking an analogy.

Ben Kuipers

So I am supposed to vote for the Republican I want elected but only as long as that Republican is not Ron Paul? It is obvious Ron Paul has a large support base otherwise he would not be receiving votes at all and his presence in the poll would not be an issue at all. I refuse to choose between the lesser of evils.

where is Ron Paul, Im tired of not seeing him on the polls this is getting out of hand.

I guess this is what we get when the country is run by a bunch of brainwashed baby boomer's....

This makes me sick, accusing supporters for the only honest and reliable candidate on the ballot to be spammers. Totally unfair. These results are INNACCURATE and totally false!!!!