Ron Paul has been the prototypical Politics 2.0 candidate so far in the 2008 presidential campaign.  Most poll numbers show his support amongst bloggers and internet enthusiasts to be greater than his support amongst the general public.  The Wonkosphere bears this out: this summer Paul averaged 10-15% buzz share for almost two months, until Huckabee stole much of that attention with his second place finish in the Iowa Straw poll.  Since then, Paul’s buzz share is 1/2 to 1/3 of that.  What’s happening?

I did a quick sample of Ron Paul websites–the criterion for selection being that “Ron Paul” had to be part of the website name.  Out of sixteen such blogs or web sites, seven of them had become inactive: Deleware Ron Paul (last post 7/16),  Ron Paul 08 (7/10), Friends of Ron Paul (7/2), Citizens for Ron Paul (6/25), Ron Paul President (5/23), Blogs for Ron Paul (3/29), Ron Paul Grassroots (3/27).

I realize that people go on blog vacations, and get burned out regardless of what they’re writing about, and that this was not an exhaustive sample–but it would be a better sign if there were lots of Ron Paul blogs making their first post rather than their last post.

Paul still is an attention magnet, and has lots of buzz share relative to the other second tier candidates;  sites like Ron Paul for President and Ron Paul HQ carry Paul’s message, but attention from the rest of the republican blogosphere is down.

Paul’s campaign released polling data that various parts of the Wonkosphere are debating the importance of.  Ron Paul 2008 says, “Coming off the Iowa Straw Poll the momentum for the Ron Paul 2008 campaign continues to build. Congressman Ron Paul has finished in the top 5 in 16 of the last 17 straw polls and can claim 1st place victories in New Hampshire, North Carolina, Washington, and Alabama. In comparing results head-to-head, Congressman Paul has blown away most of the field, defeating Rudy Giuliani in 15 of the 17 polls and John McCain in 15 of the 16 polls.”

If Paul is going to have a chance in Iowa or New Hampshire, though, he’s going to have to regenerate the enthusiasm the wonkosphere had for him earlier in the summer. 

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This entry was posted on Sunday, August 26th, 2007 at 8:16 am and is filed under Paul. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.