Ron Paul: The Internet's favorite candidate

ARLINGTON, Va.--Ron Paul is a Republican congressman and U.S. presidential hopeful who, in the usual shorthand of political journalists, is known as a "long shot" for the White House.

Paul's poll numbers award him less than 2 percent of the vote among Republican candidates, and he was unceremoniously excluded from an Iowa debate in June organized by a tax watchdog group that happens to share his political views. Even otherwise flattering articles consign his candidacy to "the realm of dreams, not practical politics."

On the Internet, however, this courtly Texas obstetrician-turned-politician has developed a towering presence that has left his Democratic and Republican rivals largely in his shadow.

"When I talk about Internet privacy and no taxes, I think they understand it."

--Rep. Ron Paul

Paul, 71, enjoys about 160,000 mentions on Digg.com, more than the next four most popular candidates combined. Alexa.com's statistics show Paul's Web site with a narrow lead over all the Democratic candidates and a sizable one over his fellow Republicans. Similarly, a report by Hitwise puts Paul's Web site ahead of other GOP candidates in terms of popularity.

The libertarian-minded Republican enjoys a hefty lead in two unscientific online polls: 56.3 percent in one hosted by the conservative group FreedomWorks.com, and 56 percent in a poll created by GOPstrawpolls.com, with undeclared candidate Fred Thompson coming in second at 18.7 percent. Paul is Technorati's most searched-for term, in front of stalwart contenders such as "iPhone" and "Paris Hilton," and recently reclaimed the spot after briefly falling behind a Puerto Rican singer with the undeniable advantage of having a sex tape on the loose. He's a close second to Barack Obama (and far outpaces Hillary Clinton) on Eventful.com's list of in-demand politicians, and, as The New York Times notes, is the most "friended" Republican on MySpace.com.

For his part, Paul attributes his online popularity to a set of beliefs that resonates with a younger crowd. "The whole message seems to be very attractive to young people," he said in a recent interview. "I think they like to be left alone. When I talk about Internet privacy and no taxes, I think they understand it."

Another factor is Paul's vote against the war in Iraq and his opposition to military action against Iran, making him unique among Republican candidates (and a rarity even among Democrats, after Obama reiterated during a debate that he would not rule out a nuclear strike against Iran). "Young people I think very naturally are opposed to the war that's going on," Paul said. "Soon they're going to turn 18."

This is not a new position: Paul also opposed the United States' first war against Iraq, and the war in Kosovo as well. His political views are broadly libertarian, which means supporting ideas like free markets (less regulation), individual rights (junk the Patriot Act), lower taxes (eliminate the IRS), and civil libertarianism (legalize marijuana).

An instinctive suspicion of governmental intrusions into regulating technology is a big reason for Paul's popularity in geek circles, which have long been irritated by laws like the Communications Decency Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. (One wag has quipped: "Libertarianism and Internet geeks go together like Guantanamo Bay and daily beatings.")

Paul has consistently voted against federal efforts to censor sexually explicit Web sites--a stance that nearly cost him his re-election bid last November when his Democratic rival cited those votes to argue that Paul was soft on porn. Paul, sometimes known in Washington as "Dr. No," risked opprobrium from fellow Republicans by voting against a law last year to restrict Internet gambling and has also opposed targeting the video game industry and giving federal police more Internet surveillance powers.

Listen up

Paul on tax issues Congressman Ron Paul, a Republican presidential hopeful and prominent anti-tax advocate, discusses Net taxes.

Download mp3 (8.67MB)

He received the highest score in the U.S. Congress, 80 percent, in CNET News.com's 2006 Technology Voter Guide. Clinton received a 33 percent score, Obama 50 received percent, Joe Biden received 38 percent, John McCain received 31 percent, Sam Brownback received 53 percent, and Dennis Kucinich received 53 percent.

The same supporters who have propelled Paul into an online lead have, however, drawn complaints for being what might be charitably described as overly single-minded.

The community-driven news site Digg.com has probably been the hottest flashpoint, with some readers complaining that Paul fans are unreasonably stuffing the site with articles about his candidacy. One example from last month: "Many of these stories are really, really, really boring. And I am a political junkie." There have been complaints of a "semi-organized effort by Paul supporters to promote him on Digg" and the creation of a "buryronpaul" blog.

Another explanation of his Digg presence--a Ron Paul video was the second-most popular article over the weekend--is that it reflects that many Internet users are drawn to Ron Paul's candidacy. And, as Paul's supporters have argued, supporters of other presidential candidates have plenty of reasons to manufacture Digg-related criticisms.

