The people have spoken, and Comedy Central (at least) is willing to listen. Dr. Paul will appear on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Monday, June 4th (the day before the big NH debate), AND on the Colbert Report on Wednesday, June 13th.

As you probably know, Dr. Paul will be in Manchester at St. Anselm College (100 Saint Anselm Drive) on Tuesday, June 5th, to pummel the other GOP candidates in the 3rd Republican presidential debate. The brawl starts at 7pm, but the rally outside the debate starts at 4pm; and we need to have Paul supporters out in force. We'll have some signs--feel free to bring yours (yard or homemade--just no 4'x 8' banners), and come on down.

At 6:30pm, we'll head over to Murphy's Taproom at 494 Elm Street to watch the debate, after which Dr. Paul will join us! He'll need about an hour to chat with the press, so expect him at Murphy's around 10pm.

Please try to carpool over to St. Anselm as parking will be very tight. We'll be at the Joan of Arc Residence Hall (#11 on this map), just over from the arena where the debate will take place.

RSVP at Meetup or by email. (Meetup just inconveniently went down for maintenance a minute ago, but should be back up in an hour or two.)

Dr Paul will be here on June 5th, and it would be great to let him know that NH had raised a bunch of money for him.

In order to donate, just got to www.ronpaul2008.com. Note that there is a $2300 max contribution per person, and $4600 per family. Also, if you contribute more than $200 your name and address will be reported. This is a good reason to contribute more than $200 (e.g. $201), since number of these contributers gets reported to the press.

There are a number of pledge bank drives going on as well that are helpful in spreading the word about donating. Local New Hampshire ones include one for $200 and a whopping $1000.

I finally got a video of our sign-making party up from May 12th, sorry for the delay (had to learn how to edit videos).

Also, Ron Paul was on CNN responding to comments from Pres. Bush regarding Iraq and the War on Terror. The commentator compared Dr Paul to the isolationist of the 1930's, but Dr Paul corrected him to say he was an anti-interventionist. In the 1930's we enacted very strong tariffs to restrict trade with other countries. This spread our depression to other countries and gave rise to militant regimes in Japan and Germany, leading to WWII. Dr Paul advocates the opposite, he promotes free trade. It's free trade that has helped us to maintain peace with China, and pushed them further towards free markets.

Now, just to show that Ron Paul has been consistent in his message of anti-intervention, you can watch a Stossel video from around 10 years ago.

There's a great article on the Free Market News Network about the possibility of Ron Paul winning in New Hampshire. This article highlights the importance of our work here. Some highlights from the article:

"Ron Paul could win in New Hampshire," says a source close to the campaign. "It would be an explosive political act - one that would devastate the common wisdom. The mainstream media hasn't realized it yet, but folks in New Hampshire take him seriously."

and

Ron Paul is no marginal figure. Should he get beyond New Hampshire – and likely long before that - his message may command considerable resonance in the public arena. It already does on the Internet, and for good reason.

There was also a nice interview on Dome Nation.

Dr Paul got invited back to Maher's program, and did a great job. The audience was very enthusiastic, and he seemed to feed off that energy. The point that the liberal audience liked him, yet he was the most Conservative was made, despite most of the time being spent on foreign policy. Maher gives him a mini standing ovation at the end.

This morning, Dr Paul assigned some reading to Rudy Giuliani on foreign policy! It was covered by CBS, with the original video here. From Reuters:

"I'm giving Mr. Giuliani a reading assignment," the nine-term Texas congressman said as he stood behind a stack of books that included the report by the commission that examined the attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

The story became one of the top read stories off the Yahoo web page. On CNN's Cafferty file, numerous people wrote in supporting Ron Paul's push to educate Rudy - video here. He got a great audio interview with antiwar.com where he was described as having the strongest and most consistent anti-war record from EITHER party. Also on antiwar.com, they document Bush unsuccessfully trying to rebut Dr Paul.

Can't wait for the debates!!!

OK, so now on a lighter note:

Ron Paul gave an outstanding speech to the U.S. House of Representatives last night on what it means to be a true patriot - definitely a must see. With the proliferation of new videos, you may want to bookmark watchronpaul.com.

