Local Reporter Unloads on John Cox

It's not often that a small town reporter opens up and explains his initial reactions of their meeting with fringe candidate John Cox, but the reporter for the Mapleton Press unpacked his reflections and impressions of the $13,000 Man when he popped into a pizza parlor and blathered on and on and on and on to the three unfortunate people there.

Here's part of it:

Seems he told the Sioux City Journal that he's "No Barack as far as drawing crowds," [NOTE: Another WILD understatement!!!] but that's not going to stop him. Traci, Pete, their son and I were the only three people in the place. He rattled on about how we could win in Iraq if we could just have their power on for more than an hour a day and then zeroed in on me, like I'm gonna give him SO much publicity and it will be SO positive.

He goes on to unload on the "FairTax," one of the stupidest ideas ever conceived, in his view. And perhaps he's right. Although former Cox staffers have told me that Cox gives the most convoluted explanations of this proposal of any candidate. Either way, Cox sure made a BAD impression on this guy.

Another Bizarre Quote from Fringe Candidate Cox

Wow, what a bizarre quote Cox spewed out when speaking recently to a RECORD NUMBER of Iowa voters (uh... five of them.) Here's how the Des Moines Register reported it:

At Ryan's Family Steakhouse, 1900 N.W. 86th St. in Clive on Tuesday, there was only one sign on the door to let people know where to go to meet the man who would be arriving shortly.

And he was not a Republican presidential candidate.

"The luncheon for Niels Anderson is in the back room," read a sign just inside the restaurant's doors.

There was no mention of where to go to meet John Cox, 51, a certified public accountant and former executive officer of Jay's Foods from Chicago who is running for president.

Cox in March 2006 became the first person to enter the race for the 2008 Republican nomination for president.Cox, who will be participating in the Aug. 11 Ames straw poll, was not invited to a Republican debate at Drake University scheduled for Aug. 5. [NOTE: Because he is a nut case.]

But the longtime Republican activist is not deterred. He touts support as the top choice of 1 percent of likely caucus participants in a poll taken May 12-16, the same as Duncan Hunter and Jim Gilmore - who has since dropped out of the race - and more than Ron Paul.

"I may be at 1 percent, but relative to my name recognition, my poll numbers are pretty good," Cox said. [LOL!!]

The Clive event was his third of six stops in Iowa on Tuesday; he plans to hit seven more today.

Two of the five people who came to hear Cox speak said one thing in particular may be holding the candidate back."He doesn't seem to have the experience in government you'd expect from a candidate," said John Strong of West Des Moines.

No experience? No kidding.

Cox Raises $5 in Kansas, Blog Discovers It

The Good News: The popular Race 4 2008 blog has discovered fringe presidential candidate John Cox!

The Bad News: They've discovered John Cox's fundraising prowess, too:

"I have one small question..."

Presidential campaign donations from Kansas:

Sam Brownback, R, $297,436
Rudy Giuliani, R, $96,450
Mitt Romney, R, $78,150
Barack Obama, D, $76,596
John McCain, R, $45,645
John Edwards, D, $34,327
Hillary Clinton, D, $29,660
Bill Richardson, D, $21,800
Joseph Biden, D, $19,400
Ron Paul, R, $15,355
Christopher Dodd, D, $8,100
Tom Tancredo, R, $4,340
Mike Huckabee, R, $2,800
Duncan Hunter, R, $965
Dennis Kucinich, D, $200
John Cox, R, $5
Source: Federal Election Commission

My Question is….
Who let John Cox borrow 5 bucks?

Update Question:
Do you think he’ll pay them back?"

Faux Candidate Cox Raises $1,410 for President!

The Fundraising Facts on John Cox, fringe candidate for president, as of the June 30 filing with the Federal Elections Commission:

Funds raised in the 3-month filing period ending June 30, 2007: $1,410 (one thousand four hundred ten dollars)

Cash on hand at end of June 30 filing period: $11,354.61 (McCain's starting to look VERY successful at only $2.4 million, isn't he?)

Here's what Cox's increasingly sinking campaigned raised, by month:
Raised in April = $780 (includes one $500 donation)
Raised in May = $620
Raised in June = $10 (ten dollars on June 15, the final donation of the period)

Early primary/caucus state strength, measured:
Raised from Iowa = 1 donation of $50 (state coordinator Steve Huff, you're fired.)
Raised from New Hampshire = 1 donation of FIVE dollars ($5) (state coordinator/national coordinator Chris Richter, you're fired.)
Raised from South Carolina = two donations totalling $110 (state coordinator/national communications director Dan Herren, you're fired.)

