For those of you who missed the debate last night, you might be surprised to learn that none of the "big three" candidates was most impressive. Instead, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas set himself apart from the "also-rans" and propelled himself to serious contender status. In fact, as I write this he is winning the candidate poll on msnbc.com, which hosted the debate.

As of 10:39 a.m. on Friday, May 4, the candidates' "positive" ratings are as follows:

Ron Paul 31%
Mitt Romney 30%
Rudy Giuliani 27%
John McCain 20%
Mike Huckabee 16%

None of the other five candidates received over 10% positive ratings.

Ron Paul is a principled Constitutional conservative who says what he means and means what he says. He was the only candidate to come out against the failed, undeclared war in Iraq. He is a staunch defender of personal privacy and civil liberties, and stated his unequivocal opposition to a national "Real ID" card. And no matter what your views on stem cell research, Ron Paul gave the only Constitutionally correct answer to that question: the federal government is simply not authorized to fund it.

I have known for some time that Ron Paul is the best choice for President in 2008 ... the right man to lead America back to our heritage of liberty and prosperity. Last night, a lot more people discovered the same thing. There is hope for America, and Ron Paul is it.

Joe Dumas
joe@joedumas.com

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Dr. Ron Paul had 36% of the votes on the MSNBC presidential debate poll out of 79,068 votes as of 7:06 p.m. eastern time on the 5 of May 2007. He is the only candidate having over 30 percent of the vote from the first Republican debate. All this and MSNBC then claims on their web page that Ron Paul is ranked 9th out of the 10 candidates, contradictory to their own poll showing him with the runaway victory.

Ron Paul is the only candidate out of the 10 Republicans who were in the debate to be excluded from ABC’s poll.

In the C-SPAN poll with over 4,200 votes Ron Paul has 70% of votes while the nearest candidate has only 9%.

This is a continuation of how the media has treated Paul in polls, and in general up to this point, the differences now being more people are beginning to pay attention. Now you don’t have to “choose between the lesser of two evils.”

Ron Paul is a veteran and a true defender of freedom for the people. He knows the role of government has to change from the current role if the U.S. is to survive. Since he will not be bought off by corporate lobbyists or otherwise, like those the media calls the frontrunners have, he needs the support of the people.

Jeremiah Messler
rei3456@yahoo.com