Welcome to the Ron Paul Revolution

The crowds are huge and the rallies full of passion. Welcome to the revolution - the Ron Paul "rEVOLution." On the campaign trail, his supporters seem to be everywhere. You see them at different venues with their signs on the streets of America. Meanwhile Paul - a 72-year-old grandfather of 18 - stood soaking it all in. "It's spread," Paul said. "It's all around the country. No matter where I go." It's become one of the more intriguing campaign story lines: an obscure congressman with very little national name recognition and next to no charisma, yet his message resonates. "I would never do anything like this except for Ron Paul," said one devoted volunteer. Another said, "I will walk a million miles for Ron Paul." This revolution has become downright emotional for some. "When you see the word revolution and you see the word love in it, that's what's going on," Paul volunteer John Carle said. "Ron Paul will give this country back to the people." And that, in a nutshell, is the attraction - not to the man - but what he stands for. Bringing America Back to Its Roots Paul is a constitutionalist who wants to bring America back to its original principles of limited government. He won't even vote for a bill in congress unless it's authorized by the constitution. The Paul doctrine: eliminate most federal agencies, no more federal income tax, withdrawal from the U.N., power back to the states and a non-interventionist foreign policy. "They'd like to see this country turned around where the people have control of their lives, control of their money and control of their destiny and today they feel helpless. They feel like the government is running roughshod over them," Paul said. Another surprise is how many young people attend his rallies. "The young people when they hear the message they just rally to it and of course it's being spread on the Internet and they evidently love the Internet," Paul said. That they do. As a matter of fact, Paul is the presidential fundraising king of cyberspace. This fall he rose more than four million in one day alone. With 37,000 donors in all, his fundraising totals put him in the top tier. They include Independents and others who aren't your typical mainstream Republican or Democratic voter. Paul, after all, is the only Republican against the war and against the increased government surveillance of the Patriot Act. "I think it gives you access to our privacy," he said. "There are maybe ten bad guys out there and now we monitor billions and billions of transactions that are going on because we might find somebody?" Poll Numbers Less than Impressive So far Paul's revolution hasn't moved him into serious contention. His poll numbers are creeping upward, but nothing to make front runners that nervous. "What he has is a certain buzz about him among a small group of people that's helped him raise money, it's helped him get some popularity but it's not translating into the polls, so it will be very difficult for him to break through," said John Fortier of the American Enterprise Institute. It's a challenge all second tier candidates face. In a landscape dominated by other well known names and faces, it's hard to get attention. But Paul's big time fundraising totals have helped. "Even though he's not high in the polls, he has been in the debates, and been a voice and been a different kind of voice. So I think he's broken through in a way most second tier candidates don't," Fortier said. But the way to head north is by buzz and a grassroots effort. Mike Huckabee has done that and is leading now in Iowa. Paul's challenge is his supporters have the reputation, fair or not, of being on the fringe. "Am I fringe? I am not fringe," Carle denied "I am mainstream America that wants to take my country back." Yet some of Paul's ideas are not mainstream republican positions like the idea of getting rid of the Federal Reserve, returning to the gold standard or decriminalizing drugs. "I think the facts will change that reputation because you take the group of individuals that donate more money to me than any other candidate - Republican or Democrat - are military people so that is hardly fringe if you're going to call the people who support me on the fringe," Paul said. Privately, the other republican campaigns do not take Paul seriously. Does he think the candidates blow him off? "Less so everyday," he said. "They use to try to, but they know we're not going to go away." That's for sure especially on the web where he is most organized. Google says he's the most web searched candidate out there. But he knows internet popularity may not transfer to cold hard votes. "We've got to prove ourselves," he said. "We're going to have to decide if it is a myth that we have this strong support and where's this money coming from if there's just a bunch of people out there spamming. Yes, but are they spamming money too." It seems New Hampshire is Paul's firewall. In that independent minded state, he polls the best and must breakthrough there. But whether Paul shocks the republican establishment or goes down as a footnote in history, one thing is for sure. The Ron Paul revolution lives on. Paul laughed, "It will continue. Regardless…"