"it is dissent from government policies that defines the true patriot and champion of liberty"

"Faith in government coercion and a lack of understanding of how free societies operate encourages big government liberals and big government conservatives to manufacture a war psychology to demand political loyalty for domestic policy, just as is required in foreign affairs."

Pay no attention to the negative-sounding title of this video. It's just great.

Another excellent thing that happened this weekend: Ron Paul had a fundraiser in Austin, TX, which reportedly drew over 700 people. Some lovely attendees recorded Dr. Paul's speech, the first ten minutes of which are available here.

Personally, I think this explains his fantastic performance this morning on CNN's Late Edition; Dr. Paul has now seen proof of the movement behind his message.

The S.C. debates sure have drawn a lot of attention to Dr Paul, both good and bad. When he is not getting shouted down by Hannity, he's been able to further elaborate on his thoughts. It's gotten to be a full time job to try to track all the media attention, so I wanted to collect a few of the things that I have found most interesting, especially videos.

• Ron Paul on CNN - labeled as the Maverick Republican (guess McCain has lost his title). This is a must watch.


• Michael Scheuer, former head analyst at the CIA's bin Laden Unit on the radio discussing Ron Paul's accurate comments


• Video inputs solicited to have Giuliani debate Ron Paul


• A humorous cartoon of the first debate, with Ron Paul as Gandalf


• A youtube user with some nice, high quality Ron Paul videos


• NPR story on Dr Paul's popularity in online polls


• MSNBC grudgingly admits that the "second tier" candidates could have an effect


• Ron Paul searches on Technorati spike (was already the #1 search after the first debate)

Ron Paul's Youtube channel gets more subscribers than any other candidate (just passed Obama - subscribe if you haven't already)

What's been great, is that besides foreign policy, this publicity has allowed Ron Paul to get out more information on his traditional Conservative message of smaller government. In the CNN interview he did a great job making the point that he was the most Conservative of the group. He also called the media to task for going after the grass roots candidate while soft-balling the candidates who get millions of dollars from special interest groups.

It's getting hard to keep up with all the press out there for Dr Paul. Here's a brief clip from Bill Maher I found interesting. I think the montage at the beginning perfectly summarizes the debate.

Dr. Paul will be a guest with Wolf Blitzer again, this time on CNN's Late Edition on Sunday, May 20th. The program runs from 11am to 1pm, and the topic appears to be the new immigration bill.

Get to Manchester on June 5th to support Dr. Paul at the St. Anselm CNN debate!

The debate starts at 7pm, but rally attendees can be on campus starting at 4pm. According to the official Paul campaign, "Campaign supporters will have a designated rally area in the parking lot in front of Joan of Arc Residence Hall. That parking lot is in sightline of the Sullivan Arena. The earliest supporters can arrive is 4:00 p.m. on debate day. All signs must be carried in and carried out. No 4' by 8' signs will be permitted. No signs allowed staked in the ground -- including along Saint Anselm Drive. No blow horns, bands, loudspeakers, audio systems will be allowed."

Don't worry--if our big signs are out, we'll have plenty of smaller ones on hand. We'll be posting more here as info becomes available.

For details and to rsvp, go here.

As reported first at Free Market News, the Michigan petition to exclude Dr. Paul from GOP debates has been withdrawn by state chairman Saul Anuzis.

I called the Michigan office myself not two minutes ago, and they confirmed that the petition is dead in the water.

I'm almost speechless. In the last ten minutes, I've seen Rosie O'Donnell (et al, at The View) and Pat Buchanan come out swinging for Ron Paul.

This was no joint statement, no coordinated effort. It's people from opposite sides of the traditional political spectrum defending and promoting Dr. Paul's statements on 9/11 at the South Carolina debate.

Buchanan:
"What Ron Paul was addressing was the question of what turned the allies we aided into haters of the United States. Was it the fact that they discovered we have freedom of speech or separation of church and state? Do they hate us because of who we are? Or do they hate us because of what we do?... We do not excuse -- but we must understand." MORE

The View:


I'd love to write something profound about this, but my brain has short-circuited. This is what Americans of good political conscience have dreamed of for years; we are actually coming together as a people on principle.

Personal religious convictions aside, there are no other words to express this:
God bless Ron Paul.

