Pajamas Media makes the predicted conclusion:
OUR EDITORS’ TAKE: What does the ascendancy of Fred Thompson and Ron Paul mean? Is this an Internet (early adopter) harbinger of things to come? In the case of Thompson, we think this is indeed a possibility. The former Tennessee senator / prosecutor / movie and television star has… despite being undeclared … fared quite well on other polls. On the latest Fox News Poll he is ahead of the declared Romney and the undeclared Gingrich, ditto on the Gallup Poll.
Ron Paul is a different matter. The paleo-libertarian seems to be a purely Internet Phenomenon. He has yet to score significantly on any national poll, his best being a mere 3% on Zogby. Of course this could change. Pajamas Media would like to note, however, that the vast majority of his votes in our poll (1331 of 1725) were placed right here on the portal site, suggesting a determined effort by his supporters to “bomb” this poll
Of course, another 270 of those votes, or 15.7 percent of them, were placed right here on this arch-libertarian site. Was that an attempt to “bomb” this polling precinct? Or is it simply the strong preference for a man who is so foolish as to actually believe in individual freedom and the Constitution among readers of this site?
The truth is that those who follow politics on the Internet are a very, very small elite. Remember that from the national perspective, practically no one – around half of one percent of the population – even watches Bill O’Reilly on a given evening nor knows who Kos or Instapundit are. Among that elite, there are a disproportional number of libertarians. Thus, any Internet poll is going to favor libertarians just as any poll taken at a PETA meeting is going to favor vegetarians. There’s nothing shady about that, as Pajamas Media appears to imply, it’s merely a function of the environment.
My take on Thompson is that his appeal is primarily an indication of Republican malaise; he is the living, breathing None of the Above. And as I’ve written many times before, it doesn’t matter who the Republicans nominate, as the Lizard Queen’s ascension is ordained.
On a related matter, I note that the candidate nearly every other right-wing commentator pronounced unelectable – and whose 2008 victory I predicted in 2005 – seems to have gotten off to a good start:
Hillary Clinton’s campaign today announced it will report $36 million in total receipts for the first fundraising quarter, which ended March 31, 2007. The staggering number reflects the strength of support for Clinton from every walk of life and every part of America.
Record money, a favorable media, a failed Republican war and millions of Republican women voting for her because she’s a woman… she’s more likely to win in a landslide than lose.