Ron Paul Has Raised More Than $2 Million Today

by Todd Beeton, Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 11:28:58 AM EST

As Jerome linked in Breaking Blue, Ron Paul has raised $2 million and counting just today thanks to a grassroots-driven fundraising effort focused on raising money "This November 5th".

From Jonathan Martin at The Politico:

In what is being called a "money bomb," Paul's fervent backers spread the word that today they'd blast their candidate with Internet contributions, setting up a website, "This November 5th," to push the plan. An aide said they had nothing to do with the effort.
"Supporters have spontaneously organized what I can only refer to as a one-day attack of donations," said Paul spokeswoman Kate Rick. "We started at midnight with $2.77 million raised for the quarter, and have, as of 9:36 am, climbed up to over $4.1."
As of 12:27, Paul had raised $4.73 million total.

Now, as of 4:30pm, Paul's website shows that total has risen past $5,525,000.

This is a remarkable amount of money for a supposedly fringe candidate and is further evidence that Paul's online support can be measured in real world metrics other than inordinately large support in non-binding online polls. Andrew Sullivan offers his take on what this online Paul uprising signifies:

Memo to today's Republicans: some people still believe in your principles, even if you don't.

Tags: 2008 Presidential election, Republican primary, Ron Paul (all tags)

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yay libertarians!

third party - third party - third party!

excellent

what swell new, it will be great to have a buffer for all the hillary hating Pino's who will be voting Nader 2008...

yay!

There are obstinate know little pretend brainiacs on both sides of the isle this season...

yay!

by holden caulfield 2007-11-05 11:33AM | 0 recs

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how many people on this site

have ever said they would vote for Nader in 2008?

Just thinking off the top of my head, I can come up with more Hillary supporters at MyDD who've said they'd never vote for Edwards than Edwards supporters who've said they would vote for a third party if Hillary is the nominee.

You need a new talking point.

by desmoinesdem 2007-11-05 12:06PM | 0 recs

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this aint my firswt rodeo dearie

I remember what the bradley people did to gore and where many of them went...

I have done poll after poll at kos - before they pretended i was areyouready and gang banned me - and over and over 30 percent minimum said that they would not vote for hillary -

its not like this has happened before - you have noticed bush in the wh haven t you?

and nader has said he will be running...

by holden caulfield 2007-11-05 01:02PM | 0 recs

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Re: this aint my firswt rodeo dearie

guess what? we dont give a fuck if you've seen elections bud. warrants, thats what we need.

by leewesley 2007-11-05 07:02PM | 0 recs

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what the hecks a warrent dude ?

and man ...experience is not only not respected here on the internets, its insulted...do you ever wonder why there are never any politicos EVER at these sites?

maybe this pov is why the polls here and at kos have shown that the cw here is the dead reverse of how our party faithful actually feel?

maybe all these self defined political genuises....who dont have any experience, just opinions have shown themselves to be wrong about like....every time...

by holden caulfield 2007-11-05 07:18PM | 0 recs

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and she went to teacher to complain about my

braking rules about posting an article...and i wanted to be snide, but not insulting...

by holden caulfield 2007-11-05 07:20PM | 0 recs

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Re: Ron Paul Has Raised More Than $2 Million Today

thats an staggering number

by sepulvedaj3 2007-11-05 11:44AM | 0 recs

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Re: Ron Paul Has Raised More Than $2 Million Today

Considering he is a nut case. Granted a nut case who is ant-war, but still a nutcase

by molly bloom 2007-11-05 12:38PM | 0 recs

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phenry's diaries at DKos

are a good read on Ron Paul. He or she wrote four of them:

http://phenry.dailykos.com

by desmoinesdem 2007-11-05 12:44PM | 0 recs

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Re: Ron Paul Has Raised More Than $2 Million Today

It's more than Edwards' biggest one-day total, but not Clinton's or Obama's.

by Adam B 2007-11-05 01:20PM | 0 recs

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Re: Ron Paul Has Raised More Than $2 Million Today

This is phenomenal accomplishment for Paul. I'm speechless. Let's not get too excited about this. Paul is a Libertarian for goodness sake.

by lonnette33 2007-11-05 11:46AM | 0 recs

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Re: Ron Paul Has Raised More Than $2 Million Today

The only good that may come out of this showing is that Ron Paul runs as a libertarian afterwards, and with the notoriety he has built and the cash he is going to have syphons off some GOP votes in the GE.

by georgep 2007-11-05 03:52PM | 0 recs

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Re: Ron Paul Has Raised More Today

We ain't ready! So far as I know, we don't have a candidate in Ron Paul's Texas district! Would be sweet if it opened up. The vacuum would be filled somehow, I'd guess

by Woody 2007-11-05 06:42PM | 0 recs

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quite impressive

I can't figure out why he's done so little campaigning in Iowa. I understand that his profile is a better fit for the NH voter, but I think he would get a decent amount of support here too.