Total raised since filing with the FEC on Feb. 13, 2006 = $13,515.51
That's 502 days, a total of $13,515.51, meaning $26.92 raised per day.

Loaned to the campaign by the candidate:
In this period = $160.803.75
Since filing with the FEC = $940,779.55

Most curious expenditures in this filing period:
$2,000 to the NH state Republican Party for "Debate expenses." Cox was not allowed in the June 5 debate, because he's polling at zero percent.

$600 to U.S. Dist. Court in Columbia, SC to sue the SC GOP in Federal Court in a failed attempt to force them to put him in a party-sponsored debate.

Conclusion:
The John Cox for President campaign? As of July 15, 2007 = 517 days of failure and counting.

Fmr. Cand. Gilmore Bests Cox in Funding

Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore is out of the GOP race, citing his inability to raise money.

Politico.com reported:

"Gilmore raised $170,000 in the first three months of the year and said he collected $211,000 in the quarter ending June 30, while the leading candidates in the race banked millions."

That's $381,000 in 2007 alone, for future reference.

Now, in reply, fringe candidate for president John Cox's one paid blogger online noted:

"It’s the end of the road for Governor Jim Gilmore who didn’t gain any traction in his bid for the White House."

WTF?

John Cox, who has burned through FOUR campaign managers so far in his 17 month Quixotic Quest for notoriety and fame, has raised LESS THAN $13,000 and has spent over $850,000 of his family fortune on this race. It's gained him ZERO in the polls, and his oft-touted magic in some minor straw polls has run dry recently with a string of pathetic failures in NH and PA.

This $381,000 figure means that in 2007 alone, Gilmore raised 29 times as much as Cox did in 2006 AND 2007 (he began running in Feb., 2006).

Mr. Adam Graham (the aforementioned blogger, writes, without a hint of irony):

"After Gilmore, it’s kind of tough to guess who’ll drop out on the GOP side. It’s easier to guess who’ll definitely be in. Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Ron Paul, and John Cox would be the only four that I can say with some confidence will be in the race come January."

HAHAHA! LOL!

Yup, those are the frontrunners, Mr. Graham. Keep on dreaming. How much are you being paid to keep John Cox in that list?

Our blog - along with several former Cox staffers - is waiting with great anticipation as the July 15 second quarter filing deadline approaches to see who John Cox fared. VOTE NOW in our poll on the right hand side of this blog to guess how "well" he did!

Cox Creamed in NH Straw Poll, Beats Mickey Mouse

In what should have been a slam dunk for an outsider candidate who attended the event, fringe presidential candidate John Cox was still demolished and relagated to the single digits in a New Hampshire straw poll Saturday.

Our NH contact says Libertarian Ron Paul dominated the Coalition of New Hampshire Taxpayers event in Hopkinton, NH, with 182 votes.

Rudy Giuliani was a distant second with 22 votes, and Dan Gilbert, a businessman for whom former Cox campaign manager Bob Andrews now works, got a respectable 20. Gilbert, like Cox, spoke to the gathering, which attracted 294 activists.

Cox got 4 votes, along with non-candidate Fred Thompson, who did not attend. We expect a press release from the Cox people touting this glorious victory any day now.

Cox beat Robert Haines (a convict from NH who has one homemade sign), and George Phillies, a candidate for the LIBERTARIAN Party's nomination.

John McCain, Democrats Dennis Kucinich and Barack Obama, and Mickey Mouse each got one vote.

One activist who attended said Cox spewed the same rhetoric as he has in other venues. Another, a NH resident, said Cox appeared to be shouting during his rambling presentation ("Why does he shout so much?" he asked, puzzled.)

It's clear that this was a venue well suited to outsiders. If Dan Gilbert, a near-total unknown who has not campaigned anywhere near as long as Cox has, can do so well and convince 20 in the crowd to go with him, then Cox should have, also.

Except for the fact that Cox is a very scary speaker and his loud-mouthed, poorly thought-out rhetoric isn't flying with ANY voters. The people in NH don't see him as viable, and they are not alone.

