Texas Congressman Ron Paul continues to boast high numbers in public polls despite the lack of media attention that he has received throughout the race for the GOP primary. Just prior to the start of last night’s GOP debate, Paul’s poll numbers were at their highest since the start of the race.
According to Revolution PAC, a SUPER Pac formed to support Ron Paul, Paul leads among his fellow Republicans in Iowa with 25 percent of the vote. Revolution PAC has received early data from TeleResearch, which performed the survey, indicating Paul’s lead. The poll is significant as it is the first to incorporate disaffected Democrats and Independents who will not vote to re-elect President Obama and instead will cross over to vote in the Iowa Republican caucus, as well as Republican voters.
The Laconia Daily Sun reports that Ron Paul has not only managed to win the support of Democrats, but some of the most left-wing Democrats in the party — those who are self-described “progressives.”
Lynn Rudmin Chong, former chair of the Belknap County Democratic Committee, has publicly endorsed Ron Paul, saying, “I have found other kindred souls.” She indicates that she has left the Democratic Party and changed her voter registration to “undeclared” so that she may participate in New Hampshire’s primary.
“He is the only one saying no more war,” said Chong, who spent two days in Washington participating in the OWS protests. She states that there were a number of demonstrators bearing Ron Paul signs at the protest.
“I would definitely call myself a progressive,” said Will Hopkins, director of the New Hampshire Peace Action, a group that advocates the end to foreign wars and significant cuts to the military budget. “I supported Obama in 2008, but I’m supporting Ron Paul. That’s where I’m putting my eggs this year. A lot of folks in the peace movement are taking a look at Paul.”
With both disaffected Democrats and Republicans participating in the poll, Paul has a favorable lead against his Republican counterparts, with 25 percent of the vote, giving him a 4-point advantage over Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain. Surprisingly, Mitt Romney comes in at 15 percent in that poll.
Even without factoring in this group of disenfranchised Democrats, however, Paul’s showing in Iowa is still a good one, as he is in a three-way dead heat for first place alongside Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich. Again, Romney’s support is rather surprising, according to that poll, as he trails with 17 percent.
Another interesting finding in the TeleResearch poll is that more than 25 percent of those polled in the Revolution PAC survey believe that an interventionist foreign policy poses a significant threat to long-standing peace and national security. Still, among those polled, there remains a prevalent neoconservative strand of voters who contend that the greatest threat to American national security today is Iran.
Of course, Paul’s support seems to fluctuate depending on the poll. For example, an Iowa State-Gazette-KCRG poll shows Paul five points behind Herman Cain, while a New Hampshire poll shows him tied with Newt Gingrich for second behind Mitt Romney.
Still, a Public Policy Poll reveals that Paul is the only Republican candidate to beat President Obama among Independent voters, with a vote of 48 to 39 percent.
According to a CNN/Time poll, Paul remains firm in the top three in the key states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, shows Market Watch.
Author Kurt Nimmo, a staunch Ron Paul supporter, notes:
Ron Paul’s support has remained remarkably consistent considering the fact nearly all the other candidates have endured fluctuations in their support. Romney, Cain, Gingrich, and Perry all scored low in this summer’s Iowa Straw Poll. Pawlenty and Santorum ranked higher, but are not even considered serious contenders four months later. Ron Paul came in second, trailing Michele Bachmann by a mere 157 votes (out of nearly 17,000 votes recorded). Like Pawlenty and Santorum, Bachmann is no longer considered a serious candidate.
Regardless of Paul’s steady showing throughout the polls, however, he continues to be labeled by the mainstream media as a fringe candidate, relegated to the bin of “unelectables.” As such, the media has either dismissed and ignored him.
In fact, a University of Minnesota study confirmed recently that Ron Paul has been given the least amount of time to speak at the debates of all of the candidates. Putting this into perspective, the study found that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has received more than double the amount of time allotted for Ron Paul during the last three debates.
Likewise, a study by the Pew Research Center proved that Paul has been blacked out by the mainstream media. The study combined traditional media research methods with computer algorithms to track the level and tone of coverage of presidential candidates, and compiled a list of 52 mainstream news sources, ranging from newspapers to television. It ultimately determined that Paul has received significantly less media coverage than all of the other candidates, including Tim Pawlenty, who was doing so poorly in the race that he was forced to drop out, and Jon Huntsman, who has consistently garnered the lowest approval ratings of all the GOP presidential contenders. The survey revealed that from May 2 to October 9, Paul appeared as the “primary newsmaker in only 2 percent of all election stories.”
The Atlantic Wire reports that Paul’s supporters were “vindicated” by the poll, as they have consistently asserted that their candidate was being blacked out by the media.
The revelations were not entirely shocking. In August, both CNN and Politico admitted that they are inclined to ignore Ron Paul, despite his success, because he is “unelectable.” Likewise, Howard Kurtz of Newsweek and The Daily Beast bluntly stated, “We are in the business of kicking candidates out of the race.”
Meanwhile, the blackout continued during the CBS debate held on Saturday, November 12, when Ron Paul received a mere 89 seconds of speaking time, wherein he was expected to defend his more controversial foreign policy views.