Zogby released a new poll yesterday, and we can now report that Ron Paul is clearly breaking away from the "lower tier" pack in New Hampshire.

Romney - 35% (up from 25%)
McCain - 19% (down from 25%)
Giuliani - 19% (hasn't budged)
(noncandidate F. Thompson - 6%)
Paul - 3% (up from 2%)
Hagel, Huckabee, Hunter, Brownback, Tancredo, T. Thompson - 1% or less

The poll was conducted on May 15 and 16--so it straddles the S.C. debate, which could mean interesting things for Dr. Paul's numbers. In any event, it's increasingly fair to say that while Romney, McCain, and Giuliani are still the first-tier picks, the second tier is Ron Paul and a guy who's not running. The other fellows are being left behind.

I must say, when Dr Paul spoke out in the S.C debates and Giuliani attacked him, I was literally scared out of my pants (well, not quite literally). Scared, because here was the only one candidate out of ten, who was willing to speak out against our foreign policy (which I have experienced first hand in the military), and he got jumped on by Giuliani, the audience, and many of the commentators. There were suggestions that he shouldn't even be in the debates. It was so scary, because in the meantime the other candidates were advocating torture, expanding Guantanamo Bay so that no one would have access to lawyers, wanting to call in Jack Bauer of "24", pushing again for a tamper proof ID card with biometrics, etc, etc. Ron Paul was the lone voice of freedom - were would this debate have been without him? We are really in a fight for our freedom in this election.

After the dust settled on the next day, I stared to realize what a great opportunity this was for Dr Paul. The news was all over him on the night of the debate. Giuliani's attack was clearly a sign of desperation, since he was getting hammered on conservative issues. In the post debate interview, Dr Paul suggested, with a smile, that he debate Giuliani on foreign policy. If you think that is a good idea, then go here. Then today, he got interviewed on CNN by Wolf Blitzer, and did a fantastic job. He highlighted the fact that Giuliani clearly had not read the 9/11 report, since the assertions that Dr. Paul made were in that document! He refused to apologize, and stated that Giuliani was going to have to back down, and that he should read the report. And people seem to understand. Here's a great article.

"Rudy Giuliani has tip-toed around the issues of abortion, guns and marriage. The only issue he has left is security, and he doesn't even get that right," said campaign chairman Kent Snyder. "It is clear from his interruption that former Mayor Giuliani has not read the 9-11 Commission Report and has no clue on how to keep America safe."

As Ghandi said; "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." Well, I think we are at stage two or three - pretty good for being only at the second debate. I'm so impressed with Dr Paul's courage.

This just in:

Ron Paul on the Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer on CNN tonight @ 5:10pm ET

Despite the large amount of time and effort that went into the sign making party, a dedicated group of Ron Paul supporters showed up to watch the debates. Fifteen Seacoast residents came out to cheer on Dr Paul, with one of our freshly minted Ron Paul Revolution banners.

One great moment in the debate was when they were asking all the candidates about cutting spending. Tommy Tompson (I think), when pressed, named some obscure program he would cut. Ron Paul was then asked "can you do better than that" - and he proceeded to list many departments to get rid of. He really stood out fiscally.

The big moment of tension was the attack by Giuliani when Dr Paul pointed out (I think quite correctly, having spent time in Saudi Arabia in the military myself), that our foreign policy has put us in our current position. Dr Paul remained calm, and explained some history of the region, and stuck to his guns. He's got some incredible courage. Later he was attacked by Hannity who would not let him get a word in. But I liked how he smiled, and said that he would love to debate Giuliani on foreign policy (he would wipe the floor with him).

Again, this was a debate about rhetoric vs. substance.

Good god, is that man brave. And he will reap the benefits of it.

I don't have Dr. Paul's courage; when he started talking tonight about the consequences of America's interventionist foreign policy, when he asked how we might react if a foreign country built bases on our soil, when he mentioned blowback--I started to fear for him. I thought for a moment, "well, maybe that's that." The crowd reaction was pretty rough. But I was wrong, and I believe in him now more than ever.

Right away, he took the lead in Fox News' own text message poll. (Texting, I suppose, was supposed to weed out those pesky Paul supporters.) Then I started reading comments on Politico, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. It's everywhere.