Full results:

Ron Paul 182
Rudy Giuliani 22
Dan Gilbert 20
Mitt Romney 13
Huckabee 10
Tommy Thompson 9
Brownback 8
Duncan Hunter 6
Newt Gingrich 5
John Cox 4 measly votes
Fred Thompson 4
Tom Tancredo 3
Haynes 2
Phillies 2
McCain 1
Obama 1
Kucinich 1
Mouse (Mickey?) 1

Cox Gets Goose Egg In PA Straw Poll

We expect there won't be any heavily spun press releases issued from the Cox Camp (what's left of it) about the Pennsylvania straw poll held Saturday. That's because Cox failed to place in it.

What? The GREAT John Cox? The SAVIOR of the party? The TRUE REAGAN CONSERVATIVE? It must be the media's fault.

It couldn't be the candidate's fault for failing to spend any time at all in the state in the past 500+ days he's been campaigning for president, could it? Could it be because his PA state chair resigned in disgust well over a month ago because he saw the writing on the wall and realized the campaign was going bust? Both are plausible explainations.

Usually, after every podunk, insignificant straw poll that's held in which Cox draws three or four votes, the world is treated to a ridiculous news release touting his "great victory" over Tommy Thompson and Jim Gilmore, who usually got one vote each, compared to Cox's two votes.

Here are the results of the PA poll:

87 Guiliani
40 Fred Thompson
12 Romney
10 Gingrich
7 McCain
2 Paul
2 Tommy Thompson
2 Tancredo
2 Brownback
1 Undecided
BIG FAT GOOSE EGG (Zero Votes) John Cox, the Thirteen Thousand Dollar Man*

*That's how much he's raised in 17 months of daily campaigning.

Cox Makes Fool of Self on "Tucker"
Carlson fails to do his homework on fringe candidate

Tucker Carlson winces during Cox MSNBC interview Thursday

GOP fringe presidential candidate John Cox appeared on the Tucker Carlson show "Tucker" Thursday and was grilled by Carlson about the damning Matt Labash expose in the Weekly Standard.

Tucker asked, “You don’t look frightening to me. You look sane. Why aren’t you beating Tom Tancredo or Duncan Hunter or Ron Paul?” Of course, he didn't answer truthfully by saying, "Well, Tucker, I've only raised $13,000 in the last 16 months of campaigning and can't seem to keep staff employeed longer than three months, because I treat them like dirt and trash them all behind their backs, because none of them are as competent as I am." But we digress.

Tucker Carlson then hit hard, asking Cox about his embarrassing fiasco at the Reagan Library debate

“As I’m reading about you, I’m thinking well this guy seems too good to be true. There must be something really eccentric about him that he isn’t getting more noticed. I couldn’t find much this is the only real eccentric thing I read about you and it’s in this brilliant profile of you by Matt Labash of the Weekly Standard. It has you during one of the debates, in California, you’re not invited to the debate, you’re shut out by the press so you stage a one-man debate wh you bsly rep to the questions, your wife hits the mute button on the TV as the other candidates respond and you respond into the camera and post it on YouTube. That’s a little odd.”

YEAH. Odd. Just like this fringe candidate, who snuck into that debate's Spin Room posing as a reporter. Nutty. Carlson then asks -

“Why did they [shut you out of the debates]? I mean it’s not just our network which sponsored that debate, it’s every network that has sponsored a debate. There’s got to be a reason.”

The reason he gave was some nonsense about the Washington DC echo chamber. But the truth of the matter is that Cox is a loon. And MSNBC knows it.

“John Cox. I keep waiting for you to say something crazy, or out of left field," notes Tucker near the end of his softball interview.

Tucker, you just haven't been listening. And you didn't do your homework for this interview.


NEWS FLASH: The latest defection from the Cox camp is his tireless media booker, a professional with a company of his own and a staff of over a dozen whom Cox fired on a whim and was reportedly BEGGING to keep the very next day, to no avail. The booker reportedly said to others that he was, "tired of taking his s**t."

The well-known Chicago-based booker got Cox interviews on CNBC, NBC, MSNBC (including the above Tucker apperance and one other 2-hour/3 appearance gig) and hundreds of radio appearances, many in major media markets like Orlando, Jacksonville, NYC, LA, Dallas and Chicago.

Of course Cox was greedy for even more attention than this, and frequently complained to all who would listen (including ON all the media programs he was on, including Tuckers') about how he was not getting on CNN and other outlets, according to the campaign staffers with whom I speak regularly.