My first article back in March asked the question, "Can Ron Paul win?" I concluded that he could, if we all did our part to help his campaign, largely because of the weakness of the leading Republican candidates. That remains the single best reason to remain optimistic about his chances, but the past few months have given Ron Paul supporters even more reasons.

Ron Paul's fundraising has been solid, and increasing every month. He was the leading candidate on the Internet early on, and has only widened that lead since then. Four nationally televised debates have attracted many new supporters, and demonstrated Dr. Paul's command of the issues and his fiery commitment to freedom, prosperity, and peace. According to those who watched the debates, he has been the runaway winner.

Ron Paul's huge lead on the Internet has started to translate into real world political activity, with a volunteer army of 37,000 organized in local Meetup groups around the nation. Volunteers have been handing out literature at state fairs and gun shows, calling and writing voters in early primary states, and even funding and producing their own radio and newspaper ads. Sign-waving supporters have been the subject of local media reports from Florida to Iowa to Hawaii.

The grassroots efforts are starting to bear fruit, with top-three showings in 14 of 19 Republican straw polls around the country, including victories in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Washington, and two in New Hampshire. Only the telephone-based public opinion polls have been slow to show progress, but even they have slowly climbed to the 3% level in several recent national surveys. All of this has come with minimal network television coverage, and before most of the voting public starts paying attention to the race, traditionally after Labor Day.

When undecided voters go online to search for information on the candidates, they will be stunned by the widespread support for Ron Paul on YouTube, MySpace, and elsewhere. When they tune in to the remaining Republican debates, they will respond as viewers of the initial debates did, with a newfound appreciation of Ron Paul as a serious and credible candidate.

When conservatives examine the so-called top tier candidates in more detail, they will be even less enthused than they are now. Rudy Giuliani is a pro-choice, anti-Second Amendment candidate who has been receiving nearly no support in straw polls of Republican activists. John McCain's embrace of amnesty for illegal immigrants has contributed to the disintegration of his campaign, with his support now in the single digits.

Mitt Romney has emerged as a top-tier candidate as McCain has slipped and Giuliani has plateaued, but his negatives have been rising even faster than his campaign's debt, and now exceed Hillary Clinton's. Fred Thompson may become Ron Paul's most serious challenger for conservative votes, but his lobbyist past and his indecisiveness about joining the race are sure to lessen his appeal.

Ron Paul remains the most conservative candidate across a wide range of issues. He remains the only Republican contender opposed to the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq, and the only one with proven appeal to independents and Democrats, even as he articulates a clear vision of smaller government and a strict adherence to the Constitution.

Even with all of these promising developments, Ron Paul supporters face an uphill fight to the nomination, with less than five months remaining until the early contests. The television networks will not treat him as a top-tier candidate unless his fundraising and polling numbers increase significantly. Without the free publicity and credibility given the other candidates, we will have to earn every vote the hard way, with continued dedication and perseverance.

Ron Paul can win, but only if we take our efforts to the next level. The foundation is in place, but the campaign is just beginning.

There's a pretty nice article from the Houston Chronicle that mentions our blow out straw poll in NH. Free Minds TV also came out with a great video from the Strafford picnic.

Enough straw polls have been held around the country to show which candidates are catching on with grass roots Republican voters, and the results might surprise those who consider Rudy Giuliani the front-runner. The former New York City mayor may lead in telephone surveys, but he barely registers when voters have to leave home and put in a personal appearance to show their support. In 17 straw polls in 14 different states tracked on the Ron Paul campaign site, Dr. Paul has more than held his own, joining the top tier with Mitt Romney and possible candidate Fred Thompson.

Since the much-publicized Iowa straw poll, Ron Paul has won 4 of 9 contests, giving him 5 wins on the year, along with 4 second-place showings, 3 thirds, and 3 fourths. Ron Paul has won straw polls in Washington, Alabama, North Carolina, and twice in the key early primary state of New Hampshire. He has averaged 26% of the vote in the 17 straw polls, an impressive result in a nine-candidate field.

Even more impressive has been Ron Paul's record in head-to-head matchups with the other candidates in the straw polls. Not only does Dr. Paul have a winning record against every candidate except for Romney and Thompson, none of the others has earned more votes than him more than twice in seventeen tries. Anyone who thought Dr. Paul's fifth-place showing in Iowa meant that the second-tier candidates were gaining on him should consider these results:

Ron Paul's Straw Poll Match-ups

Fred Thompson 10, Ron Paul 6
Mitt Romney 9, Ron Paul 8
Ron Paul 13, Sam Brownback 2 (with one tie)
Ron Paul 15, Rudy Giuliani 2
Ron Paul 14, Mike Huckabee 1 (with one tie)
Ron Paul 14, Tom Tancredo 1
Ron Paul 14, Duncan Hunter 1
Ron Paul 15, John McCain 1

Three more straw polls are on tap in the next two weeks -- Texas (September 1st), Maryland (August 24th to September 3rd), and South Dakota (September 3rd). The Texas contest is limited to past Republican state and national convention delegates, but the Maryland poll is open to all state residents, with polling conducted during the state fair, so turnout should be huge. Ron Paul supporters in all three states should show up to help keep the impressive grass roots results going strong.

Article from Reason Foundation Oath of Presidential Transparency Obama, Brownback and Paul Promise Executive Order Mandating Google Government Coalition of 36 groups calling for “most transparent” presidential administration ever Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) have signed oaths declaring that, should they win the presidency in 2008, they will issue an executive [...]

