Just four months ago,
Sportsbook.com listed Fox News personality Bill O'Reilly with better odds than Ron Paul (750 to 1) of becoming the next US President. That's because Sportsbook.com lists a whole bunch of well known individuals, including Donald Trump, amongst its political odds pool (mostly for entertainment purposes).
At the time, the online gambling hadn't really heard of Ron Paul. They essentially kept him off their list. Eventually Sportsbook.com introduced Paul as a 200 to 1 longshot. That changed mighty quickly as Paul supporters swarmed all over those odds. Eventually
his odds were slashed dramatically all the way down to 15 to 1 where they remained steady at press time.
So what is Ron Paul's biggest obstacle right now? He's still not widely known and nowhere could this be better illustrated than in Gambling911.com's own backyard....to our own astonishment.
Kira Wissman, who sat down with Dr. Paul Friday, admits she was not entirely familiar with him despite her strong bond with the Republican party.
"His (Ron Paul) views on government are very-in line with mine," Wissman said last week. "Specifically his opposition to the patriot act, and internet regulation."
Our Senior Editor Payton O'Brien's father hadn't really heard of Paul either.
"When I told him Ron Paul was against regulation of the Internet and taxation, my dad suddenly become interested."
Payton described her father as a "shut off Republican", one who is basically discontent with the entire party.
Staunch Republican reporter, Tyrone Black, echoes the sentiment of many disenchanted Republicans we suspect.
"I am backing Fred Thompson," he told us, having never heard of Ron Paul.
You would think that our own reporters were reading the Gambling911.com website, but apparently that is not the case.
Thompson, despite not formally announcing his candidacy has enjoyed significantly more press coverage than Ron Paul.
We also spoke to an individual who is within the top 3 percentiles of contributors to the Republican campaign. He wished to remain anonymous, but commented that Ron Paul sounds like the name of a porn star.
He too was not familiar with Paul.
Because the mainstream media has Paul listed at 2% in national polls, all the press attention continues to shift towards the Romney's, Giuliani's and McCain's. Ron Paul is just "one of those other candidates" in many people's minds, especially those who do not spend their days and nights on the Internet.
Paul's biggest obstacle is just getting heard by the masses. The issues and what Dr. Paul stands for are easy enough to embrace.
