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Dreams v. Reality: The Ron Paul Blimp Story

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December 14, 2007 9:57 AM

ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf reports:  It was almost too good to be true, even according to the organizers at www.ronpaulblimp.com.

The harebrained idea started in an e-mail or online chat somewhere among Ron Paul supporters unaffiliated with the campaign.

"Let's get a Ron Paul blimp," the thinking went. Score free media coverage because this is, if anything, a nontraditional campaign tactic.

And so the blimp dream was born. A website was set up. Shares in an LLC were sold to skirt campaign finance law. A blimp was procured and enormous decals were ordered.

Everything was on course to have the blimp wend its way up the East Coast for a triumphant and media friendly float over Boston Harbor as Ron Paul supporters railed against taxes and commemorated the Boston Tea Party below and gave Ron Paul a "moneybomb" online.

But then the problems started. From idea to execution blimps ordered by corporate sponsors are usually many months in the designing and production. The Ron Paul Blimpers were to be airborne in one.

Turns out it takes longer than expected to get the 200 foot long decals for a blimp. And getting them overnighted to North Carolina is not like ordering Christmas presents from Amazon. There are homeland security issues with that large of cargo.

So the launch date, originally scheduled for Monday, Dec. 10, was delayed to Tuesday. Then Wednesday.  Then Friday (view pictures from the launch HERE). All the while organizers promised the blimp would be in Boston for the tea party -- even though Paul, himself concerned with breaking election law if he got too close to his independent, rascally supporters, elected to spend the weekend at home in Texas.

Add to all that the bad weather set to descend upon the same East Coast airspace the blimp was set to float in and the problems multiply.

Time for Plan B -- Boston is a no-go. The zeppelin will now head not north to Boston and the early primary state of New Hampshire,  but south to the another, slightly less early primary state of South Carolina, then maybe catch the Seattle vs. Carolina NFL football game on Sunday and then maybe the huge media markets of Florida.

The story of the Ron Paul Blimp is an evolutionary saga.

Keep live track via streaming GPS at www.ronpaulblimp.com.  But be prepared for an evolving flight plan.

Here is how organizers put it in an email Thursday night:

"The current schedule has it passing over Raleigh at 1 pm, Greensboro at 3pm, Charlotte at 5pm and landing in Chester, SC around 6pm.  It will spend the night in Chester and then head to Columbia, SC in the morning."

"The launch time and scheduled route are assuming weather conditions are agreeable.  Simply to take the blimp out of the hanger requires the wind speed to be under 15 knots.  Current expectations are that the wind will be under that speed."

December 14, 2007 in McCain, John, Thompson, Fred | Permalink | User Comments (28)

User Comments

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glen, what should scare you is the
"fear inducing" policies of the media and our government. You should fear the Weapons of Mass Distraction and the Stupdification of this nation. What should utterly terrify you is the warnings from our founding fathers and how asleep we all have been:
IF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks...will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered... The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."
President, Thomas Jefferson

"The Government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credits needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of consumers. By the adoption of these principles, the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest."
Abraham Lincoln

"You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the Eternal God, I will rout you out... If people only understood the rank injustice of the money and banking system, there would be a revolution by morning."
Andrew Jackson

"History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance."
James Madison

Posted by: heidi | Dec 15, 2007 1:22:08 PM

sorry Glen, my message was for Walter.

Posted by: heidi | Dec 15, 2007 1:24:18 PM

My name is actually Walker, with a k, but that's beside the point. My fear is that Ron Paul will undermine the very authority that Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, and James Madison- and many others, I might add- knew was imperative. He's running on an extremely libertarian platform, and that itself horrifies me. Not to mention the fact that he's interested in withdrawing from the world (anyone remember the isolationists of the 1920's and 1930's?). But, again, I have to applaud Ron Paul, because while I find his platform completely distasteful, he's actually innovating, instead of trying the same old methods to whip up support. Maybe other, more sane politicians will pick up on Dr. Paul's ideas.

Posted by: Walker Yeatman | Dec 15, 2007 5:47:26 PM

Better yet, Woodrow Wilson sold out to the 1913 "Creature from Jekell Island". We don't need the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Federal Reserve running this country.

Posted by: Glen | Dec 15, 2007 8:59:47 PM

The blimp is awesome! I hope it comes to my state.

Posted by: squirrelbrewer | Dec 16, 2007 2:32:39 AM

It is a harebrained idea. But if it get some coverage on CNN and the like and if it helps voters to associate an event with Ron Paul, example: "Ron Paul, isn't he that blimp guy".

Then right on... harebrained ideas are better than no ideas.

Posted by: Eric Nordstrom | Dec 16, 2007 12:41:49 PM

It is fascinating how one of the most notable evens in politcal history can be called harebrained. Imagine a group of people who are passionate enough to support a candidate to create a company that will get millions of dollars of free media. Free media as the only way on this planet to end run "the pre canned, status quo, cookie cutter, media politiCom complex" that has brainwashed themselves and their fellow americans that they have no choices other than that which is presented by the complex. God Bless them. I can't begin to count the number of people who have said "I want to vote for someone who can win"... because they have abdicated to this politiCom. How sad to throw your vote away for someone you can not believe in. Did that work for us all last time when we ended up with Bush and an approaching millitary dictatorship? Give yourself the gift of choice. Google Ron Paul. And keep launching those harebrained blimps.

Posted by: cmiller | Dec 16, 2007 4:41:12 PM

I can't believe people write to these media sites and bash them. It just doesn't make sense to me, Ron Paul has some great idea's, a great American and great human being. One of the reason he doesn't get the coverage that he deserves is that the people that cover him don't want to here it from the supporters. It's lose lose for them.

The bigger complaint should be to the right wing media such as fox news that doesn't support true republican ideas. They clearly have a bias for Mrs. Clinton, and she is suppose to be Liberal.

Posted by: Ryan | Dec 16, 2007 4:55:20 PM

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