Ron Paul might be elected President of the Internet
I was thinking about something with Ron Paul, and his presence on the Internet. Understand, Ron Paul has moved to the top of the heap of Internet searches — look to the right-hand box at technorati, for instance. He dominates online polls.
And he is nowhere in the “real” polls. The news that the oddsmakers doubled his odds of becoming president reminds me of a promo I saw for this television network, seen called “Channel America” (the highlight of the network was this late-late night show of public domain cartoons) calling itself the “Fastest Growing Television Network in America”. Indeed. Ron Paul went from 200 to 1 odds to 100 odds on Sportsline.com. Which are inflated odds due to his libertarian views on gambling, and online gambling at that which attract (drum roll please) Online followers.
I find something striking here. Many things have changed in the long history of the Internet, and the Internet has expanded beyond its initial geek userbase of various misfits. But there is still a strange shift of focus outside the “mainstream” on the Internet which allows for Ron Paul’s online popularity. It’s not 1993 here, and yet… it is. If that makes any sense.
The Internet has opened up many things just out of mainstream currents — The Furry subculture, for instance. There is an intensity there for Ron Paul that does not exist for Mitt Romney that befits an Internet activist. To a lesser degree, and only because he was closer to the mainstream of his political party, this fit in with Howard Dean in 2004 as well.