Political Campaigning

[Hey_Porter]

I was thinking a little bit about this today after a guy jumped on my train and yelled "Vote for Ron Paul, restore habeas corpus" before jumping off at the same stop. How many votes is that guy going to gain for Paul? ANY? After significant name recognition (and I guess there are always going to be more voters to get to who don't know the name), what does this kind of on-the-street campaigning (official or not) do for a candidate? I imagine the theory might be that voters hearing it might go home and research the candidate, but is that true? I heard a guy who worked pretty high up in Clinton's 92 campaign speak, and he said that it is generally believed that approximately 35% of the voting public is going to vote democratic the whole way, 35% are voting republican the whole way, and the other 30% have no clue/don't care. The goal, obviously, is to get those 30% to turn out and vote for your guy.

So what does that? I'd love to hear from people who have worked on campaigns.

[Misfire]

Not sure if yelling on trains is effective, but the "Who is Ron Paul" signs and shirts I think will be somewhat effective at piquing people's curiosity.

[TomCollins]

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Not sure if yelling on trains is effective, but the "Who is Ron Paul" signs and shirts I think will be somewhat effective at piquing people's curiosity.

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Ugh, Who is Ron Paul strikes as so lame. I was going to get some Ron Paul stuff, but that was what I found. No thanks. Obvious rip off of Who is John Galt and just ultra lame.

[tame_deuces]

Political campaigning is mostly about free booze, for the semi-professionals it is about avoiding real jobs as much as possible and I have no idea what it is about for the professionals.