As of midnight, Ron Paul had slipped to second in the Fox poll, with 26% to Romney's 27%, and who knows if/when the results will actually appear. But even at second, that's an overwhelming victory. Dr. Paul went into the lion's den here, he took a horrid beating from Fox, and the official line isn't fooling anyone. He won. And we know it.

I didn't know I could type those words, but I just read Gov. Mark Sanford's article today from Politico.

Seriously, don't just read this article. Email it. Print it. Post links to it on every forum you visit. Tack it up on every corkboard you see. Read it out loud to your friends, relatives, and neighbors.

Gov. Sanford does not endorse Dr. Paul; what he does is lay out what a Republican candidate will have to do and be to win. And there's only one man in the field--or out of it--who fits the description.

For those who don't visit ronpaul2008.com often enough, here is what Ron Paul's official folks need us all to do:

Before the Debate
1. Fox News is accepting questions from the public to ask the candidates. Email your question today to debate@foxnews.com. Remember to include your name, town, state and contact number for verification.
2. Email your friends to remind them to watch tonight and encourage them to join our effort at RonPaul2008.com. You can also leave a "comment" to your MySpace friends so that their friends and site visitors will see the reminder as well.
3. Find other Ron Paul supporters in your area through RonPaul.meetup.com and organize a debate-watching party in your area. It's always more fun that way!

During the Debate
1. Make your voice heard on blogs during the debate.

After the Debate
1. Vote for Ron Paul via text-message using your cellular phone. The number to which you can send your text-message is 36988. It will accept your vote between 7:30 p.m. EDT and 12:30 a.m. EDT. The code for Ron Paul is "R7"
2. Engage with others in the blogosphere about why Ron Paul is the only real conservative in the race who values the Constitution and the core values of America. Many of these sites will be querying their audiences about who won the debate – so please help promote Ron Paul!
3. The next day, Wednesday, May 16, take an hour out of your day to call and email your friends, family, neighbors and associates and encourage them to "Join us" at RonPaul2008.com. They can also sign-up by phone at (703) 248-9115.
4. Be sure to check back often at RonPaul2008.com for all the latest updates on post-debate coverage, as well as what people are saying.

WMUR is having a blogging contest. Winners of this competition will take part in the Debates in June!!!!! If you have the time to blog, please sign up and start blogging. If you don't have time to blog, sign up and help out by rating the competition and posting favorable Ron Paul comments. The blogging only runs till May 20th, so there is not much time left. After May 20th, the voting will begin.

Rules
The rules of the contest require bloggers to be N.H. residents. Submissions must be original. Submissions must include the tags wmur and democrat, republican or independent (depending how you self-describe). Fifteen bloggers will be chosen (5 Republicans, 5 Democrats, and 5 Independents).

Twenty-four hours from now, we'll be grinning and hollering about another Ron Paul victory--this time, in South Carolina with FoxNews. For those watching at home, remember to tune in at 9pm, Fox News Channel.

Of course, anyone in the Seacoast area can head on over to Scoreboard again to watch the debate with a dedicated group of Ron Paul supporters. For directions, see details from the first debate meetup.

We may have a last-minute get-together in Manchester as well. I'll post here with an update in the morning. Let's all wish Dr. Paul a good night's sleep.

Fantastic news today for those of us who've been watching the candidates' YouTube stats. As you may know, TechPresident has been tracking all sorts of online numbers, and YouTube's have been the most perplexing: how could the number of total video views add up to far more than the number of channel views? Well, some time over the weekend, YouTube finally fixed its glitch, and the numbers at TechPresident reflect the correction.

Ron Paul's views went from around 100,000 to 583,737, catapulting him into second place, just barely behind Romney. In terms of YouTube subscribers, he went from second to first, with 3,153. To put this in perspective, only Obama tops Dr. Paul in both categories.

Wow, what a day! Every time I turned around, there was a new face. When we were getting started, I told my daughter that if Ron Paul got elected, she'll be able to look back on this day and realize that she helped make it happen. She tossed herself into making signs, and worked for the next five hours with a team of dedicated supporters making 3'x8' banners. The crowning banner was 5'x20', which we mounted it on our hosts house for people driving by. The full gallery is here, and should grow as people send me their pictures.