[MDKidd]

Darn those pesky little facts...

Ron Paul's votes opposing censorship of the internet "nearly cost him his re-election bid last November"????? Uhhh ... Ron Paul won last November's race by more than 20 percentage points - his LARGEST ever margin of victory. But why let the facts get in the way of a good story. Right?

[fafafooey]

Liberal-tarian Paul gets automatic credibility with the MSM

The liberal media (like CNet) automatically give Paul credibility, since he is against the war and attacks Republicans.

There's not much difference between him and the DemoKooks, like those at Kos.

Also, you say Obama wants to nuke Iran? Last week he just said that the US should not use nukes under any circumstances. He flip-flops more than John Kerry. But he's the liberal media darling (just below Hillary) so he certainly will not be called on his inconsistencies and naivete.

[xcgeek]

Targeted

Ron Paul interestingly seems to be the only candidate to so successfully target the youthful, tech savvy crowd. Just as major advertisers target kids who have incredible swaying power over their parents buying habits, this approach is not without merit in reaching otherwise inaccessible adults. And as young people are much more attuned to his message and anti-establishment type thinking, he certainly resonates with the internet crowd.

[Eskiegirl302]

Ron Paulitics

Heeeeer's RON Paul! As more and more people come to know Dr. Paul and what he stands for, we all the support climbing for him each day. Dr. Ron Paul has won every debate now and living in a military area I am well aware of the support the He receives from them. Over half of Ron Paul's campaign money comes from military men and women. Dr. Paul believes in lower taxes, smaller government, not regulating the internet, and not globetrotting with the military around the world for no just cause. Congressman Ron Paul was the only republican to have never voted for the war in iraq, he has never voted to raise taxes, he believes in protecting privacy and property rights. Do you support Secure Borders? Lower Debt? Protecting privacy and Property Rights? Lower taxes and Lower spending? Saving America's Independence and Sovereignty? Stopping Inflation and over-regulation? Stopping Corporate Welfare? Re-igniting the American dream? Ending Government Banking Cartels? Real progress for years to come? Ending senseless Military Globtrotting? Fixing out of control entitlements?

Well if you answered yes to all these questions, CONGRATULATIONS! Your a Ron Paul Voter and a True Patriot. Welcome to the Ron Paul rEVOLution. Vote yes for Dr. No in 2008. Lets get this country fixed. Get in touch with Dr. Ron Paul. To know him is to love him.

Bush will leave his office near to how Gorbachev left the Soviet Union. In high inflation, unemployment, and recession. Ron Paul never even voted to raise his own congressional pay, because he doesn't want to take even a nickel from any hardworking American. I don't think people want to take a chance on voting for the wrong candidate again. Ron Pauls website is www.ronpaul2008.com
This man is like the waterfall in the middle of a volcanic eruption. He's hot, He's cool and he is trying to save our country.

[amoirae]

Inaccurate article

"From the article: Paul, 71, enjoys about 160,000 mentions on Digg.com, more than the next four most popular candidates combined."

That's what happens when you have an insane group of spammers who submit the same story so that each "article" about Ron Paul gets submitted a minimum of 10 times. It wouldn't have taken much effort for the writer of this sycophantic puff piece to see who submits the "articles" and how many times the same story is submitted and resubmitted and RESUBMITTED.

The writer didn't even cover the paranoid conspiracy theories of Ron Paul's supporters! A cursory glance around the Digg posts would see constant theories on why Paul is being suppressed either by the Mainstream Media or the New World Order or some other paranoid explanation. How can this article hope to be slightly accurate when the writer only covers part of the story?

[Eskiegirl302]

Ron Paulitics

Heeeeer's RON Paul! As more and more people come to know Dr. Paul and what he stands for, we all see the support climbing for him each day. Dr. Ron Paul has won every debate now and living in a military area I am well aware of the support the He receives from them. Over half of Ron Paul's campaign money comes from military men and women. Dr. Paul believes in lower taxes, smaller government, not regulating the internet, and not globetrotting with the military around the world for no just cause. Congressman Ron Paul was the only republican to have never voted for the war in iraq, he has never voted to raise taxes, he believes in protecting privacy and property rights. Do you support Secure Borders? Lower Debt? Protecting privacy and Property Rights? Lower taxes and Lower spending? Saving America's Independence and Sovereignty? Stopping Inflation and over-regulation? Stopping Corporate Welfare? Re-igniting the American dream? Ending Government Banking Cartels? Real progress for years to come? Ending senseless Military Globtrotting? Fixing out of control entitlements?

