Literally.
This weekend, the Ron Paul Blimp will launch from North Carolina on it’s way to New Hampshire:
Look!
Up in the sky: It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s … Ron Paul?
If a whimsical publicity stunt goes as planned, a blimp hyping the long-shot Republican presidential campaign of the Texas congressman will launch next week.
The Ron Paul blimp is set to fly from North Carolina, over Washington, New York and Boston, before heading to New Hampshire, where the Jan. 8 primary offers the iconic libertarian perhaps his best chance of translating his zealous Internet support into votes.
The blimp is a private effort, like the November 5th moneybomb, and it’s unconventional in more ways that one:
It also tests the reach of campaign finance rules by employing an innovative funding structure that could expose a new way to pour largely unregulated money into politics.
If the model is successful, hypothetically it could allow a media consultant to produce slick attack ads and — without ever disclosing how much was raised or spent — solicit millions from “sponsors” to air the ads in key states.
“It’s much more than just Ron Paul’s campaign,” said Jerry Collette, a former California Libertarian Party official who’s managing the effort.
“It’s a whole new way of presenting opportunities to individual people to be able to participate in elections in a way they’ve never really done before.”
Another nail in the coffin of McCain-Feingold ? Sounds good to me.
The blimp is scheduled to launch in North Carolina on Monday, and will be in the D.C. area by the afternoon. As a matter of fact, it will be at Manassas Airport at some point during the day. Since I’m in that neck of the woods, a picture or two is a distinct possibility.
