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 Outside the Beltway 

Ron Paul: Five Million Dollar Man

Ron Paul raised $5.08 million last quarter. While not quite enough to buy two bionic legs, a bionic arm, and a bionic eye and thereby become better, stronger, faster, it is certainly “real money.” Indeed it “rivals those of John McCain and Bill Richardson” and is five times Mike Huckabee’s total. And it’s “a far larger total than anyone expected from Paul.”

Yet, despite his fundraising prowess, Paul is a candidate barely alive. He doesn’t even rate inclusion on RealClear Politics’ summary chart. Or the latest Rasmussen chart. Indeed, as best I can tell, he’s still within the margin of error of Oscar Goldman.

About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.

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OTOH, if the Bengals lose another linebacker to injury, Paul is next on the depth chart.

Posted by Dodd | October 3, 2007 | 04:41 pm | Permalink
 

Unfortunately it took segregationist Governor Wallace to reveal the truth that "there's not a dime's worth of difference between" Republicans and Democrats. The Democrats willingly went along with the War in Iraq, suspension of Habeas Corpus, detaining protesters, banning books like America Deceived (book) from Amazon, stealing private lands (Kelo decision), warrant-less wiretapping and refusing to investigate 9/11 properly. They are both guilty of treason.

Support the $5-million dollar man, Dr. Ron Paul and save this country.

As an aside, we must give credit where it is due, this blogger guessed the $5 million donation number right first:
Ron Paul Revolution

Posted by Mike T | October 3, 2007 | 05:05 pm | Permalink
 

Yet, despite his fundraising prowess, Paul is a candidate barely alive. He doesn’t even rate inclusion on RealClear Politics’ summary chart. Or the latest Rasmussen chart. Indeed, as best I can tell, he’s still within the margin of error of Oscar Goldman.

Actually, the last Gallup poll had Paul tied with Huckabee at 4%. He's within the margin of error of Huckabee in Iowa and polling in the teens in New Hampshire.

One problem with judging Paul's status is that a lot of polls simply don't include him. Rasmussen doesn't include him on the polls, nor do most of the polls that RCP aggregates. Consequently, it's difficult to judge how well he's actually doing. As I pointed out earlier this week, I think that this is unfair of the media, who are eager to paint Huckabee as the "Republican dark horse" when Paul's numbers show him to be a superior candidate.

Posted by Alex Knapp | October 3, 2007 | 05:21 pm | Permalink
 

Alex: Fair points. Then again, I'd say Huckabee was within the margin of error of Oscar Goldman -- or either of us -- too.

Posted by James Joyner | October 3, 2007 | 06:10 pm | Permalink
 

Unfortunately it took segregationist Governor Wallace to reveal the truth that "there's not a dime's worth of difference between" Republicans and Democrats. The Democrats willingly went along with the War in Iraq, suspension of Habeas Corpus, detaining protesters, banning books like America Deceived (book) from Amazon, stealing private lands (Kelo decision), warrant-less wiretapping and refusing to investigate 9/11 properly. They are both guilty of treason.

You are why I will never vote for Ron Paul. What kind of kook are you? Banning books? The Kelo decision? Do you just sit around listening to Alex Jones all day? If Ron Paul has anything to do with you he doesn't belong in polite company.

But the kicker is "refusing to investigate 9/11 properly." You troofers have doomed his campaign - nothing is worse than a troofer - nothing!

Posted by Evrviglnt | October 3, 2007 | 08:28 pm | Permalink
 

Unfortunately it took segregationist Governor Wallace to reveal the truth that "there's not a dime's worth of difference between" Republicans and Democrats. The Democrats willingly went along with the War in Iraq, suspension of Habeas Corpus, detaining protesters, banning books like America Deceived (book) from Amazon, stealing private lands (Kelo decision), warrant-less wiretapping and refusing to investigate 9/11 properly. They are both guilty of treason.

You are why I will never vote for Ron Paul, kooks like you. Banning books? The Kelo decision? Do you just sit around listening to Alex Jones all day?

But the kicker is "refusing to investigate 9/11 properly." You troofers have doomed his campaign - nothing is worse than a troofer - nothing! This country has problems, but electing nutburgers like conspiracy jock Ron Paul will make things worse.

Posted by Evrviglnt | October 3, 2007 | 08:29 pm | Permalink
 

Nice analogy, James, but I don't think $6 million goes as far today as it did when they fixed Steve Austin up in 1974...

Isn't it true that Paul isn't spending much of his money...just sitting on it?

Posted by NoZe | October 3, 2007 | 09:37 pm | Permalink
 

I don't think $6 million goes as far today as it did when they fixed Steve Austin up in 1974...

I considered that but figured that the cost of technology has gone down considerably since then.

Posted by James Joyner | October 3, 2007 | 09:54 pm | Permalink
 

You are why I will never vote for Ron Paul, kooks like you. Banning books? The Kelo decision? Do you just sit around listening to Alex Jones all day?

Posted by rick | October 3, 2007 | 10:12 pm | Permalink
 

You are why I will never vote for Ron Paul, kooks like you. Banning books? The Kelo decision? Do you just sit around listening to Alex Jones all day?

Do you like losing your property to some greedy bureaucracy? People who do are the real kooks...
They happily give up freedom. They blindly pay any and all taxes. They are ever willing to give up more and more liberty and property. They like having a private banking corporation coin our money, and then charge us interest. They have "Battered Citizen Syndrome" and wont vote for the one candidate that offers them liberty. They can’t handle freedom and they don’t know enough to vote for it. Sadly, such happily enslaved sheeple will not be voting for Ron Paul.

Posted by rick | October 3, 2007 | 10:15 pm | Permalink
 

Cut to the chase. Ron Paul hasn't embraced the holy crusade in the Middle East. Worse yet, he has addressed Israeli policy objectively, as if it isn't holy writ.

That alone is enough to finish his campaign. Failing that, he had best be looking in his rear view mirrors when driving on bridges.

No one with his views will be permitted on mainstream media. much less in the Presidential scrum.

Posted by ATS | October 3, 2007 | 11:17 pm | Permalink
 

If I member creckly, they spent $50,000,000 to spiff up Jaime Sommers for the latest version of The Bionic Woman.

Talk about your "high maintenance!"

Posted by Boyd | October 4, 2007 | 08:25 am | Permalink
 

You are why I will never vote for Ron Paul, kooks like you.

You should start thinking for yourself instead of letting the votes of other people sway you. Ron Paul has never said anything to suggest he doubts that al Qaeda was responsible for the attacks on 9/11 (and come to think of it, neither did Mike T up above).

Posted by Mark Jaquith | October 4, 2007 | 11:03 am | Permalink
 

What would be interesting is to see a breakdown for each candidate of not only the final total but also the distribution of contributions (sounds kind of like a school house rock song, huh?).

For instance if Paul's money came all or mostly in the form of small donation by private individuals that means something different than getting 2 mill from McDonalds. And the comparison between candidates would be interesting, especially if you could see a geographic breakdown.

God, I could play with that data set for weeks. :)

Posted by Tlaloc | October 4, 2007 | 02:47 pm | Permalink
 

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