Meghan McCain Not Impressed With Palin, Steele

[mrstickball]

Simple reason:

Biden, Joe	D	DE	$13,214,865
Brownback, Sam	R	KS	$4,242,815
Clinton, Hillary	D	NY	$221,557,563
Dodd, Chris	D	CT	$17,522,347
Edwards, John	D	NC	$57,137,322
Gilmore, Jim	R	VA	$392,794
Giuliani, Rudy	R	NY	$58,965,241
Gravel, Mike	D	AK	$690,195
Huckabee, Mike	R	AR	$16,075,486
Hunter, Duncan	R	CA	$3,003,863
Keyes, Alan	R	MD	$60,145
Kucinich, Dennis	D	OH	$5,515,471
Paul, Ron	R	TX	$34,534,903
Richardson, Bill	D	NM	$23,404,750
Romney, Mitt	R	MA	$107,142,234
Tancredo, Tom	R	CO	$8,298,387
Thompson, Fred	R	TN	$23,448,480
Thompson, Tommy	R	WI	$1,213,253
Vilsack, Tom	D	IA	$2,090,053

This doesn't include McCain and Obama spending, which was insane, as Obama spend ~700 million dollars, and McCain spent ~360m for their presdential runs. McCain spent somewhere around $100m before the primaries were over, so money does talk, as Paul was out-spent by 2 other Republicans, and never really got any major Republican endorsements.

I think Paul's major problem was marketing. He has (and had) fantastic ideas that would have reached out to both sides of the asile, but I never heard of the guy until maybe 3-4 months before the Ohio primaries - and his fundraising was that way too: he recieved well over 50% of his entire funding while the race was going on, which really doesn't help saturate your name in the mindshare of the American public.

Had he been 'groomed' into a top-tier candidate as McCain, Gulianni, Romney or Huckabee were (and as Palin and Jindal are becoming now), he would have done better. IMO, a Paul-Obama race would have been interesting, as Paul could have identified with voters and the economic crisis that was coming down during the end of the race, which ended up killing McCain.

All I can hope for is that either Paul, or someone a lot like him, becomes a top-tier Republican candidate over the next 3 years.

BTW: My county's republican party endorced Ron Paul for president.