Here's a brilliant little run-through in reverse of American meddling in the Middle East, brought to you by Jon Stewart:

Three more Ron Paul videos on the Hope4America channel on YouTube:

Ron Paul Unites Left and Right



Ron Paul and the Environment



Ron Paul's Presidential Judgment

My Ron Paul Quotes and Ron Paul Quotes, Part II articles proved very popular, so here are some quotes of more recent vintage from the good doctor. All quotes are from his weekly Texas Straight Talk column.

The Economy

More inflation is, however, never the answer to inflation. 8/20/07

The greatest threat facing America today is the disastrous fiscal policies of our own government, marked by shameless deficit spending and Federal Reserve currency devaluation. 4/09/07

Unless and until we get the Federal Reserve out of the business of creating money at will and setting interest rates, we will remain vulnerable to market bubbles and painful corrections. 3/19/07

How can a policy of steadily debasing our currency be defended morally, knowing what harm it causes to those who still believe in saving money and assuming responsibility for themselves in their retirement years? 2/19/07

The mentality in Washington is simple: avoid hard choices at all costs; spend money at will; ignore deficits; inflate the money supply as needed; and trust that the whole mess somehow will be taken care of by unprecedented economic growth in the future. 2/12/07

Liberty

...it is with the complicity of Congress that we have become a nation of pre-emptive war, secret military tribunals, torture, rejection of habeas corpus, warrantless searches, undue government secrecy, extraordinary renditions, and uncontrolled spying on the American people. 4/30/07

Concerns with signing statements ought to include a concern for the health of our constitutional republic, it ought not to be based upon the political battle of the day. 7/09/07

Only by recapturing the spirit of independence can we ensure our government never resembles the one from which the American States declared their separation. 7/02/07

To calm fears, Americans accepted the patriot act and the doctrine of pre-emptive war. We tolerated new laws that allow the government to snoop on us, listen to our phone calls, track our financial dealings, make us strip down at airports and even limited the rights of habeas corpus and trial by jury. Like some dysfunctional episode of the twilight zone, we allowed the summit of our imagination to be linked up with the pit of our fears. 7/30/07

The problem is that politicians are not supposed to have power over us-- we're supposed to be free. 2/05/07

Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference. Government cannot create a world without risks, nor would we really wish to live in such a fictional place. 4/23/07

The War

Most Americans do not anticipate a military victory in Iraq, yet the Washington politicians remain frozen in their unwillingness to change our policy there, fearful of the dire predictions that conditions can only get worse when we leave. 6/04/07

They refuse to admit that the condition of foreign occupation is the key ingredient that unleashed the civil war now raging in Iraq and serves as a recruitment device for Al Qaida. 6/04/07

No single individual should be entrusted with the awesome responsibility of deciding when to send our troops abroad, how to employ them once abroad, and when to bring them home. 12/18/06

If every American taxpayer had to submit an extra five or ten thousand dollars to the IRS this April to pay for the war, I’m quite certain it would end very quickly. The problem is that government finances war by borrowing and printing money, rather than presenting a bill directly in the form of higher taxes. 1/29/07

Congress and the Federal Reserve Bank have a cozy, unspoken arrangement that makes war easier to finance... The result of this arrangement is inflation. And inflation finances war. 1/29/07

Foreign Policy

The American concept of independent nationhood inscribed in our Declaration cannot be maintained if we are going to pursue a policy that undermines the independence of other nations. 7/02/07

It’s hypocritical and childish to dismiss certain founding principles simply because a convenient rationale is needed to justify interventionist policies today. 12/18/06

Non-interventionism is not isolationism. Nonintervention simply means America does not interfere militarily, financially, or covertly in the internal affairs of other nations. It does not mean that we isolate ourselves; on the contrary, our founders advocated open trade, travel, communication, and diplomacy with other nations. 12/18/06

All Americans will benefit, both in terms of their safety and their pocketbooks, if we pursue a coherent, neutral foreign policy of non-interventionism, free trade, and self-determination in the Middle East. 2/26/07

Big Government

Instead of rationally explaining the proper role of government, politicians have attempted to play the role of friend, preacher, parent, social worker, et cetera-- in essence, whatever any organized special interest can demand. 8/13/07

We need not be ignorant to real threats to our safety, against which we must remain vigilant. We need only to banish to the ash heap of history the notion that we ought to be ruled by our fears and those who use them to enhance their own power. 7/30/07

The international elite, including many in the political and economic leadership of this country, believe our constitutional republic is antiquated and the loyalty Americans have for our form of government is like a superstition, needing to be done away with. 7/16/07

My message to my colleagues is simple: If you claim to support smaller government, don’t introduce budgets that increase spending over the previous year. 4/02/07

Only in Washington would anyone call the creation of an additional layer of bureaucracy on top of already bloated bureaucracies “streamlining.” Only in Washington would anyone believe that a bigger, more centralized federal government means more efficiency. 5/14/07

I recently received an email from the Online Education Database advising me they had compiled data on the candidates stances on education.  You can view the entire article here, and below is a snippet of the Ron Paul section: Ron Paul (R) Although Paul has gained little recognition from mainstream media, he has gained overwhelming support at [...]

Ron will be on Bloomberg today (8/21) and MSNBC with Tucker Carlson tomorrow (8/22). Straw Polls: Dr. Paul received 208 votes (73%) for a landslide victory against Mitt Romney today at the Strafford County, New Hampshire straw poll.  Ron Paul received 216 votes for a commanding first-place finish in a straw poll today sponsored by the West Alabama [...]