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I didn’t get to see the debate, but it appears the a lot of the DUmmies have bumped up Ron Paul where he has basically had near 50% or a little over in most of the CNN poll questions. Unless, Ron Paul changed his tune on Iraq or came out swining in other areas to look really good.

That may be so, but a lot of conservatives, FReepers, and Constitutionalists have also rallied to the virtual polls, as this forum's poll attests.

I didn’t get to see the debate, but it appears the a lot of the DUmmies have bumped up Ron Paul where he has basically had near 50% or a little over in most of the CNN poll questions. Unless, Ron Paul changed his tune on Iraq or came out swining in other areas to look really good.

It's simply wrong to label those supporters as a bunch of DUmmies. You forget that Ron Paul has a national network of conservative and libertarian supporters for decades, unique among the second-tier candidates. We funded his campaigns when both parties were trying to knock him off.

Ron Paul is the darling of the Slashdotters (generally libertarian) for his absolute and consistent opposition to internet regulation and taxation. The online gambling people love him big-time because he opposed the backdoor way that they got shut down. He opposed Xlinton's bombing campaign in Kosovo like everyone at FR (when Bush II and McStain were supporting Xlinton, blathering about dissent stopping at the water's edge). He was a leader in defeating the Xlinton National ID and the Xlinton effort to impose No Child Left Behind. He has the single strongest gun rights voting record in Congress. He has the very highest anti-tax rating in Congress.

And he's willing to speak out and vote no, no matter what. He's proved it so many times that we don't even question it.

He really is Dr. No after all. And people remember when that one guy was the only one who stood up and spoke out and voted the way they wanted.

Another thing that some people don't understand is his appeal to young people, the under-thirties and the college crowd. These kids are just out from under mom's thumb and something about Hitlery's Mommy State repels them, obviously, their intelligence wasn't entirely destroyed by the public schools. But, like most young people, they're mushy-headed and somewhat liberal and peacenik. Well, maybe Churchill was right about expecting idealism in young people. But Ron Paul speaks the language of liberty and conveys to them that there are certain fundamental ideas in the Constitution that cannot be ignored, that our Constitution actually means certain very specific things and isn't just some morphing document. Young people like that concreteness after years of being spoon-fed relativism from their schools and even their parents and churches. Ron Paul speaks of liberty to young people and isn't scary to them on what they view as GOP militarism.

At any rate, his detractors here (generally not people of very broad background or long FR seniority) conclude it's just DUmmies supporting Ron Paul. They underestimate his real appeal and his long record in office.