The subterranean dungeons of the web are abuzz with Rudolph Giuliani's concession speech acknowledgement that "Ron Paul won every debate."

"Such an admission is rare considering the size of Giuliani's ego and his numerous spats with Paul on the campaign trail," states the leading 911 truther site.

But surely the Paulines, of all people, know that tv debates are won by judging audience reaction through web polls and text messaging. On the internet, where Paul is already President, campaigns are won and lost by flooding the web, I'll bet Giuliani knows that too.

It was the best line and the best joke from an otherwise miserable campaign. Adios Rudy.

Via Dale Carpenter at the Volokh blog, I was referred to this devastating indictment, in (what may be) Ron Paul's own words, of Ron Paul. James Kirchick of The New Republic, which has had its own fair share of problems through the years with alternately endorsing and damning its authors' handiwork, has tracked down back issues of Paul's Ron Paul Political Report, or as it was more appropriately entitled at one time, The Ron Paul Survival Report.

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There are many places where Ron Paul's fifth-place finish in Iowa will be met with wailing, gnashing of teeth, and rent garments. Aside from fetid basements, LAN centers, and the occasional Buddhist-symbol-flag-draped meeting hall, one of these places apparently exists only in the realm of zeros, ones, and the minds of gamers.

Ron Paul has a huge World of Warcraft showing.

After the blimp thing, this should hardly be a surprise, should it? Although to remain thematically consistent, shouldn't they congregate not on the servers of the most popular establishment MMORPG, but on a distant and unpopular also-ran, like Star Wars: Galaxies? Anyway, Ron Paul is just the Tauren's tusks these days, apparently. He's got a legion of namesakes, many of them high level (meaning someone bunny-hopped about the landscape for weeks of gaming time with "Ronpaul" floating over their head.) Plus, there was a recent in-game rally with an elaborate plan requiring people to log in, create a new character, file across the landscape like a shot from an extremely geeky Bergman movie, and eventually congregate at the Orc capital city — including Alliance characters, who were quick fodder for Orc guards. Can something be too painfully obvious to be a metaphor?

No word on whether they got Blizzard to re-brand the in-game zepplins.

Hat Tip: Andrew Sullivan

To answer my own question, the Ron Paul Blimp is apparently for real. Or perhaps "for real" is the better way to say it.

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Because the title "Oh, the Humanity!" was too obvious. The buy-a-blimp-for-Ron-Paul fundraiser — real or satire? It's delicious either way.

Imagine.. the mainstream media is mesmerized as the image of the Ron Paul blimp is shown to tens of millions of Americans throughout the day (and throughout the month). Wolf Blizter, stunned and as if in a trance, repeats the words "Amazing, Amazing".

As GPS co-ordinates stream to the website a map shows the Ron Paul blimp's location in real time. The local Television stations broadcast its every move. The curious flock together and make a trip to see history in the making. Emails with pictures are sent, then forwarded, then forwarded again. Youtube videos go viral and reach tens of millions of views. Ron Paul becomes the first presidential candidate in history to have his very own blimp. The PR stunt generates millions upon millions of dollars worth in free publicity, and captures the imagination of America.

Yes, finally Ron Paul would reach that promontory of respect and deference previously enjoyed only by Snoopy.

Number of people, as of 2:30 p.m. today, who have gotten here by searching for some variation on "Ron Paul": 23.

Number of people, as of 2:30 p.m. today, who have gotten here by searching for "penguins": 26.

Although the penguin-searchers have not, to date, left any messages disagreeing with my thoughts on Empoleon.

Referring back to Ken's post of last week on the odd fellows who surround the media's newly discovered darling Ron Paul, the original artist may have a follow-up post on the topic. What I have to say is in no way intended to steal Ken's thunder.

One of the things that makes Paul such a delightful eccentric on the political stage is that he interprets the Constitution strictly and literally. One consequence of such an interpretation is a federal government of vastly diminished powers, arrived at by way of the Tenth Amendment. ("The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.") So for instance, if the Constitution doesn't explicitly give the federal government power to donate food to the starving children of India, those children must starve, assuming that Sally Struthers can't make up the difference. The BATF, CIA, DEA, EPA, FBI, FDA, IRS, NSA, all of those agencies regulating or policing things not provided for in Article I? Unconstitutional.

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Bloggers fight over politicians all the time. They usually split up into predictable groups. That's banal.

But Ron Paul is changing that in interesting ways.

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