Group Mentality Will Gouge the GOP

By Natalie Schultz

            Tonight, after the FOX News South Carolina debate, Frank Luntz had his select group of Republican voters in a room and he asked them who performed the best and worst.  Most people believed Fred Thompson did the best, but a bunch of them shouted that Ron Paul did the worst.  What is interesting is that when Mr. Luntz then asked them to raise their hands if they believed that Ron Paul did the worst, most hands shot right up, except for one young woman in the front row, who looked around her and then slowly raised her hand and shrugged her shoulders. 

            Not for nothing, but it must be noted that Ron Paul received the same amount of applause towards his answers as did any of the other candidates.  So, it must be asked, how did FOX News choose those select 28 Republican voters to sit in that special room to watch the debate?  Perhaps they used a questionnaire and only selected the respondents who believed that continuing the War in Iraq was their most important concern.  Later, when Mr. Luntz asked the group if they believed that Ron Paul should have been included in the debate, almost all of them said yes.  So, obviously they at least felt that Ron Paul added a legitimate, albeit different, viewpoint to the debate.  Then, of course, Hannity and Colmes interviewed each candidate individually except for Ron Paul (Colmes did note that Paul was invited, but declined.  I don’t blame him).

            When Ron Paul warned of unjustified war with Iran, the focus group gave a very negative response.  Well, guess what, 75% of the country does NOT want to go to war with Iran.  So, FOX’s focus group is totally out of touch with the rest of America.  Luntz then said that the group wants a “true conservative” Republican.  Well, what he really means is NeoCon Republican, because, the most respected “true” Conservative in our country, Patrick J. Buchanan, has always been totally against the war.  I love how no Republican pundits ever attack Pat, in fact they all respect him, yet they all attack Ron Paul, even though Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul agree on just about everything, from taxes, to immigration, to foreign policy.

Honestly, I do not believe that most Americans take FOX News seriously anymore.  The Democrats refuse to participate in any FOX debates, the new FOX Business Channel has been trounced for false news stories, and just the other day CNN’s Paul Begala flipped out because FOX News reported that he was joining Hillary Clinton’s campaign staff.  Begala emailed FOX’s Major Garrett many times telling him that the news was false, that he has not and will not join Hillary’s campaign, yet Major Garrett continued to report the story on the air and even told Begala that he had a very reliable source.  A reliable source?  The man himself sent him at least three emails saying that it was all a lie and that every other news and media outlet had contacted him after they heard FOX’s story, and none of them went with the story because it was a lie.

            A great video is on You Tube where FOX’s Carl Cameron is interviewing Ron Paul about how he feels about FOX’s coverage of him.  Cameron: “Is the media treating you fair? … You know a lot of the candidates want to cut you off the debate stage.”  And then Cameron asks if FOX is giving Paul a fair shake: Paul jokingly says “Well, I wish you would be more fair and balanced” and Cameron responds “Don’t we all!”  I think that says it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPRzlejFx8M&

            Why should Republicans care if Democrats ignore FOX News?  Because, if Republicans are truly relying on FOX News to get a feel for the upcoming general election, well, they are screwing themselves.  Granted, I think most liberal Democrats are loons who believe that money grows on trees and that it is their job to harvest all that money and give it away to the poor.  Democrats have never been known for understanding economic or fiscal policy, however, over the past few years, and at all of the debates, the Republicans obviously don’t get it either.  The majority of general election voters are Independents, and they know that our economy stinks. 

            We are in a recession, and only artificially low interest rates are stopping the crash.  Unfortunately, that has made the Dollar virtually worthless.  As the government continues to borrow money from China to fund the war, it increases our national debt, and once no one will buy up anymore of our debt, we are dead in the water.  Now, even American banks have been going abroad to get bailed out, so we don’t even own our American financial institutions.  Ron Paul is the only Republican willing to admit that we are in a recession, and he is the only one willing to truly fix the economy.

            I want the Republican Party to WAKE UP and realize how the American People feel, because if we don’t the Democrats are going to win and turn this country into a Socialist Dictatorship.  And, we will still be bankrupt.

            Many well-respected Conservative Republicans have left the Party already.  True Conservatives have fled with Pat Buchanan and don’t read The Weekly Standard, but The American Conservative instead.  Many Republicans, both moderate and Conservative, watch CNN’s Lou Dobbs and have jumped onto his anti-Two-Party “Independents” bandwagon.  Of course, MSNBC, the thorn in the side of O’Reilly, has both Pat and Tucker Carlson, two of the original Conservative pundits.  Even the McLaughlin Group, during their 2007 Year-End Awards named Ron Paul ‘Most Original Thinker’, ‘Capitalist of the Year’ and ultimately ‘Person of the Year’ for “Injecting the Presidential campaign with a dose of truth serum for his straight talk on Iraq, his straight talk on the Constitution and limits of government … Paul has become an independent force in the nation’s life.”  
            Let’s be honest here, all of these sources are well-known Conservatives, and they find all of the other Republican candidates severely lacking any real Conservative credentials.  So, FOX may have controlled the scene during the Bush administration, but those days are waning and Republicans are in serious trouble, seeing as only Ron Paul has the respect of both the young ‘internet generation’ and the old establishment Conservative network media.  And don’t forget all of those Libertarians who willingly disenfranchised themselves years ago; Ron Paul’s campaign finally convinced them to re-join the Republican Party.  Yes, all you NeoCon Republican newbies, most Libertarians originally were Republicans.

            Oh, BTW FOX News, Frank Luntz was reprimanded in 1997 by the American Association for Public Opinion Research and censured in 2000 by the National Council on Public Polls for skewing research results to reflect more favorably on specific clients.   In an interview this year Luntz even redefined the term ‘Orwellian’ as a positive form of speech!  War is Peace.  Slavery is Freedom.  Ignorance is Strength.

            So, here’s to you FOX News, you doubleplusungood Duckspeakers!

Absolute MUST SEE video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aNHZI66BPs