Well if you answered yes to all these questions, CONGRATULATIONS! Your a Ron Paul Voter and a True Patriot. Welcome to the Ron Paul rEVOLution. Vote yes for Dr. No in 2008. Lets get this country fixed. Get in touch with Dr. Ron Paul. To know him is to love him.

Bush will leave his office near to how Gorbachev left the Soviet Union. In high inflation, unemployment, and recession. Ron Paul never even voted to raise his own congressional pay, because he doesn't want to take even a nickel from any hardworking American. I don't think people want to take a chance on voting for the wrong candidate again. Ron Pauls website is www.ronpaul2008.com
This man is like the waterfall in the middle of a volcanic eruption. He's hot, He's cool and he is trying to save our country.

[Eskiegirl302]

cradle to grave

Ron Paul has more grass roots support than any other candidate could even dare hope for. That is fact. If you expect government to take of you from cradle to grave, and if you believe in this illegal war, and you like these high taxes, and big government spending which is now costing us one trillion dollars, and you like the IRS, and you like the idea that now due to the patriot act bush changed, so that the police can invade your privacy, come into your house anytime without a warrant, take you to jail and you now don't even the right to counsel and can be held indefinitely than you need to go live in a communistic country and vote for George Bush again. It's people like you, who is not a partriot and does not believe in liberty and freedom that divides our country. Freedom is what keeps us together. Unite with us and stand strong for your country. Get to know Dr. Ron Paul and then come back spout off. As it is right now you don't know him or you wouldn't be worried about conspiracy. Looks like fear got hold of you too. But then Bush does that to people. www.ronpaul2008.com

[Corejob]

Ron Paul Yes!

Ron Paul and I don;t see eye to eye on many issues. But RP has
on quality that escapes all the other candidates - honesty. You
don't here about RP flip-flops. He means what he says, and says
what he mean. He also is the only candidate who routinely
references the constitution. It seems like all the other
candidates think it's 'just a scrap of paper'.

As a life long Republican, I have been discusted on how my party
has moved from the defender of personal freedom, and the
champion of smaller government and fiscal responsibility to a
big buisiness, big money ***** and foreign interventionist.

RP is the only candidate the understands and believes in
constitutional principles, and has a ny personal principles as
well. This is probably why he's popular on the internet, where
editors and owner don't try to control our thinking. The
mainstream media want to pick our candidates. How often do
they even mention Ron Paul? Hoe doesn;'t do well in their Pauls,
because most people have never heard of him - because they
get their news from the mainstream media. If they media game
Paul the same sort of coverage they give Rudy McRomney, you's
see Paul doing much better.

[AndyBeal]

His Google Reputation Rocks Too!

We also found that Paul's search engine reputation was one of the best: http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/presidential-election-reputation/

[ufcama]

Ron Paul is our only Hope

Ron Paul is a fearless fighter for our rights and for our freedom on the internet, he does not want the governemt to control the net at all, the net belongs to us the users, let's keep it that way

Visit his website ronpaul2008.com or google ron paul

[pjianwei]

That only goes to show how important the online world is.

Streets ahead virtually but nowhere to be found come the primaries. This guy is a republican? What will we have next? a Democrat who is anti-black?
Anyway anyone who suggest eliminating IRS will never go beyond the naive or the idealistic crowd. I do not really want to pay tax but hey i want most of the things the government provides, just watch die hard 4.0 to see what i am trying to say. Yes, it is Hollywood but Hollywood is on the surface of this earth last time i look at the map.

[Cheryl_Barnes]

Register to vote

He, along with all other candidates, only have a chance of being elected if those who are passionate enough about his/her leadership are motivated enough to register and vote.

[PaulLevi]

Ron Paul popular off the Internet, too

I saw David Wiltse's new play, Sedition, yesterday - it's about the trampling of the First Amendment in World War I. After the play, I was on a panel, talking about the play, and I mentioned that Ron Paul is the one Presidential candidate who speaks out against the violation of the Constitution. I got some pretty good applause - and this was from an audience whose average age was well over 60. http://paullevinson.blogspot.com/2007/08/david-wiltses-sedition-premiers-in.html

[scottvg]

A True Republican

I am a lifelong Republican and have found myself wondering what happened to all the Republicans? We used to believe in truth, integrity, justice, SMALL government. I find very little if any of that displayed in the actions of my party these days. It seems there is only one honest man left in Washington and his name is Ron Paul. Ask him a question, any question and you will get his honest answer. He has a positive message based on the very principles this great country was founded on. He adheres to the Constitution on every vote on every bill. He is a true Republican.

