[George W. Bush]

Hunter has won or been 2nd in several straw polls. And there are dozens of Meetups sites, etc.

I recall three firsts in straw polls offhand, by far the most important was the largely uncontested Texas one.

Duncan's MeetUps: "339 Duncan Hunter Supporters in 19 Groups from 17 Cities"

That's pretty limited. Ron Paul is mustering 60,000 currently and didn't even try to get them to sign up. Admittedly, that's a geeky bunch. But look at some of the other candidate's and their grassroots. There's a big difference.

141 Fred Thompson Supporters in 9 Groups from 8 Cities (yikes!?!?)

The others are all under one hundred total. Man, that's a pathetic showing for grassroots by the other candidates. I thought Fred and Mitt would be in the thousands. Big surprise for me.

The fundraising is less encouraging:

Republican Candidates
Candidate	Home State	Q3 Raised	Q3 Spent	Raised	Spent	Cash on Hand	Debts
Romney, Mitt	MA	$18,396,719	$21,301,756	$62,829,069	$53,612,552	$9,216,517	$17,350,000
Giuliani, Rudy	NY	$11,624,255	$13,300,650	$47,253,521	$30,603,695	$16,649,826	$169,256
McCain, John	AZ	$5,734,478	$5,470,277	$32,124,785	$28,636,157	$3,488,628	$1,730,691
Thompson, Fred	TN	$12,828,111	$5,706,367	$12,828,111	$5,706,367	$7,121,744	$678,432
Paul, Ron	TX	$5,258,456	$2,169,644	$8,268,453	$2,824,786	$5,443,667	$0
Brownback, Sam	KS	$925,745	$1,278,856	$4,235,333	$4,140,660	$94,654	$0
Tancredo, Tom	CO	$767,152	$1,209,583	$3,538,244	$3,458,130	$110,079	$295,603
Huckabee, Mike	AR	$1,034,486	$819,376	$2,345,798	$1,694,497	$651,301	$47,810
Hunter, Duncan	CA	$536,357	$618,117	$1,890,873	$1,758,132	$132,742	$50,000
Keyes, Alan	MD	$21,218	$10,139	$22,768	$10,139	$12,629	$12,876

Whatever the merits of Duncan's positions and record, it's very hard to take much encouragement from those numbers.

[Sun]

Ronald Reagan didn’t raise the most amount of money, and WON!

95% of Hunter’s $$ comes from grass roots folks, and they vote.