It appears as if the Ron Paul Blimp Project may end up crash-landing before it ever gets off the ground. In a ‘first’ of sorts for the grassroots supporters of Ron Paul, rounding up financial support for the project, which initially had nearly $500,000 in pledges, has been more difficult than initially anticipated. Although many of the original supporters who pledged to support the blimp project have doubled or even tripled their donations (I doubled up myself), the program remains nearly $85,000 short of the total needed to get the blimp off the ground by it’s scheduled launch date, and nearly $235,000 short of paying for a full month of operation, after some questions about the potential effectiveness of the blimp were raised. The organizers of the project have also expressed some concern about not being able to reach those who have previously pledged via email, but will continue to try and raise the necessary funds through Friday, Dec. 7th when the initial payment to the Airship company is due.
Personally, I hope they can still pull this thing together - I was really hoping to see that blimp floating over Boston Harbor on Tea Party day! If you’d like to help out by donating, please head over to the Ron Paul Blimp Website.
Tags: advertising, fundraiser, grassroots, Ron Paul
“So, we formed a for profit company called Liberty Political Advertising, LLC. which allows a US citizen to “sponsor” a pre-selected political message. The key staff members will be paid a weekly salary to keep this operation running and to take care of expenses incurred along the way while they are away from their families and homes.”
In My opinion this very well might have killed the project.
I definitely can understand the misgivings some people might have about paying salaries, however, the fact that the organizers have been very transparent about the entire thing really went a long way with me. Because they formed a company rather than a PAC to get around some of the donation rules, they weren’t actually compelled to release information on salaries or anything like that. They did it to be upfront with their supporters. There certainly isn’t anything “crazy” in terms of salaries or anything that I saw.
They gave themselves $500 a week. Thats $2,000 a month. $24,000 a year. They aren’t making themselves rich off this by any means.
I don’t like the image you have posted. The image provides negativity to an otherwise very positive endeavour. The money WILL be raised. Why not use one of the PC created images of the Ron Paul Blimp as opposed to one blowing up (ours isn’t going to blow up — financially or physically)
http://ronpaulblimp.com/images/BostonWhois.jpg
Well, the point of my blog post here is to motivate people to action - pictures of a happy blimp floating above Boston are what I hope become a reality, but unless we all start taking some action, I think the pic I posted will be a much better representation of the project.
It appears as if the blimp site is experiencing heavy loads, so if you’d like to donate, you can use the following Google Cache link to reach the site:
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:CCzT_5RuhA0J:www.ronpaulblimp.com/+ron+paul+blimp
Enjoy.
Good. This is a stupid idea for a campaign, and Ron Paul is a terrible candidate anyway. Protect Freedom, keep Ron Paul out of the White House.
Ron Paul’s a Libertarian. The irony of a for-profit fund-raising corporation failing is hardly unnoticed.
[...] to a post on “The Sons of Liberty” blog, the Ron Paul Blimp project is having some very serious trouble securing promised funds. It would [...]
I believe non-profit organizations are not allowed to take part in any kind of Political activities, therefore the organizer wisely chose to go with a for-profit company.
Well, it appears that my report on the demise of the blimp may have been premature. The donation total stands at $185,270 with 18 hours left to go. At the current pace of donations, eclipsing $200k by midnight EST should be no problem at all - in fact, $215k - $220k may be in the realm of possibility should donations continue at their current rate.
Good. This is a stupid idea
There wasn’t a thing about this that interested me.
Looks like much money was wasted and i wouldn’t donate
a penny to get another blimp up.
If you Google “Ron Paul gasbag” this site shows up fifth!