A Huge Win for Ron Paul

November 5 a day to remember says Jennifer Reynolds

Some grass roots supporter came up with an idea to have everyone donate on November 5, they were hoping for ten million dollars or $100 from 100,000 supporters. Everyone knew that raising ten million dollars in one day was not going to happen. Nevertheless, the ever hopeful Ron Paul supporters have made November 5 a day to remember. Who knows where it will stop? When the day began at midnight eastern time Ron Paul had a counter on his website showing they had already raised roughly $2.770,000 since October 1, 2007. By anyone's standards, that is not a bad haul for just over a month - especially for a man who supposedly has no support. As of 7:10 p.m. est they were up to $6,064,048 and counting. That means that so far in one day Ron Paul has raised over three million dollars and the day is not over! No doubt as people come home from work tonight that number will continue to rise.

The excitement began as the clock struck midnight. Thousands of supporters were glued to their monitors to watch the money counter that is up on the official website www.RonPaul2008.com  and the forums at www.ronpaulforums.com among others. Breathlessly they counted down the time as if it were New Year's Eve, five more minutes..., three more minutes..., everyone hold off until it strikes midnight... and then BAM! GO! And the money came rolling in from every side. The people on the west coast were warned to hold off until it was midnight their time. Only the East coasters could participate in the initial slam. The website updates once every minute. Those first ten minutes showed ten thousand dollars coming in PER minute. By 12:10 a.m. they had already raised $100,000.

After an hour or so things trickled down to a mere five thousand per minute and the troops sprang into action. People began posting that they had decided $100 per person was not nearly enough. One poster wrote that they were going to donate more than $100 and a bidding war started. By the end, the last person has stated they were going to donate $1000 - so there! What a way to motivate the troops!

According to the Paul campaign  they have broken the one-day online fundraising record. In 2004, John Kerry raised $2.7 million in one day two days after the Super Tuesday primaries - but that was after heavy media attention. In the year 2000, John McCain raised more than $1 million dollars two days after he won the New Hampshire Primary - another hot media day. Ron Paul is making all this money today because one of his supporters thought it "might be a fun idea." When a Ron Paul supporter has an idea, you can bet the rest of the Revolution will spring to action.

Not only are Ron Paul supporters donating to the November 5 fundraising cause, but many of his supporters who are maxed out are donating to other causes today as well. How many campaigns do you know where the supporters are designing and buying full page newspaper ads? Other projects include radio spots, TV ads, thousands of YouTube contributions and untold millions being spent on campaign materials. Ron Paul's supporters buy their own yard signs, they purchase their own bumper stickers to give away, they make t-shirts to sell on his behalf, they are burning DVDs by the tens of thousands to hand out to people, they make their own fliers, and they pay for and put up all those Ron Paul Revolution signs you see all over the place.

In fact, if you seen any advertising for Ron Paul, it most likely came from a grass roots supporter, with the exception of a slate of radio and TV ads Dr. Paul began running quite recently in New Hampshire. Up till then, he had saved nearly every dime donated. All of this is what makes those polling numbers so funny. You know, all those "national" polls that are sure that Ron Paul has only 1% support. Instead of assuming that all this money is coming from four robots, you would expect the mainstream media to start questioning the polling numbers and methods of the pollsters. Many polls do not even include Ron Paul as an option. Pretty hard to do well when you are not a choice! Alas, the mainstream is outmoded and will continue to live and die by those poll numbers no matter how ridiculous they look when they announce them. I mean, really, can a man with 1% of the vote get three MILLION dollars in donations in one day?

This money drive comes after no major victory, no Super Tuesday, no huge primary win, this money is rolling in just because a supporter said Go! The official Ron Paul campaign had no idea what was happening until someone informed them that it would be a good idea to make sure they had a few extra servers on November 5, 2007.

So, to all you doubting Thomas's out there. The Ron Paul campaign is REAL. This is no joke. These are huge numbers of hard core supporters who are not only talking about their candidate and making a few signs, but they are donating MILLIONS of dollars to the campaign. Since I started writing this article, about half an hour ago, another hundred thousand has come rolling in. Another update, hold on, make that $123,000. I think it is about time to accept the fact that the polls just are not picking up the typical Ron Paul supporter. Most polls ask people who are likely to vote Republican and no one else. What this day shows is that Ron Paul's appeal is reaching a very broad base. He is pulling in support from Democrats to Constitutionalists to Libertarians to Green and a whole lot of Independents who have been looking for a home seem to have found one.

Well, there goes another $10,000 into the coffers. Not to mention the millions of dollars in publicity this activity has created. Ron Paul is being mentioned today in every paper from the New York Times to the Washington Post and everything in-between. For a man that has a hard time getting any coverage at all, his supporters should be awfully proud. They have done a great thing for their candidate today! We have about six hours to go and I can hardly wait to see what the total will end up being. No matter what, this day has been a big win for the Ron Paul Campaign!

As a closing note, the campaign is officially up to $6,255,688, a little under $200,000 in exactly one hour. Not bad! Not bad at all.

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Jennifer Reynolds, Gambling911.com

Originally published November 7, 2007 10:59 pm ET