On Monday, Sept 24 at 5:21 PM, the Ron Paul campaign announced a fundraising effort to raise $500,000 in the six and a half days before the end of the third quarter. As I remarked in a previous post, all eyes will be on these fundraising numbers. The third quarter totals will be used to assess a candidate's viability and organizational strength heading into the final months before the primaries.

Well, today at 5:03 PM, just a little less than three days after the fundraiser announcement, the campaign hit the $500,000 mark!!! The response has been phenomenal!!! How's that for a couple of internet spam-bots?!?

Even though the campaign is trying to reign in expectations, they have already indicated that they will have raised more money than the $2.4 million raised in the second quarter, it's just a matter of how much more. So while other campaigns are on their way down, Ron Paul is definitely on the way UP.

Thank you to all who donated!!! Watching that thermometer hit $500,000 made my day. Just imagine how great it would be to see it hit $1,000,000. With more than three days to go until the end of the quarter, I think we can do it.

UPDATE: The Ron Paul website just updated their thermometer graphic and are now shooting for $1 million!!! Take a few moments and watch the thermometer grow, it's mesmerizing. Every time I see a donation come in, I get the sense of something GREAT happening here...

UPDATE #2:: Here's a rather touching letter from Ron Paul to all of his supporters that are helping to make this possible. I guess freedom is popular after all.