Poker Players Debate Ron PaulThere is plenty of buzz coming out of last week's Poker Players Alliance Washington Fly-In. While the PPA worked hard to lobby various Congressmen and women into legalizing poker online, under the radar many of those in attendance discussed what a pleasure it was to have met with 2008 US Presidential hopeful Ron Paul.
On the über popular poker forum Two Plus Two those who attended the fly-in spoke highly of Dr. Paul.
"I met Ron Paul last week. He's a great guy in person, and he's on our side (and on the side of freedom)," expressed one forum member by the name of TheEngineer. "He had his picture taken with Dr. Paul and a handful of professional poker players in attendance."
It's only been recently that the online poker community has really begun to take notice of Ron Paul's campaign. His following on the Gambling911.com website has been immense. Readers of the site have driven Ron Paul's odds to become the next President down from 200/1 to 6/1, where he is currently a bigger favorite than Mitt Romney. (odds for Ron Paul can be found here)
Being that Two Plus Two is not a Ron Paul supporters forum per se, not all the postings have been in favor of the long shot Presidential candidate.
While some suggested he was "loony", others took more of a middle road, suggesting otherwise but at the same time believing he stood a very slim chance of becoming the next US President.
El_Hombre_Grande writes:
"He's not in any way loony. Didn't someone say that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing and expecting a different result?
"That being said, he is un-electable. Which means that in the end, his candidacy and support is pretty irrelevant, unfortunately. But that's not a reflection on his ideas. Its a reflection of a system where the the money flocks to the big ticket idiots and then the media covers those with money and media coverage begets more money, repeat over and over until we end up with the slightly mentally challenged son of an ex-president as president followed by the first lady turned president who was cheated on by the former president.
"I, for one, have stopped making fun of European and South American politics. American politics have become less credible."
As far as becoming un-electable, don't tell that to Ron Paul supporters. Even he is believing there's a chance.
"Yes. There is a risk I could win," Ron Paul said on Tuesday night's Jay Leno show.
Ron Paul has raised more money than some of the top tier Republican candidates during the third quarter and that money is being spent wisely on New Hampshire ad spots totaling well over a million dollars. These spots are being used to educate primary voters about the Republican Presidential candidate rather than bash fellow Republicans who are running against him.
Gambling911.com first broke the story on how New Hampshire was making it somewhat difficult for non-Republicans to vote for Dr. Paul.
Ron Paul and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton are the only Presidential hopefuls having any significantly positive impact on the Internet gambling website odds. In contrast, Republican "front runner" Rudy Giuliani has seen a decline over the past month. Mrs. Clinton right now is a huge 1-3 favorite to win the 2008 US Presidency.
----
Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
Originally published October 31, 2007 1:11 am ET
