Ron Paul the Darling of Mainstream Press Now?

Prior to last week's unprecedented Internet fund raising campaign, few outside of Ron Paul's loyal support base (and of course Gambling911.com readers) really knew much about the candidate.

"Who's that?" we here at Gambling911.com would hear time and time again when the subject was brought up.

Last Monday, Dr. Paul, a popular long term Texas Representative, managed to take in just over $4 mil in a single 24 hour period via a massive grassroots Internet-only campaign.  A week later, Ron Paul had amassed just over $8 mil for the quarter, well on his way to the campaign's goal of $12 mil by year's end.  There is already talk of a second one-day fundraiser.  Ron Paul has begun advertising heavily in early primary states.

But it's the free press that may ultimately help his campaign.  One of the reasons few had heard of Ron Paul was the fact that few mainstream media outlets would bring his name up.  The tide is changing now.

The New York Times once again featured a story prominently displayed in its Monday edition related to Ron Paul.

From posting video on YouTube to enlisting friends through Facebook, all of the presidential candidates are looking for ways to harness the Internet. In the case of Ron Paul, the Internet has harnessed him, Katharine Q. Seelye and Leslie Wayne of the New York Times.

If his campaign had taken place in the pre-Internet era, it might have gone the way of his 1988 Libertarian campaign for president, as a footnote to history. But because of the Internet’s low-cost ability to connect grass-roots supporters with one another — in this case, largely iconoclastic white men — Mr. Paul’s once-solo quest has taken on a life of its own. It is evolving from a figment of cyberspace into a traditional campaign, with yard signs, direct mail and old-fashioned rallies, like one here on Saturday attended by a few thousand people under cold, gray skies. Mr. Paul said it was his biggest rally so far. He said it proved his campaign was more than “a few spammers” and called it a “gigantic opportunity” to establish credibility.

The Seattle Post Intelligencer is also taking notice, albeit within the paper's online blog:

A poster there writes:

In the real world (if we can still separate the virtual world from the real, physical one), has anyone noticed how many posters and banners supporting Ron Paul have mushroomed in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood? I notice a number of his supporters are young people, students.

To my mind, this phenomenon speaks, at one level, to the simple spectacle of the Internet. At another level, it seems like a cry to reclaim politics, to channel it away from its hidden corridors and bring it into newer portals.

Meanwhile, there is more good news for the Ron Paul campaign as his poll numbers in New Hampshire are now at 7%.

Both the Boston Globe/University of New Hampshire and Marist Polls both show him tied with Mike Huckabee at 7%.

While that may not sound very impressive, one poster on the Liberty Pages makes an important point:

I think something we all need to keep in mind is that for most of the year Ron Pauls name was not even on 90% of the polls sent out.

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Carrie Stroup, Gambling911.com

Originally published November 12, 2007 12:45 pm ET