First of all, the Ron Paul Revolution sign-making extravaganza went great! Roughly 45 dedicated supporters came to help make signs and strategize. We cranked out lots of banners (including a giant one that we strapped to the side of the house), and they'll be making their way around the state over the next few days to be plastered onto overpasses, houses, trees, and other things...



Now, the big news. Dr. Paul got wind of our meeting, and actually called in to thank us for the support and to update us on the campaign! Talk about surprised! He said that he's been amazed by the extent of the grassroots efforts going on around the country, and told us that his campaign has been absolutely inundated with emails and phone calls from excited supporters volunteering to help out on the campaign. It can't hurt when your biggest problem is trying to figure out what to do with all the support you've received! He also said he's been preparing for the Fox debate, and that he's looking forward to his next visit to the Granite State on June 5th for the debate at St. Anselm's on CNN. We told him we'd be there (well, outside), signs in hand.

It was a long day, and I have to go clean the spray paint off my fingers now, but check back with RonPaulHQ over the next few days for photo and video updates of the event. Oh, and don't forget to check out our PaulMart store for T-shirts and Ron Paul yard signs.

Thanks to everyone who came out and helped make signs, and thanks especially to Dr. Paul for taking time out of his no doubt busy schedule to call in. Can you think of any other presidential candidate who would take the time to call a house full of supporters, just to say "thank you"? Neither can we.

Thanks for visiting RonPaulHQ.com.

Just a quick note that we've got PayPal up and running on our PaulMart page; you can order yard signs and t-shirts with a click or two of the mouse.

Don't you want to be asked?

Business cards are in (thanks Tommy!). We'll be distributing them to local activists at the sign making party this weekend. If you can't make it, ask someone who is going to pick some up. The idea behind business cards is something small and inexpensive to give to people during casual conversations to get them to start looking at Dr. Paul. If there are people from out of state that want to make business cards for themselves, they can just go to vista print to create one, feeling free to copy this format.

Tucker Carlson interviewed Ron Paul prior to the debate, and was very complimentary towards him. The video has just come out on youtube, so check it out. And if you get a chance, send MSNBC a note letting them know you were impressed with the interview.

Quick note about some RonPaulHQ changes that went up this morning. We're bringing our PaulMart page in house, and as soon as PayPal is set up, you'll be able to order yard signs, t-shirts, stickers, etc., directly from our site. For the time being, keep sending me emails. And look out for the new Who is Ron Paul? t-shirts, coming soon on the website. Trust me, wear it, and you will be asked.

Changes to the toolkit are also ongoing; the door hangers are up, as are links to other online supplies--online buttons, stickers, etc. Oh, and the contribute page has been updated to reflect the need for $201+ donations to the Paul campaign. Let's get those donor lists growing...

ABC excluded Ron Paul from it's coverage of the debate for over 2 days, until it was forced to cover him by thousands of angry supporters.

MSNBC, the network that hosted the debate, has failed to acknowledge that he won their own polls and, therefore, the debate. FOX has yet to mention him. CNN is glossing over him.

On the internet, Politico.com, co-host of the debate, has said nothing. Yahoo.com has excluded him from their campaign coverage and polls completely. DrudgeReport.com pulled their poll as soon as it looked as though he was going to move into second place...

And yet, the word got out.

Howard Dean used the internet 4 years ago to create the largest grassroots presidential campaign in history. But Howard Dean's campaign will not compare to what is coming this summer. Howard Dean didn't have YouTube.com. Howard Dean didn't have Digg.com... or reddit.com, or liveleak.com, or this website, or this one, or this one. Howard Dean was crushed by the same media that hyped his presence on the internet. Ron Paul doesn't have the media hype, and he doesn't need it. Instead, he has genuine support from tens of thousands of dedicated, motivated Americans (at least), who are fed up with big, corporate government and big, corporate media. And we're tired of being told who to like and what to think. You can't buy this support--not with all the corporate donations and media hype in the world. The old media is being replaced by the new media. A new "free press," where the people decide what's important and the people decide what is news.

