Underdog Grabs Headlines

Ron Paul, the libertarian presidential candidate is behind in all the polls. A congressman from Texas, Paul has alienated himself from the majority of voters in the middle of the political spectrum by expressing his many extreme libertarian ideals, namely his belief in a severely limited government. Paul has routinely been referred to as one of the underdog candidates, way behind the others, until he started making headlines for his fundraising performance on Monday. Thanks to the independent website, thisnovember5th.com, Paul was able to break the record of any one-day fundraising effort by a republican, raising over $4 million in one day. The website plays up the November 5th British holiday that remembers the rebel, Guy Fawkes' attempt at blowing up Parliament in England circa 1600s. If this doesn't sound familiar to you, or you weren't aware of this holiday, the movie V for Vendetta was based on this event. Anyway, the real story here is that Paul, an underdog candidate, was able to break this fundraising record via the Internet. I think it speaks to the new age of campaigning we are in and it will be interesting to see if this helps him in the polls as it has certainly gotten him a lot of media attention in the past few days.