There are apparently a lot more Rondroids out there than most punditry would suggest. Out of 131,776 voters identifying as Republican in AOL's latest straw poll, over 42k picked the Congressman from TX; more than those who voted for Giuliani and Huckabee combined.
I think some professional prognosticators may have a bit of egg on their face after the NH primaries. That state is cranky libertarian country, and the folks most likely to vote for Paul are also the ones most likely to answer a phone call that begins "Hi! I'm from XYZ Service, and we're taking a poll on..." with a click and a dial tone.
They're also the ones that will vote more than once on an interweb poll. :)
ReplyDeleteEven taking that into account...
ReplyDeleteI'm not predicting any kind of upset in NH, but I don't think that one of the Big Three Media Darlings is going to just stroll off with it, either.
I keep seeing all these Ron Paul signs along the highways and byways twixt here (north central PA) and New Jersey and wonder to myself who the hell all these folks are. Every single poll shows RP with a mere 2 to 3 % of the vote, yet I almost never see any signs for anyone else on te Republican side of the aisle.
ReplyDeletesomehow I doubt that the same folks that can't resist skewing intarwebz polls would hang up on a pollster. They remain the annoying nader-esq element of the republican party. If Paul had a set of dangly things between his legs he'd run as a LIBERTARIAN, not a republican.
ReplyDeleteI get the feeling that RP has been gathering up the disaffected wing of the Repub's, and quite possibly been poaching on the disaffected wing of the Dems.
ReplyDeleteI used to see a big, home-made RP sign dangling from a bridge overlooking a major expressway in the Detroit Metro area. It disappeared sometime in the week before Christmas, and none of his competitors have put one up there.
(I alsmost want to put a giant image of Fred up in that location, but I have little skill creating large signs by hand...)
He's the Perot of the new millennium.
ReplyDeleteExcept Perot was a third-party candidate...
ReplyDeleteIt's been said before, but I still think there's some thing to be set for the argument that RP supporters are under counted in traditional polls because polls target past / likely voters who have land lines. RP supports are more likely to be young and / or techno-libertarian types who opt for cell phones / VoIP over land lines. They are also more likely to be new voters.
ReplyDeleteI'd much rather have a hundred (or two hundred) RP's in Congress than one anywhere near the White House.
ReplyDeletePutting P in as the Chief Executive would lead to worse gridlock than when Carter was there, and would be just as hard on the economy.
Regards,
Rabbit.
If Paul had a set of dangly things between his legs he'd run as a LIBERTARIAN, not a republican.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you had a set, you might put your name behind your comments.
Matthew: Maybe someone's doing that, but I'm a Rondroid (Man, I like that.) and I've never voted more than once in any online poll. And not for lack of knowledge on how.
I like Paul, too.
ReplyDeleteAnd I only vote once per pole.
I'm also very conservative and very pro-gun.
And yes, I have a yard sign now...