To the American media: The founders of this country freed you so that you could be the watchdogs. So that you could protect us from government. You should be ashamed. You have lost your integrity. You have lost the respect of the people of this country, and of the world. You have a choice: change, or become the news--and make yourselves obsolete.

America, join the Revolution.

Not only did Dr. Paul inspire activists across the country, bring patriotic Americans to their feet cheering, and wipe up the stage with his opponents at the May 3rd debate--he also sent his official website's traffic through the roof.

Check out this embedded chart from Alexa on our news page. (It refused to get along nicely with our blog software.) Comparing the Paul site with those of Romney and Rudy (McCain's hardly worth mentioning), Dr. Paul surpassed his competitors on May 2nd, and by the 5th he had three times their daily reach.

And, finally, ABC News was finally forced to do something in the realm of the right thing. While the author quotes a gadfly musing that the "Ron Paul Effect" could be caused by "just one very savvy supporter who's able to vote several thousand times," we know now that they can't ignore the news forever.

One down, several hundred to go.

The Revolution isn't on tv, yet, but it seems to be making its way onto overpasses and street corners all over the country. Here's another video from the Revolution guys in Arizona:

It's ironic that Ron Paul was asked whether he trusted the mainstream media during the debate--and even more ironic that RP's answer was that he trusts the internet a lot more. Despite Ron's having won both MSNBC polls, victory in the debate, according to MSNBC, goes to Mitt Romney. Ron Paul, in an MSNBC article written after the debate, was ranked at #9. But at least MSNBC mentioned him...

FOX NEWS says McCain won the debate, and the last substantive mention of Ron Paul anywhere on their website was from January 11th when Ron filed the paperwork for his exploratory committee!

But that's not the whole story. ABC News ran a poll on their site asking who won the debate and didn't even include Congressman Paul in the line-up! Out of the ten candidates in the debate, nine were in the poll.

I know, I know, I'm paranoid. It was an accident. Ron Paul may have made such a big splash that he won both MSNBC polls; the internet may be on fire talking about him; he's the only candidate the Republicans have who is against the war; and he may be the only honest man in Washington DC; but that doesn't mean ABC will remember to put him in their poll! No, instead they forgot to add him to their debate wrap-up article as well.

Luckily we don't have to trust the mainstream media. The internet provides all the free speech and information that we need. Search for "Ron Paul" on digg.com if you want to see how excited people really are. And please don't forget to contribute what you can to the campaign (remember, almost 100% of Ron's contributions come from individuals--lobbyists and corporations don't donate to candidates who believe in the constitution.)

Thanks for checking out our site as well.

After the first debate it has become clear that Dr Paul is quite serious about winning, and has a real chance. His message clearly resonated with a lot of people based on the turnaround of his ratings in the MSNBC poll. As more and more people hear his consistent message of freedom and liberty, more will join the revolution. I urge everyone to donate whatever they can to help out. Remember, the contribution goes not only to support Dr Paul's campaign, but also to spread his message. Think of what our founding fathers gave up and risked in order to have their revolution when you consider how much to donate.

In order to donate, just got to www.ronpaul2008.com. Note that there is a $2300 max contribution per person, and $4600 per family. Also, if you contribute more than $200 your name and address will be reported. This is a good reason to contribute more than $200 (e.g. $201), since number of these contributers gets reported to the press.

There are a number of pledge bank drives going on as well that are helpful in spreading the word about donating. Local New Hampshire ones include one for $200 and a whopping $1000.

We were all geared up for the EVENT and hit the road to go to the Portsmouth Scoreboard Bar and Grill ... as usual, oops ... Suzanne forgot her camera, called Dave on route to bring his. But Dave's batteries didn't work, and I had also forgotten my camera. Fortunately, Charlotte came through. We took lots of pictures which are here. All folks on the list showed plus Tim, and baby, Charlotte, and two kids, Jack and his wife, (haven't seen him since last summer thought he might be out of the loop), Jeanne from the other event, (it was her birthday) 24 people in all. In preparation for the event my son had made a Ron Paul Revolution sign - isn't that so awesome. The kids at the event were definitely catching Ron Paul fever.

