Ron Paul raised more than $3.5 million in one day, besting the 24-hour hauls of all of his adversaries for the Republican nomination. Fundraising and polls are the two items Paul naysayers have cited for discounting his candidacy. They've similarly ridiculed Paul's rise from the second tier of candidates into the first tier in some New Hampshire polls. When Paul has performed well in internet polls, anti-Paul conservatives--who've excused Bush's nation building, big-government, and amnesty schemes but somehow find the constitutionalist Paul anathema--have denigrated the polls. Now that Paul has shown himself a formidable fundraiser--next to polls, the primary criterion for earning the support of party conservatives--Paul haters will have to find something new to carp about. My preference is for them to deal with his constitutionalist, small government voting record, instead of polls and popularity, as doing so will say more about their conservative credentials, or lack thereof, than about Paul's.

I followed it all day long and it was an amazing haul. More impressive then the $3,992,786 that he took in online in one day is the fact that it came from a total of 38,887 individual contributors which means an average of $102 per person.

That is an incredible show of support from real Americans, normal people w/ normal incomes sticking it to the fat cats and "first tier" candidates which get the bulk of their contributions from executives and corporations.

To show just how mind numbingly stupid or malicious the MSM is when CNN reported this (and the AP earlier) they said that the Paul campaign is reporting this but that the contributions won't be "confirmed" until the end of the year when the FEC does its review. Wolf Blitzer actually asked "Are the donations real or just pledges?" That's right, campaign contributions can't be "verified" as "real" until the government (FEC) says they are.

Well, when I paid today his site took my credit card info and charged my card, in fact, that is the only way to make an online campaign donation (duh!). That is instant confirmation and complete visibility and transparency.

That fraud Romney made 3.1 million in one day earlier in the year, so everyone seriously needs to pay attention to Paul. He is doing all this w/ little MSM attention and hardly any general name recognition both of which Romney has had in spades.

Conservatives, here is the vehicle to stick it to the GOP establishment for marginalizing us since Reagan left office. Let's do it! Let's force the hand of these self-styled conservatives and reshape the GOP.

Oh, and another thing.

The MSM keeps pointing out that he doesn't break a couple percent in the national polls, but they never explain how these national polls are conducted. All that they do is contact a couple thousand of Republican primary voters from the 2004 primary. Well . . . anyone remember that primary season? Bush ran unopposed! Therefore they are only polling say 1500 people who actually went out to vote in a Republican presidential primary to vote for the guy (Bush) who was running unopposed. How is that at all supposed to be representative of likely primary voters in the party this year?

People who would go out to vote for Bush running unopposed must like him an awful lot, and given his low approval rating even amongst Republicans they simply are not a good guage of any of the candidates actual support.

So don't believe those national polls they keep referencing. The real testament is in the actual excitement among real people who support him (no other candidate has it) and the number of individual contributors and money raised.

Ron Paul has 1,097 meetup groups dedicated to supporting him. Those are spontaneously created by people in cities all over and not formed or directed by any centralized campaign. The candidate w/ the second most meetup groups is Barack Obama, with 62 . . . that's right he has over 1000 more than the next candidate. That is real serious grassroots support, and as the message gets out the sky is the limit. Let's just hope he has enoughtime to get better known before the primaries kick in next month!

******Update, AP reports that his campaign says he actually received 4.2 million from over 37,000 donors.

Kudos to Ron Paul's campaign.

I disagree with him on Iraq, but wish the other candidates had his libertarian streak on economic issues.

Unfortunately, Paul does not come across as an optimist. Far from it. In the debates in particular he appears willing to play the role as the grouchy grandpa of the group.

I will be surprised if he gets 5% of the vote in the early primary states. I will be absolutely stunned if he hits double digits in any state before February 9th.

Whining only gets you so far.

If you disagree w/ him on Iraq then it stands to follow that you see him as pessimistic from the debates, since they mainly allow him to speak to that issue. To characterize him as a whiner is silly though. Principled conservative criticisms of our government does not constitute whining. Particularly when he is taking action to change things (whiners are usually known by their combining complaining w/ apathy or laziness).

But if you are optimistic about Iraq then I would love to hear why?

dont waste your vote on this goober. Huckabee is the man.

Is Huckabee the guy who said that deficit spending was a greater moral issue than abortion?

The lack of moral conviction in the Republican front-runners is spurring Paul's momentum. Giuliani has the charisma, Romney has the looks, but Ron Paul has the heart. I'm not sure how long this momentum will last but I hope he goes all the way! If not, I hope he at least shakes things up a bit so as to bring the Republicans back in touch with their conservative base.

I think Tom Coburn, not Huckabee, made the remarks about deficit spending being a greater moral issue than abortion. I disagree with the remark, but Coburn has been one of the best conservatives in the Senate.

i dont know who said what, but huck is a bapist min.and he is against abortion. for aborting the irs. and build the strongest military in the world. the thing that i love is when he said we need to be self sufficiant. he said he would challenge america to find a away to get off oil in 8yrs. kinda like jfk and space.

Huckabee is a huckster who enjoys delivering the line "give Hope a second chance" b/c he is from the same town as Clinton. Which raises the question, why do we want another unproven Arkansas gov? Paul has been establishing his conservative bona fides where it counts on the floor of the house.

Huckabee on immigration: “ARKANSAS Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) said last week that he believes racism is fueling much of the anti-immigration feeling in the U.S. “If I were to say some of it is driven by just sheer racism, I think I would be telling you the truth,” Huckabee, a potential 2008 presidential candidate, said during a lunch meeting in Washington DC with a collection of regional and national media members. “That is not to say that everybody who is really fired up by immigration is racist. They are not,” he added. Huckabee also questioned what he called the “irrational anger” of some anti-immigration advocates, saying “What some people want is unrealistic, unreasonable and undoable.” He also praised President Bush’s immigration proposal, saying that “This is an issue that’s not going to satisfy everyone no matter what he proposes.” (Arkansas Democrat Gazette.)”

He is a dangerous moralizer (dangerous b/c he is a liberal one) who spends hit time chiding Americans for alleged racism, such as when he said this about illegal immigration in 2003: “We respect those who want to provide a better life for their children and grandchildren. For decades, we treated our state's African-American population poorly. The Hispanic influx gives us a second chance to prove what kind of people we really are.”

He actually thinks that America can make good for its past shabby treatment of blacks by being gracious to illegal aliens. This is preposterous and heavy-handed moralism. He also only fell into being a Baptist minister for a stretch and then left to get back into advertising, which is what this other Arkansas slickster is best at . . . pushing his image.

You rightly see abortion as a serious pressing moral issue. Well Ron Paul introduced legislation as a Congressman to define life as occurring at conception. He has also voted for federal legislation that would ban federal courts from adjudicating ANY abortion cases. How is that for sticking your neck out to be pro-life? He is called an "anti-abortion extremist" for it routinely on the web.

What has Huckabee done other than wax on sentimentally about being pro-life? Again, unproven well-oiled ambitious politician or someone who has walked the walk and not just talked it.