If your popularity on the world wide web was an indication of who was going to win the Republican nomination, Ron Paul would likely face the Democrat in the fall of 2008. Unfortunately for him he is still just a blip on the radar screen when it comes to real world campaigning. Even though his fundraising is up, it is still far behind the front runners, which means he has a small staff and a small following. Yet he is still one of the most popular words on the net.
From The Washington Post:
Rep. Ron Paul is more popular on Facebook than Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). He's got more friends on MySpace than former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. His MeetUp groups, with 11,924 members in 279 cities, are the biggest in the Republican field. And his official YouTube videos, including clips of his three debate appearances, have been viewed nearly 1.1 million times -- more than those of any other candidate, Republican or Democrat, except Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).
No one's more surprised at this robust Web presence than Paul himself, a self-described "old-school," "pen-and-paper guy" who's serving his 10th congressional term and was the Libertarian Party's nominee for president in 1988.
"To tell you the truth, I hadn't heard about this YouTube and all the other Internet sites until supporters started gathering in them," confessed Paul, 71, who said that he's raised about $100,000 after each of the three debates. Not bad considering that his campaign had less than $10,000 when his exploratory committee was formed in mid-February. "I tell you I've never raised money as efficiently as that, in all my years in Congress, and all I'm doing is speaking my mind."
But can these impressive web stats translate into anything in the real world. Being popular on facebook or myspace is great, but will all your 'friends' turn up at their polling place on election day? Will they contribute funds to your campaign? True, it is working well for second-place Obama over here on the left. But the netroots and the conserva-roots are two totally different animals. So Paul is still just a blip to most Republican voters.
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