We had a great spot up front, surrounded by TVs, and put up a number of Ron Paul signs. Everyone coming in had to walk past us, and there were several other folks watching the debate. A number of folks came up to us asking about Dr Paul - super! We passed out a number of fliers, and encouraged a number of folks to check out our website and see what Ron Paul is all about. One guy even joined us at the tables. A couple of us got into a heated but friendly debate about the Iraq war with one of the patrons. He wasn't convinced by our arguments about the need to declare war according to the Constitution, but I think we sewed some seeds of doubt.

All in all we had a great time together, as usual. There was a lot of cheering and clapping for Dr Paul when he would hit those home runs. The turnout was outstanding, and we had to be careful how we set up our table to keep from blocking off the exits. Can't wait till the South Carolina debates - hope to see everyone again, and even add a few more. Thanks Todd and Dave for setting things up.

After spending the evening with 24 other Ron Paul supporters in a Portsmouth sports bar, yelling and cheering for Ron Paul, I got a bit depressed with the post debate coverage that mentioned pretty much everyone but Ron Paul. If I had been patient, I would have seen this nice little gem, that was a hint of things to come. The next morning I wake up, and find that Dr. Paul has been sweeping up at the polls!!!! As Kate mentioned, he was a close third in the Drudge poll (which seems to have disappeared - numbers can be seen here). He beat McCain 18% to 6%. He unfortunately is behind in the KOS poll, but the good news is that he is loosing to .... Zombie Reagan! And Dr Paul currently leads all categories in an MSNBC poll that rates candidates based on who stood out, best leadership, most convincing, and who had the best one-liner. Finally, MSNBC has an interactive candidate rating system. Prior to the debate his favorable rating was only 9%, but it has jumped to 30%, tied for the lead with Romney. His gain was at McCain's and Giuliani's expense, while Romney crept up slightly. Strangely, ABC in their poll included only 9 candidates, leaving out Dr. Paul. You can let them know how you feel.

If you haven't had a chance to vote in these polls, go do so now. Note that the numbers in this article were taken 20 hours after the debate.

What a great night. I wish every voter in the country could have heard our crowd cheering when Dr. Paul said he would get rid of the IRS. I'm sure half of Manchester did.

Fantastic turnout--25 in Manchester, and, I hear, about the same in Portsmouth. We took over most of the bar area at Murphy's and had signs and palm cards ready to pass around. A huge thanks to our folks who turned out and yelled themselves hoarse.

As for the debate itself, I'll give a quick review. First of all, online polls are looking great; Drudge Report has Paul polling third with 18%--soundly thrashing McCain, and getting damned close to Giuliani. He's also winning at MSNBC, and getting great coverage over at Digg. Comments on Politico are very positive, and I'd bet his website stats are going through the roof.

The format was just terrible, in my opinion. Chris Matthews sucked, and the moderators seemed to go out of their way to pick the worst questions from the submissions on Politico. Last time I looked, the "favorites" were about spending, the drug war, Iraq, and taxes. So how did we end up with, "Mr. Romney, what do you dislike about America?"

Dr. Paul did well, but I've heard enough grousing to think he could have done better. This kind of format (30-90 second answers to inane questions) works against a candidate of substance (instead of sound bites). But that means Dr. Paul needs to be uber-prepped so he can condense real answers into sound bite blips.

That said, while there's always room for improvement, this was a great start. Now on to South Carolina and New Hampshire. ;)

A couple of reports came out this week suggesting that Congressman Paul may not be invited to the Republican debate in South Carolina. Well, we just found out that Dr. Paul will in fact be invited, despite the wishes of the South Carolina GOP Chairman.

The criteria set by the state GOP and media outlet to participate in the May 15 debate required candidates to garner at least a 1 percent showing in a state and a national poll, and Cox did not, state GOP Chairman Katon Dawson said Wednesday.

"We've tried to be as inclusive as we can," Dawson said.

He said he would have preferred a higher polling threshold of 3 percent, which would have cut four or five from the list of those being asked to appear.

Here's the link to the full article: 10 candidates to get S.C. debate invitations


The congressman will also be appearing in the New Hampshire Republican debate on June 5th at St. Anselm College. RonPaulHQ will be at the event in full force, holding signs and showing support for the only honest man in Washington. To RSVP for this event, click here.

Oh, and don't forget about our debate watching party tomorrow night at Murphy's Taproom.