What would Ron's poll numbers be if he was running right NOW!

[Eric21ND]

Given the severe economic crisis and this falling upon the eve of the debates how good do you think Ron would be doing right now?

[idiom]

I would like to see him debate Obama if MCain doesn't show.

Or possibly moderate...

OR debate as a representative of the 4 3rd party candidates.

[Kludge]

5-7% IF the CP and LP didn't run candidates but instead just endorsed RP

4-5% otherwise

[Flash]

5% at most.

[Andrew-Austin]

Its really hard to tell, certainly more people have become receptive to his message.

But he might just be getting more press now because he is not in the running....

[Bern]

On some forums I visit which are fairly representative of the population at large (at least of the college educated demographic), I have actually had a few folks apologize for the ridicule they heaped my way during the primary season when I was touting Ron Paul's horn.

I am seeing a *lot* of discontent amongst Republicans who are totally flummoxed over McCain's pick of Palin (totally not ready to handle the office of POTUS and an inexcusable display of bad judgement) and current grandstanding with the bailout issues.

It's pretty hard for them to argue with this level of prescience:
Congressman Ron Paul
U.S. House of Representatives
July 16, 2002

Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce the Free Housing Market Enhancement Act. This legislation restores a free market in housing by repealing special privileges for housing-related government sponsored enterprises (GSEs). These entities are the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie), the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie), and the National Home Loan Bank Board (HLBB). According to the Congressional Budget Office, the housing-related GSEs received $13.6 billion worth of indirect federal subsidies in fiscal year 2000 alone.

One of the major government privileges granted these GSEs is a line of credit to the United States Treasury. According to some estimates, the line of credit may be worth over $2 billion. This explicit promise by the Treasury to bail out these GSEs in times of economic difficulty helps them attract investors who are willing to settle for lower yields than they would demand in the absence of the subsidy. Thus, the line of credit distorts the allocation of capital. More importantly, the line of credit is a promise on behalf of the government to engage in a massive unconstitutional and immoral income transfer from working Americans to holders of GSE debt.

The Free Housing Market Enhancement Act also repeals the explicit grant of legal authority given to the Federal Reserve to purchase the debt of housing-related GSEs. GSEs are the only institutions besides the United States Treasury granted explicit statutory authority to monetize their debt through the Federal Reserve. This provision gives the GSEs a source of liquidity unavailable to their competitors.

Ironically, by transferring the risk of a widespread mortgage default, the government increases the likelihood of a painful crash in the housing market. This is because the special privileges of Fannie, Freddie, and HLBB have distorted the housing market by allowing them to attract capital they could not attract under pure market conditions. As a result, capital is diverted from its most productive use into housing. This reduces the efficacy of the entire market and thus reduces the standard of living of all Americans.

However, despite the long-term damage to the economy inflicted by the government’s interference in the housing market, the government’s policies of diverting capital to other uses creates a short-term boom in housing. Like all artificially-created bubbles, the boom in housing prices cannot last forever. When housing prices fall, homeowners will experience difficulty as their equity is wiped out. Furthermore, the holders of the mortgage debt will also have a loss. These losses will be greater than they would have otherwise been had government policy not actively encouraged over-investment in housing.

Perhaps the Federal Reserve can stave off the day of reckoning by purchasing GSE debt and pumping liquidity into the housing market, but this cannot hold off the inevitable drop in the housing market forever. In fact, postponing the necessary but painful market corrections will only deepen the inevitable fall. The more people invested in the market, the greater the effects across the economy when the bubble bursts.

No less an authority than Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has expressed concern that government subsidies provided to the GSEs make investors underestimate the risk of investing in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Mr. Speaker, it is time for Congress to act to remove taxpayer support from the housing GSEs before the bubble bursts and taxpayers are once again forced to bail out investors misled by foolish government interference in the market. I therefore hope my colleagues will stand up for American taxpayers and investors by cosponsoring the Free Housing Market Enhancement Act.

http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2002/cr071602.htm

There are still a few jackasses that harp on the BS criticisms of racism, conspiracy theory kookiness, etc., but I just tell them that Ron Paul is right on the issues that matter most and direct them to find points of criticism from here: http://www.ronpaullibrary.org/ and it stops the BS cold.

There are quite a few people wishing Ron Paul were running right now. I've also seen people wondering if he might make a run for Kay Bailey Hutchinson's Senate seat when she runs for Governor.

[parke]

Bump..

I wish he would accept a nom from a third party.

[ItsTime]

20 ish. You forget we would have all worked through the summer hitting the doors hard. Hitting the billboards hard. We could have gotten him to 20% or higher

[Eric21ND]

I thought Paul should've bolted 3rd party and we would be sitting pretty right now. Think about this I truly believe we would be polling high enough to get into the fixed debates, that criteria is way unfair and we still would match it. I think we'd be polling around 20% right now pre-debates! Even if Paul didn't win he'd have a HUGE platform to express his views. I actually think if Paul was running right now McCain might concede.

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda....it irks me that he didn't run Indy.

[Pete]

I said 5%-10% because of how he's polling in Montana, but on second thought he would probably do better. If his present rate of media attention continued.

[Bradley in DC]

Realistically, probably not as high as we'd like:

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=158452

[SeanEdwards]

Americans don't want liberty. They want a nanny state that will "fix" their every hurt.

[Alawn]

Realistically, probably not as high as we'd like:

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=158452

That is the stupidest thing I have ever seen. He isn't running! That poll cannot give accurate results. The question is how well he would do if he actually was running.

[Eric21ND]

I'm being conservative, but I'd say right now 15-20% but he would definitely get into the debates which would be amazing! Can you imagine Paul's VP pick if it was Ventura taking on Palin and Biden? I would schedule my entire day around those debates.

[Kludge]

Primaries =/= General Election. Ron may have been able to take 20% nationally in the PRIMARIES if it were today and his only opponent was McCain. General elections have a MUCH higher turnout rate. Almost all the Ron Paul supporters are incredibly enthusiastic and probably showed for the primaries. General elections pull the apathetic and lazy -- rednecks, GetOutTheVote political retards and the holier-than-thou-but-lazy elderly.

[raiha]

like it or lump it, the MSM would still do what they did with him last time and the populace would buy it. Ask again at the peak of the 2009 Great Depression. 5%

[Carole]

Dr. Paul is amazing!

[DAFTEK]

Above 25% nationally :D I'm sure of it....!!!!

[Liberty Star]

He should come back , even just for educating masses. Times like these leave impression.

[TGautier421]

If he was running right now that would mean he would be the GOP candidate. And he would probably have nearly then entire country, not to mention the world, endorsing him.

At least 70%. I'll take into account the hard line Dems who would endorse their candidate no matter what.

If we're talking 3rd Party, anywhere between 10% and 20%. Hell, he's got 7% of the vote in Montana right now.

[Knightskye]

Who's Ron Paul?

[Scotso]

Probably around 10%.

[Knightskye]

If he were still in the race, the media would still be ignoring him. They'd just invite someone else on to talk about the economy. It'd be around 5%.

[tonyr1988]

He's catching on, I'm tellin' ya!


(sorry...couldn't resist)

[nbhadja]

Barr was getting 6 percent last month.
Ron Paul would get over 10%.