nazbot

It cracks me up think of you sitting at a davenport desk coming up with jokes.

Like, licking a quill pen, pensive expression on your face, then suddenly 'masturbation, of course!' and you start scribbling things down.

"Here's your $81,000 back sir"
"Meh"

EDIT: Updated to add answers + more answers inline

What is your gameplan for beating Ryan?

If you don't know, reddit is a pretty large community. If you use this site correctly there are some good resources at your disposal if you can generate some interest. I would encourage you to become an active redditor and involve the community in your campaign if you can.

Some practical questions:

1) How much staff do you have - how does this compare with Ryan's staff? What are the biggest challenges you face in getting noticed? FYI Reddit is a great marketing tool if used properly. As an example this little campaign has been posted on Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/12/28/reddit-users-to-target-supporters-of-sopa-in-congress-after-successful-boycott-of-godaddy/ posted today. If you can get some momentum going on here there's a good chance you can get some media attention through it.

I currently have 5 full time campaign staffers in addition to many great volunteers. I'm not sure what Ryan's staff looks like, but with his campaign, his personal PAC and his Congressional staff, it's safe to assume he has more people working for him. I'll be expanded my team soon in addition to opening offices all over Wisconsin's 1st District.

2) What are the most important non-monetary contributions Redditors can make to your campaign?

Help promote the movement - here on reddit, blogs, Twitter, etc. Right now we are working to build my name recognition and getting the word out is important to building name ID. Later in the campaign redditors will be able to volunteer for my campaign from anywhere in the world. You can sign up to volunteer on my website: www.RobZerban.com

3) Not a question, more of a request - can you please try and keep the 'Paul Ryan is a bad person' rhetoric to a minimum? For example your twitter feed: "Is #PaulRyan the far-right scam artist of the year? Many in Wisconsin think so ". I find that kind of statement really distasteful and useless. Ryan has shitty IDEAS. Attack the ideas, not the person. If you can't articulate why raising taxes is necessary and have to go after Ryan's personality I think you have lost. Just my humble opinion. I look at Alan Grayson as a pretty good example of this. The clips which went viral are ones where he doesn't call out individual republicans, he calls out their ideas. He does it forcefully but it's not character attacks per say. Here's sort of what I'm talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZgZeAOaq4U. He uses facts and figures to show why he's right. He didn't call the republicans jerks and yet got a standing ovation. I believe he then later got in trouble for the personal attack politics. Americans and redditors in particular are hungry for someone who will call out the Republican BS with facts - not character attacks. The 'Republicans are slimy' mantra just doesn't do it for me...the 'CEOs now make 300x worker pay vs 30x in the 70s' argument does.

4) What is your schedule like - what are the major dates in your campaign and which dates should reddit be aware of if they want to get involved/help you out - fundraising deadlines, debates, etc.

My schedule is pretty hectic. Our political process is broken and unfortunately I must spend a lot of my time making calls and asking people for money. I'd much rather be out meeting with people and formulating good policies. I have a big fundraising deadline coming up at the end of the month. I need to have the strongest financial statement possible to prove my campaign's viability. If you are in the position to contribute I would sincerely appreciate it. I don't know if Ryan will accept an invitation to debate. We'll see.

Policy questions:

1) Did you support the operation in Libya? What was your position on Iraq?

Given the circumstances, I think President Obama made the best decision he could with regards to Libya. It's important to keep in mind we don't always have the same information the President does. Overall, it's unfortunate we had to take such actions to rectify the mistakes we have made in Libya over the last ~30 years.

2) Do you support increasing taxes? Why or why not? Maybe this is a tough question but I feel democrats need to address this and stop dancing around the issue

Yes, I support raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans and making corporations pay their fair share.

3) How do you think SS and Medicare should be kept solvent?

Social Security is currently solvent. We need to stop borrowing money from the trust fund to give tax breaks to billionaires and corporations. Additionally, we can remove the caps on contributions. Medicare can be strengthened by expanding the system to cover everyone.

4) Do you support Obamacare? Anything in it you'd modify?

I believe the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was a good first step by did not go far enough. I was disappointed the public option was not included.

5) Is waterboarding torture? Do you support enhanced interrogation?

Yes it is torture. No, I do not.

6) What is your stance on Afghanistan? Should the US keep a presence there? Iraq?

We need to get out.

7) Should marijuana be decriminalized?

Yes.

8) Have democrats of the last 10 years been insufferably feeble? Agree or disagree. :)

I see what you did there ಠ_ಠ . I believe each individual should be judged on their own record.

9) Do you have cats? Do you have pictures of cats? Those usually go over well here.

Sorry, no cats. I do have two dogs: Barley & Hops

That guy has missed the point of 'social' so hard it's not funny.

It's an exercise for the reader.