The Crossed Pond

I’ll post some here, as I come across them.

Mark Ambinder:

Oh me of little faith. Ron Paul cannot be dismissed as a gadfly; the chance for him to outperform expectations rises exponentially with additional million dollars he raises. 5.08m is real money. There must be, within the Republican Party, a vein of anti-war libertarian sentiment. It is longer and deeper than many of us had suspected. The Paul movement is probably one part Buchanan bridage and one part fiscal hawk. It is clearly active in ways that most of us haven’t adequately understood? Paul may be in a position to be a giant killer now. Imagine if he finishes second or third in New Hampshire ….

Andrew Sullivan:

Ron Paul’s Triumph

$5 million is real money. It’s five times as much as Huckabee. Marc asks:

Imagine if he finishes second or third in New Hampshire ….

Yeah: imagine.

Reid Wilson at RCP:

Paul has drawn himself in sharp contrast with the rest of the field, often engaging in loud exchanges with fellow candidates over his vehement opposition to the war in Iraq. His campaign has been marked by frugal spending and a surprisingly strong online fan base; he routinely wins online straw polls after debates.

This is the second quarter in a row Paul has shown fundraising strength. Last quarter he reported having more cash on hand than McCain, a sidebar that contributed to stories of McCain’s collapse.

Whether Paul will be a major factor in the GOP nominating contests remains to be seen, but his money totals – it is likely he will have outraised several second-tier Republicans and Democrats combined – mean he will be in for the long haul. Paul’s campaign announced they will begin running television spots earlier this week.

The Right’s Field:

Wow

Ron Paul equaled John McCain’s take for the third quarter in fundraising. Yet one is seen as the “comeback kid,” the other as an unimportant fringe candidate. Someone want to explain that one?

It’s also very evident that the qualities Ron Paul exhibits in 2008 are of a piece with the ones that led McCain to victory in New Hampshire in 2000. Not to put too fine a point on it, but there’s clearly only one maverick in the Republican field, one guy who is running against the accepted wisdom of the party. He represents an extreme strain of libertarianism and isolationism that the GOP has completely abandoned. That may not play with a base that still largely accepts George W. Bush as a decent President, but in an anti-tax Northeast state in a Republican primary? Paul could honestly win it if Romney continues his free fall. What we know is that he’ll have the money to compete.

Eric Kleefeld at TPM Election Central:

Ron Paul is largely dismissed as a fringe candidate, but a bunch of people out there obviously like him — his presidential campaign brought in over $5 million last quarter. For anyone who’s counting, that’s about the same amount as the former frontrunner John McCain took in over the last three months.

It does make one wonder how unhappy a lot of Republican voters must be, if a man running on a form of conservatism that is completely antithetical to the modern GOP can end up raising as much cash as somebody who was once thought of as unbeatable.

NRO:

Question for the Corner Crowd [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Ron Paul has $5.3 million for the quarter. That is five times what Huckabee raised.

Wassup with that?

Wassup indeed.

(she got a nice reader response to that question here)

Townhall.com (just quoting Ambinder):

Ron Paul Up, Huckabee Down

The Hill:

While fundraising totals usually drop in the third quarter, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) bucked the trend and more than doubled his second-quarter haul with more than $5 million raised.

Paul, who remains a long shot to win the Republican nomination, has run an impressive insurgent campaign with strong support from the Internet community.

[...]

Fundraising in the third quarter slowed for most candidates other than Democratic front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), but in terms of growth, nobody was as successful as Paul.

Captain’s Quarters:

He’s been the butt of jokes, the focus of derision, and the candidate everyone wished they could ignore. Now he’s the man who outraised most of the second tier in the third quarter, and he wants some respect. Ron Paul took over $5 million in donations, the same as John McCain and much more than Mike Huckabee, who had started to make a case for himself as a first-tier candidate…

[...]

Will it translate into any kind of widespread support? So far, Paul hasn’t shown any signs of it. His support runs narrow and deep. The Washington Post poll had him at 2%, which is double most of his showings so far. Last month’s Gallup poll had him at 4%, perhaps his best showing. It still puts him far behind Rudy Giuliani just about all of the other Republicans in the polling, and going from a margin-of-error reading to a realistic shot at winning a primary in three months seems like an impossible task.

Still, the ability to raise $5 million shows that he can draft some impressive support. Even if he can’t win a primary, he could start to impact the direction of the race. It may be time to stop laughing at Paul and start thinking about where his support originates, and whether it means anything for the general election.

Ace of Spades:

Ron Paul Raises More Money Than John McCain
—Ace

Even better, it’s not illegal, unconstitutional fiat money, but rather money backed with hard assets such as gold and his supporters’ extensive collections of MEGO Star Trek action figures and Enterprise playsets.

Most of this money is written on cocktail napkins or stretched and dried human flesh, but it’s genuine specie.

Hot Air:

$5.08 mil, more than double what he did last quarter and eight times what he did in the quarter before that. Not only are the new numbers on par with McCain — with a lot more cash on hand — but they’re not terribly far behind Fred, who pulled $8 million. Huckabee, the ostensible first-tier candidate, barely cracked seven digits.

Choose your spin: (1) this proves the GOP is trending anti-war; (2) this proves the GOP is trending libertarian; (3) this proves the GOP is dissatisfied with the big four; (4) this proves Truthers have more disposable income than anyone thought. Exit prediction: the media will push ‘em in precisely that order.

Huffington Post:

Meanwhile, under the category of “What the….” Rep. Ron Paul, the anti-war Texan, reported raising $5.3 million in the third quarter, matching the total of one-time frontrunner – and war supporter – Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

So which story caries more significance for the 2008 election? A Republican close to the presidential race told the Huffington Post that “it’s definitely Huckabee’s poor showing. I don’t know how he was unable to turn the straw poll into more than he did. I’m hearing whispers within Arkansas that he is coming to a realization…”

Dropping out of the race?

“Let’s put it this way, that they won’t be able to do what they wanted to.”

As for Ron Paul? “It’s impressive,” said the Republican official, “but he’s still dismissed as a serious candidate… The question is what is he going to do with that $5.3 million?”

The best of that last one is the underscript:

CLICK TO SEE COMMENTS ON THIS STORY

Due to the popularity and heavy traffic on this story’s comments, we temporarily have moved the comments to a second page to ease the load on the servers.

Heh. But he’s still dismissed as a serious candidate.

The American Scene:

If you need evidence that libertarians are pissed at the Republican party in general and George Bush in particular, look no further than Ron Paul, who more the doubled his second quarter fundraising, bringing in $5 million for the quarter that just ended. That puts him on par with former frontrunner John McCain. He’s set the ambitious goal of raising $12 million for the fourth quarter.

I was a bit of a Ron Paul skeptic earlier in the year, but his campaign so far has exceeded my expectations. And thankfully, he’s been seen primarily as an anti-war, anti-tax candidate, not an anti-immigrant, anti-abortion one. I still think he’s a long shot for the nomination and would be unlikely to win the general election even if he got the nomination. But he’s still got tremendous potential to raise the profile of libertarian views and draw attention to the fact that we libertarians are furious at the GOP establishment that’s basically abandoned the mantle of limited government.

Check out this Politico story tonight, “Is Ron Paul Quirky Enough to Get Elected?” Politico has not been kind to Dr. Paul’s campaign, but here, they honestly and respectfully entertain the possibility.

Nothing yet (that I can see) from RedState, Powerline, FreeRepublic, PajamasMedia, Michelle Malkin. If you catch any other good ones from not traditionally Ron Paul friendly sites (particularly established Republican ones), let me know.