You know, Benjamin Franklin once said - Those who give a little liberty for a little freedom are destined to have neither.

[pachine58]

I'm over 45 and love Ron Paul

I think the media has it all wrong. Like myself and tons of my friends and their friends who are over 40+, we love this guy. He is honest and a true American. He is what the people are hungry for after all these years of fool's running our country into the ground and taking our tax money for their pockets. We Americans want our country back from the big corporations and lawyers.

[LuvThatCO2]

Ron Paul is not that popular

Truth is, Ron Paul is not that popular. He's just the patron saint of kooks and 9/11 'truthers', who spend their days submitting votes to online polls and trolling message boards with their conspiracy theories about how George W. Bush and Angelina Jolie orchestrated the World Trade Center attacks.

Not that I've ever held CNET's journalism to be anything other than second rate... but this story about his 'popularity' is awful journalism, even for them. Equating 'digg' clicks to popularity is simply ignorant (and lazy journalism at that).

[ejevo]

opprobrium?

Admit it - how many of you went scrambling for the dictionary on that one?

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/opprobrium

[catfish182]

ron is loved by a small amount of diggers

There are only like 20 user names (who knows if they are 20 people) that only digg ron's stuff. This is 100% generated and does not show anything other then the fact that a small group can generate a following but cheating and lieing. Nice canidate to follow.

[ethana2]

IRS? MaFIAA? NSA? nope. Hee hee.

He is our only hope for a candidate. I will turn 18 this December. I intend to do my best to get him into office. If I fail, I will seriously consider moving to a different country. Or simply lead a digital revolt. (Got a little friend called AES)

[Dingbattie]

The wisdom of Ron Paul

He is opposed to internet neutrality -- this is a good reason for the "internet" to drop him like a wet sack. Also, to quote Ron Paul:

?If you have ever been robbed by a black teen-aged male, you know how unbelievably-fleet-footed they can be.? (Victoria Advocate, 5/24/96)

?Politically sensible blacks are outnumbered as decent people... Given the inefficiencies of what DC laughingly calls the criminal justice system, I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal.? (Victoria Advocate, 5/24/96)

"We don't think a child of 13 should be held responsible as a man of 23. That's true for most people, but black males age 13 who have been raised on the streets and who have joined criminal gangs are as big, strong, tough, scary and culpable as any adult and should be treated as such." (Victoria Advocate, 5/24/96)

?Opinion polls consistently show that only about 5 percent of blacks have sensible political opinions, i.e. support the free market, individual liberty and the end of welfare and affirmative action.? (Victoria Advocate, 5/24/96)

?The Criminals who terrorize our cities - in riots and on every non-riot day - are not exclusively young black males, but they largely are.? (Victoria Advocate, 8/7/96)

?There is no such thing as a hate crime.? (Ron Paul: Political Action Report, 1/15/92)

A ?free market provides for the poor...? (MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, 10/24/88 on why he is against government assistance)

"Is bailing out people that chose to live on the coastline a proper function of the federal government?? he asks. ?Why do people in Arizona have to be robbed in order to support the people on the coast?" (Washington Post, 7/9/06) (Paul voted against assistance to Katrina and Rita victims, even though some of his district is on the Texas coast.)

?I am opposed to any form of government health insurance as I am opposed to the taxes, regulations, licensing requirements, and monopolistic practices, which keep health costs higher than their true market value.? (CNN Presidential Questionnaire, 1988)

As for Social Security, "we didn't have it until 1935," Paul says. "I mean, do you read stories about how many people were laying in the streets and dying and didn't have medical treatment? ?Prices were low and the country was productive and families took care of themselves and churches built hospitals and there was no starvation." (Washington Post, 7/9/06)

?Something must be done to phase out the government?s involvement in Social Security. Pension and annuity plans should be the concern of the people, not the government. Political control of these things will lead only to bankruptcy and misery for retired persons.? (CNN Presidential Questionnaire, 1988M)

?Immigrants can spread diseases for which we may have no immunity. There is also the question of crime and culture. Many immigrants come from countries with different legal structures and are not willing to behave in the way we expect American citizens to behave.? (Ron Paul Political Report, 3/15/92)

"The right of secession should be ingrained in a free society. There is nothing sacred about large units of government. And there is nothing wrong with loosely banding together small units of government. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, we too should consider it." From his newsletter in the early to mid 90s--sorry I don't have an exact date.