February7.org
by Patrick Ruffini :: January 30th, 2008 4:30 pmYou can probably tell that I have strong views about this nomination contest. Win or lose, I’m equally convinced of the importance of getting behind the eventual winner. A nation at war cannot afford Hillary or Obama in the White House.
At Rightroots, we have built a way for Republicans to rally behind their new nominee right out of the gate. We’re asking all Republicans to donate online to the new nominee next Thursday, February 7th. Go to February7.org right now and take the pledge to make F7 the day we stop Hillary or Obama.
On February 7th, we’ll set up a page on Rightroots for you to give to the nominee and show you our community’s results in real time. On a side note, our credit card processing rate (at 4%) is lower than most commercial fundraising vendors, so this also happens to be a great way to ensure more of your hard-earned money gets to the candidate.
Beyond just showing support for our nominee, we’re doing this to help solve a concrete strategic problem for our Party during the month of February.
The simple fact is that when it comes to contributions from others, our candidates are broke. They’ve spent it all on Florida. No one is up on TV in any February 5th state, while Hillary and Obama have money to burn (I saw Clinton ads in California last weekend). Based on the fact that they have money to play with and have held a fundraising advantage throughout the cycle, there is a chance they could start pummeling our candidate with negative ads right away.
If we fundraise the same old traditional way — with fundraising events and direct mail early and banking on Internet enthusiasm late — we will lose. There is no way we’ll be able to get the money when and where we need it. On the Internet in particular, contributions come in late, often too late for the money to be spent effectively. We’re hoping to help frontload some of this money so that the candidate can use it against Hillary/Obama right away. When it comes to giving, early is the new late.
If the nominee is McCain, we still have to do this. His campaign especially is running on fumes financially, but they’ve shown they can be effective with an even a small amount of money.
And if it is Romney, let’s be clear: he is rich, but not Bloomberg rich, and he cannot self-fund the seven months until the Convention. Building organizations in 19 target states is a whole different ball of wax than building them in four. He will need unconditional buy-in from the base — financially and otherwise — in order to compete with Clinton/Obama.
In case you’re waiting for a final decision on who the nominee will be, you can still sign up. We’ll keep in touch in case you can join us on the 7th.
Whatever you can give — $5, $10, $100, or maxing out at $2,300 — is fine. Our goal is to help build a large financial base our nominee can use to compete, and do it early when it can do the most good.
Join us on F7, and please help us spread the word by letting all your contacts know.
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Why the Republican Party needs to rally around Mitt Romney
If all the media and exit polls in Florida are true and Republicans are leaning more to the left, the country better brace itself. The last thing we need is a left leaning republican setting policy for the future of the United States. The harm that could ensue would be just as bad as a Democrat and cause damage that our children will reap for years to come.
The media continues to give positive feedback to John McCain and all Democrats for that matter. The only candidate that continually receives negative press is the most conservative candidate left. Mitt Romney has changed positions, but the change has been toward the right not the left. Mitt Romney still is a moderate but leaning right Republican. He is not a moderate Republican leaning left as is John McCain. The latter combination only entitles and strengthens the Democrat views.
We should welcome with open arms a person who leans more right. Continuing to discredit that person only hurts our party. We are a party of change and should embrace people like Mitt Romney who genuinely care about the future of our children and the sanctity of the family and the sacredness of marriage being between a man and women. He has tried to unify the three legs of the conservative stool the Republican party so often speaks of, and the Reagan principles that we so admired. Governor Romney is the only candidate who has reached out to social conservatives, economic conservatives and defense conservatives to unite the Grand old party again.
Sean Hannity today all but endorsed John McCain on his radio show. Saying we as Republicans need to be moderate. This will only slowly change the United States to lean more and more left and eventually end up like European countries today. Socialized medicine, declining family values and principles, higher taxes, bigger government, and inefficiency to combat terrorism.
In the words of Mitt Romney:
“I think what will happen across the country is that conservatives will give a good thought to whether or not they want to hand the party’s nomination over to Senator McCain. He has not been their champion over the last several years,” Romney said in an interview Wednesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Has the party responded? Only time will tell. February 5th will be a defining moment for Republicans who still look for a candidate who is a unifier not a divider within the party.
Even if the Republicans do not get the nomination our ideals must not change.
Would we have had Ronald Reagan without first having Jimmy Carter?
Think about it!!
Brian
I never could have seen you spinning an anti-McCain message in all this… but somehow you did.
Get a life dude. I mean that as friendly as possible.
Dude, You are a total fraud. Trying to paint the Republicans as a broke party, who is relying on grass roots campaigning. Dude, I don’t know what world you are living in, but it is severely warped and out of touch. No surprise though coming from a Republican.
Patrick,
You once again show how really clueless you are. McCain is not running on fumes. Ali is right, you took this opportunity to hit McCain for no reason. If you are as smart as you claim to be, you’d realize the money is pouring in right now.
Go back to not having a job. McCain wins you’ll end up bagging at the Piggly Wiggly
Thanks for this, Patrick. Now, more than ever, conservatives need to concentrate on rallying TOGETHER to save our country. If we don’t fight this election year and win, we’re going to find ourselves right in the middle of a war, with a hero of the leftist-islamist alliance as our leader (this would be true whether Hillary or Obama wins).
I’ve actually heard conservatives saying over the last couple of days that if McCain gets the nomination they simply aren’t going to vote this year, or they’re even going to vote Democrat, just to teach the Republicans a lesson.
We can’t do that, folks…this is too important. Look, I was a staunch Duncan Hunter supporter - and liked Tancredo a lot, too. But they dropped out. That’s regrettable, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to just quit and let the democrats take over the presidence. Whoever gets the Republican nomination will still be a better choice than what the democrats have to offer us - so it is important that we get behind him, and win this election.
McCain’s supporters are quite rude when riding high as the front runner. They’re as boorish as the Senator was toward Romney last night. (Note: I’m an ex-Thompson staffer who hasn’t endorsed anyone.
Like Patrick I’m promoting the February 7 project because whoever the GOP nominee is he’ll be at a monetary disadvantage. Obama raised $32 million in January! That’s almost as much as McCain has spent his entire campaign. Should McCain win the nomination he’s going to need all the fundraising help he can get.
McCain supporters, quit gloating, be civil and kindly accept the help. Or else you’re going to turn off potential financial supporters and (more importantly) voters.
That website is boring without a counter. How many signups do you have?
If McCain is the nominee I will spend not one dime helping him or any Republican that supports him.
And the RNC may NEVER get my money again.
Republicans are broke? But, over at Hot Air, there was an article quoting Karl Rove as stating the GOP has plenty of money, even more than the DNC. So, the GOP isn’t willing to help the chosen nominee? Wouldn’t that be a better use of GOP funds than helping illegal aliens get amnesty?
By the way, I’m not sending anyone jack-diddly. The two left (that are viable) have proven they aren’t interested in conservative values, except when wanting to raise more money or gain votes. I might have to pull the (R) lever in November, but I’ll do it with a heavy heart and a serious concern for the direction of our country
Check out www.stop-obama.org, there you’ll find how to stop him.
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[…] If the question doesn’t make sense, then read this: At Rightroots, we have built a way for Republicans to rally behind their new nominee right out of the gate. We’re asking all Republicans to donate online to the new nominee next Thursday, February 7th. … On February 7th, we’ll set up a page on Rightroots for you to give to the nominee and show you our community’s results in real time. … If the nominee is McCain, we still have to do this. His campaign especially is running on fumes financially, but they’ve shown they can be effective with an even a small amount of money. […]