Ron Paul Moving Closer to GOP Nomination
Forget Mitt "The Stormin' Mormon" Romney and Michelle "Crazy Eyes" Bachmann. If Ron Paul pulls off a win in Saturday's Ames, Iowa Straw Poll, all bets are off.
Current Iowa polling suggests Ron Paul just might pull off a surprise win, first at the Straw Poll and then second in the Iowa caucuses. As of today, Ron Paul polls in third place in Iowa, with 16 percent of the vote. He only trails Bachmann (22%) and Romney (21%), and trounces all the other declared candidates.
Bachmann and Romney's lead comes on the strength of their media recognition as the "front-runners". If Paul can do anything to dent that perception that they are the front-runners, some of their support could easily slip into his camp. With only a small change in support, Paul could easily find himself leading the Iowa pack.
How can Paul move the needle on that front-runner status? By killing it in the Iowa Straw Poll Saturday. Early indications are that he just might do that. Momentum is clearly on Paul's side. His polling in Iowa has gone from single digits to the 16 percent reported above — no easy feat, considering the sheer number of candidates in the race.
Paul, who has jumped into third-place nationally as well, is benefiting from a few different political realities. First, the issues being debated this summer (the economy, the $14 trillion debt, the debt ceiling) are all issues that Ron Paul is strong on. He has support from a significant portion of the economic right, and not just from his more Libertarian core voters. Second, people are disgusted with government's inability to either lead, follow, or get out of the way. Paul represents a philosophy that will not have problems with those standards.
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