The Ron Paul phenomenon?

[jetdawgg]

Rep. Ron Paul answers a question from CNN’s Wolf Blitzer at Tuesday’s GOP debate.
WASHINGTON (CNN) — It’s been an exciting week for us at the Ticker – a few days ago, we opened up the comments section of our blog, and since then, we’ve received thousands of responses.

A large number of the ones we’ve posted so far have been from supporters of White House presidential hopeful Ron Paul, R-Texas.

But come Tuesday night’s GOP debate, we were inundated with Paul comments on our ticker post: “Who won the GOP debate?”

Many of the comments we received were supportive of the Texas congressman, while others registered frustration that the flood of Paul posts impeded the general online discussion, likening them to spam.

One thing is for sure: Ron Paul supporters are effective at coordinating and mobilizing online quickly. For the three GOP debates so far, Paul has won or placed high in most of the unscientific online surveys including ABC’s, MSNBC’s, FOX’s, and unscientific polls conducted on a number of blogs.

Paul virtually swept CNN’s unscientific survey after Tuesday night’s GOP debate: not only did participants say Paul won the debate, but also that he knew the most about the issues, had the best one-liner, had the most surprising performance, and got the biggest boost from the debate. (He wasn’t considered the snappiest dresser, however – see Mitt Romney). The topic is getting some play on conservative blogs, too.

These informal polls are unscientific because supporters can often vote more than once, and are not randomly selected, and while they may be useful indicator of a candidate’s ability to organize online, they are not generally an accurate measure of support across the electorate.

The comments section is intended to be informal, of course, but the strain on resources that night prompted us to take down the “Who won the GOP debate” question (though that didn’t stop Paul supporters from commenting; they started adding comments to the “Who won the Democratic debate?” post). The intention was not to censor Ron Paul supporters — right now, you’ll find hundreds of Paul posts on the site.

Given the volume of submissions, we do not post every comment. That said, we will always try to post as many as possible. We know how frustrating it can be to write something thoughtful and never see it published.

Right now “Ron Paul” is among the top-searched terms on Technorati, the popular site that tracks blog posts. According to the community Web site, Eventful, there are more than 16,000 outstanding “demands” for Paul to appear in cities across the country – that’s up 11,000 from just one week ago, leapfrogging him over Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-New York. Ron Paul video clips get plenty of play on YouTube and there is no shortage of blogs devoted to his support.

What do these numbers mean? How do you reconcile that support with the national poll numbers? In virtually every scientific national poll — generally regarded as the best measurement of public support for a political candidate — Paul registers, at most, between 1 and 2 percent. Do the debate numbers reflect something different than the national polls? Is it too early to tell?

Paul opposes abortion rights, voted to authorize a 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexican border, supports withdrawing troops from Iraq, and defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Is he a “true conservative”? If indeed his support is growing, what is it going to take for Paul to break out and challenge the front-runners for the GOP presidential nomination?
We welcome your comments below.

For more breaking political news, check back with www.cnn.com/ticker

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...enom%e2%80%99/

A republican that gets it.......

[JinxJr]

I'm intrigued. When somebody jumps up on the skyline like this, it merits a good look at.

[jetdawgg]

I will be checking out his voting record among other things. He has clearly surprised the 'lead' bunch

[JinxJr]

I'm going to make a serious attempt to educate myself on this guy before I open my mouth. The "lead" bunch needs a jolt. I know you'll do your homework and try to keep narrow-minded Me up to speed.

[jetdawgg]

Hey Mariine, I will just post and let you decide for yourself. He does have the others on edge which is good for the USA.

Also, I am fearful that a democrat would raise taxes and make gov't even bigger so he is worth a look.

[JinxJr]

If for no other reason, I like his sense of fiscal responsibility. He looks like a smart "Money" guy. I also like that he seems to hold some degree of contempt for manipulating the Constitution and wants to reduce the influence of the federal government. Maybe it's time, regardless of political affiliation, to find somebody who is truly a Citizen-Statesman in the mold of our Founding Fathers (as his web site claims he's called).

[jetdawgg]

Jinx, no doubt. With the defict now at a record high and climbing someone like him is a requirement.

The constitution has been butchered by the current admin. Just this week some senators went to modify it back to the original content. I myself am an independent.

I really didn't see a difference in the two parties until this admin. Big deficits, big gov't, lack of foreign policy, diplomacy out the window, jobs being sucked out of the USA, no energy policy except buy more gasoline.

All a recipe for disaster.

[JinxJr]

The Constitution has been hacked at by every admin since the ink dried on the original draft.

I'm an Independent too and I've gotten more than a little weary of sorting the fields out for what is never going to be the best man for the job but, the lesser of many evils. If we could shake the two-party system and the electoral college we'd have better choices...my opinion.

[jetdawgg]

And also get some of the corporate and PAC money out of the game......

[3077India]

As much as I like Ron Paul, I have serious doubts that he'll win the Republican Nomination. He has a history of being at odds with other Republicans in Congress. Although I do hope that I'll be proven wrong on this.

[jetdawgg]

His donations have been growing since the first debate. He had only 500k now he has over 5MM in the kitty

[erased]

It's unfortunate that Dr. Paul doesn't really have much of a chance given the media's reaction to all the commotion he's causing. It's absolutely amazing that the candidate that wins (according to polls done by whoever is hosting each debate) every debate hands down is pretty much left out of all post-debate coverage. Even when he handed Guiliani's ass to him, Faux News and Glenn Beck made it look like ol' Rudy had even a leg to stand on.

Dr. Paul, in my opinion, is the only man at the debates who is even discussing issues instead of jumping into Romney and McCain's girl-fight or screaming "...But the terrorists?!" at every opportunity. The thought of any of those men as my CiC scares the hell out of me. I won't even get started on the democrats in this race, but unfortunately for everyone, the Bush Bunch screwed it up so bad that moderate republicans (remember what those were?) will likely be voting for the left.

It's ok though... as long as Paris Hilton is still having legal troubles, you won't have to hear about how far off course this country is.

S/f

[jetdawgg]

Erased, welcome aboard. your thoughts are pretty much in line with mine. The nation has gone so far to the right, anything moderate looks extreme to them.

Dr Paul is on point and we should not let the MSM choose our candidates for us.

[10thzodiac]

I'm sure everyone realizes that the lobbyist give money to both candidates.

I wonder why

Lobbyist and their money are Americans biggest threat. Our elected officials don't make policy, lobbyist do, e.g. Republicans & Democrats are not really for boarder control because their lobbyist want cheap labor, etc.

[erased]

Thanks for the welcome. I only found this forum because I was looking for Marines in support of Ron Paul. Not many Marines (especially active) put their politics online, but I feel it's definitely important as active Marines will be the ones fighting the neocons' wars if they retain control of the government.

S/f