He's been running radio ads in Iowa, but he hasn't traveled around the state much.

by desmoinesdem 2007-11-05 12:07PM | 0 recs

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Re: Ron Paul Has Raised More Than $2 Million Today

I think the media (and his competitors) have been seriously underestimating Ron Paul.

He already has stronger grassroots support than any other Republican, and he's going to spend his cash on upping his name recognition in New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina, Nevada, and Michigan. With no clear front-runner, the Republican race is still wide open (no one's over 20% in South Carolina, for instance.)

He may have limited upside among Republicans due to his libertarian, anti-war views, but in a low-turnout primary with lots of candidates, someone with a motivated base of 5-10% could actually win, given sufficient turnout.

If Ron Paul wins the Republican nomination, he will present a unique challenge to Democrats, who would have to explain why they were more cautious in their criticism of the Iraq war and ongoing civil liberties violations than the Republican nominee, while he's also on the more popular side of other top issues like balancing the budget and limiting illegal immigration.

If Ron Paul doesn't win the Republican nomination, the Democratic nominee would do well to copy the better parts of his rhetoric, on Iraq, Iran, civil liberties, and fiscal responsibility.

by Lex 2007-11-05 01:05PM | 0 recs

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Re: Ron Paul Has Raised More Than $2 Million Today

No way in Hades does Ron Paul win the GOP nomination. But he is a unique character, nonetheless, and a possible third-party (Libertarian) candidacy seems in the offing.

by georgep 2007-11-05 03:53PM | 0 recs

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Impressive.

Impressive number, but he's still a kook.

Anyone who believes children shouldn't be vaccinated before they enter school needs a reality check.

by mattmfm 2007-11-05 01:09PM | 0 recs

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Re: Impressive.

Look, I think Paul is a kook too. But I never had my kid vaccinated for anything and having seen some of the recent research on the subject I am increasingly content with that decision. A lot depends on which vaccination you are talking about but it's not as clear a choice as you seem to think it is.

by Shaun Appleby 2007-11-05 01:51PM | 0 recs

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Re: Impressive.

Paul is a wacko? And the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. isn't?

by Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle 2007-11-05 02:10PM | 0 recs

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Memo to Today's Democrats;

Ron Paul is stealing the antiwar vote.

Seriously, I see a lot of people, even in the bay area, that really oughta know better that are putting out Paul signs and stickers and have the shirts on.

It's like the scariness of the LaRouche-ies with the Rand-oid obsessivism.

And it's all about the war.
ALL. ABOUT. THE. WAR.

-C.

by neutron 2007-11-05 01:45PM | 0 recs

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Obama

What I want to say is that he beats Obama so-called 'grassroots' fundraising by a mile...

by prisonbreak 2007-11-05 01:52PM | 0 recs

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Still For Kucinich

But still, I don't mind seeing this libertarian screwball kick this much ass. About time somebody did!

by blues 2007-11-05 03:21PM | 0 recs

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I gave money to Ron Paul today

I'm not one of your blog-commenting fanatics.

I was a door-to-door DNC fundraiser in 2004 before the general election, helped raise around $3,000 in 3 months for the DNC and John Kerry in a mostly Republican suburb. I have read Atrios, Digby, Kos, MyDD, and others on a daily basis since 2002.

I've watched as the Democrats we elected to end the Bush war have systematically and seemingly programmatically caved on every important issue related to the so-called War on Terror, from throwing Lamont under the bus in favor of Lieberman, to throwing MoveOn under the bus, to letting torture and domestic surveillance remain unabated. And now we have a new aggression on Iran and the prospect of endless, permanent war and occupation.

There is no serious leadership on these issues from anyone in the Senate except Feingold, Boxer and maybe Dodd. In the House, Rahm and Pelosi have actively intimidated anyone making the right kind of noises.

