Americans are speaking (again)

Americans are setting their social, political and philosophical labels aside to come out in vigorous support of Texas Rep. Ron Paul and his bid for the Republican nomination for president in 2008. It seems that his simple message has broad-spectrum appeal: End the illegal war, refrain from meddling in the internal affairs of sovereign nations, stop illegal taxation, return to honest money and restore the Constitution.

 

Meeting up

The strength of the Ron Paul Revolution is how people are finding each other and gathering in small groups that are getting bigger. The process is as old as politics itself with the modern tool of the Internet. If you go to www.ronpaul2008.com you can click on the "Ron Paul Meetup" pages provided by Google. Here you can see where others are already meeting, find those who are waiting to meet and organize your own "meetups."

As of Friday, July 20, 2007, 557 Ron Paul meetup groups had formed with a total 20,820 members and 3,853 people were waiting for a meetup group. By Saturday, July 21, 569 groups had formed with a total 24,898 members organized . There are three groups in Australia, one in New Zealand, several in Europe and Asia—and one in Baghdad. Barak Obama is the second leading "meetup candidate" with 69 groups, 3,841 members and 1,439 waiting. Dennis Kucinich has 44 groups and 1,226 members and Hillary Clinton has 30 groups and 834 members.

What the meetup groups indicate is non-establishment grassroots support. While Hillary is leading the Democrat pack in the establishment polls and is considered the party favorite by status-quo pundits and Rudy Guilliani is the establishment’s favored Republican, neither come close to the grassroots support being showered upon Rep. Paul.

In establishment polls, Rep. Paul is in the middle of the Republican pack behind Guilliani, John McCain, Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney in both strawpoll votes and "small money" campaign fundraising.

As the march toward nomination continues, we will note how grassroots progress is reflected by establishment reporting. It will be interesting to see if the establishment polls continue to pretend Rep. Paul is not a contender or if the pollsters begin to reflect the truth: That a rebirth is underway in America and the doctor from Texas is delivering us.