Ron Paul Presidential Campaign, 2008 - Internet Popularity

Internet Popularity

Paul participated in several 2008 GOP debates, the majority of which he won according to the sponsors' own online or text-message phone polls. After the first debate, ABC News noted that Paul has a "robust online presence." TIME magazine labels Paul "the new 2.0 candidate" in reference to "his success recruiting supporters through new social media channels". The New York Times wrote that his campaign "snowballed on the Internet". According to KDPaine and Partners, Ron Paul's YouTube videos made up half of the top ten of all candidate videos, and he had the largest overall viewership of any candidate. Jack Cafferty stated that Ron Paul's followers "at any given moment can almost overpower the Internet."

Forbes.com noted a disparity between Paul's online support and his performance in the primaries: while Paul supporters responded in droves to text-message and online polls following televised debates, he received 10% of the vote in Iowa and 8% in New Hampshire. David Thorburn, director of the MIT Communications Forum, said that while the Internet is a major source of fundraising, it is not yet able to compete with traditional media for influence in campaigns. Thorburn added that support from "an intellectually elite minority that lives in cyberspace does not translate into support among the general population."

Blogger Tommy Christopher noted that critics of Ron Paul's followers accused them of being "cult-like" in an attempt to marginalize Paul's support base. Christopher opined that this was part of a "seemingly willful determination by the mainstream media to completely ignore or glibly dismiss Paul's many successes."