Hillary and Obama are not being serious about ending the war, bringing the troops home, and shutting down the giant 'Embassy' Halliburton is building over there. It is becoming increasingly clear that Hillary's job once in office is going to be to sell Americans the AEI spin on Iraq and Iran: a 'Korean' model for long-term 'presence' in the Middle East; when we all know it's really going to be the 'Salvadorean' model for permanent terror campaigns on peasant villages, and permanent covert 'revolutionary' subversion of local and regional stability, in the service of god knows what.

I don't want that. I will not vote for that.

Therefore, I have thrown some money towards Ron Paul because he is against this war. I really don't care what party he is in and I really don't care that he's weird about public schooling or whatever.

The other issues that progressives are passionate about will simply have to be worked out later. Ron Paul makes a principled, non-mealy-mouthed case for not only ending the war, but not having gone to war in the first place.

I am confident that the non-war issues under a Paul presidency may even be debated openly and in good faith. Apparently Paul is a sensible person who values good and honest leadership. I have seen nothing like this on the Dem side. And at this point nothing is coming close to making me think I will.

by negropontedeathsquads 2007-11-05 03:55PM | 0 recs

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Re: I gave money to Ron Paul today

I couldn't agree more. Paul (and the Libertarian movement in general) has some really nutty ideas on certain issues, but they are dead on right on some very, VERY important ones and have the balls to actually speak what they mean and do what they say they will. If the general election right now came down to Paul promising unflinchingly to withdraw all troops within 6 months or Hawkary Clinton spouting off about "all options on the table" with Iran or whatever further disastrous misadventures she and the other Neocons want to get us into, I'll vote for Paul in a nanosecond.

People here are celebrating Paul's insurgency like it is some kind of retribution for Nader in 2000. Let me make this clear right now. Paul is AT LEAST as dangerous to Democrats as Republicans. If he somehow pulls off the major upset on the GOP side, and you have a Republican running far to the left of the Dems on the war AND promising sweeping tax cuts and balanced budgets AND running as a straight shooter outsider not afraid to be honest with the public, that is a HUGE problem for the Dem party (for the DLC types far moreso than the progressive movement, but a problem for the Dem party nonetheless).

The one thing Democrats have to really worry about in the Presidential election next year is the GOP finally wising up and throwing Bush under the bus and finding an anti-war, anti-big-spending populist candidate (remember, endless costly war is NOT necessarily a core conservative belief...). While it doesn't appear that any of the front-runners are willing to admit the emperor has no clothes yet, any swing towards Paul is a turn in that direction. Be afraid, be very afraid.

by NJIndependent 2007-11-05 05:26PM | 0 recs

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Re: I gave money to Ron Paul today

Paul is not a free market libertarian..opposes abortion, wants moratorium on immigration and opposes free trade..sounds more like a commie to me.

by Boilermaker 2007-11-05 07:03PM | 0 recs

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Re: Ron Paul Has Raised More Than $2 Million Today

Looks like the total is up to $6.4 Million now as of 8:55 PM EST.

by georgep 2007-11-05 03:55PM | 0 recs

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Re: Ron Paul Has Raised More Than $2 Million Today

That's for the quarter. He had $3.1 million through yesterday according to what I've read. So only $3.3 million today.

He's doing ~ $200K/hr, so $4 million looks possible if he gets an extra goose at the end.

by IVR Polls 2007-11-05 04:09PM | 0 recs

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Re: Ron Paul Has Raised More Than $2 Million Today

According to Todd's post the total through midnight was $2.77 Million. He is now almost at $6.5 Million, so he is very close already . I think he'll easily pass the $4 Mill. for the 24 hr. day. Quite the haul.

by georgep 2007-11-05 04:17PM | 0 recs

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Re: Ron Paul Has Raised More Than $2 Million Today

ronpaulgraphs.com has a ridiculous amount of detail and they say $3.1 at the start of day, but either way it ought to make a few waves.

by IVR Polls 2007-11-05 04:24PM | 0 recs

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Is This What It Takes...

.... to get Pelosi, et al. off their dumb asses???

by blues 2007-11-05 04:13PM | 0 recs

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Ron Paul Botnet

I wonder if this is a factor.

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/n ews/2007/10/paul_bot

I got the Ron Paul spam a few weeks ago-- and I coulda sworn somebody here commented on it. (Maybe that was OpenLeft-- anyway, can't find it now.)

I think people who think a Ron Paul third party candidacy would be a Democratic boon are way off base.

by alteran 2007-11-06 04:03AM | 0 recs