$5.1 Million

Ron Paul raised a reported $5.1 million in the third quarter. Mark Ambinder writes,

There must be, within the Republican Party, a vein of anti-war libertarian sentiment. It is longer and deeper than many of us had suspected. The Paul movement is probably one part Buchanan brigade and one part fiscal hawk.

(ht: Tex at LRC)

I think there's some truth to that. But Paul is also attracting independents, not to mention most of the Libertarian and Constitution Party people. In other words, there are Ron Paul "Republicans" who, without Paul, would have nothing to do with the party and would not vote for any other Republican candidate. Paul is bringing new blood into the Grand Old Party, but they will stay only as long as he succeeds.

Ambinder also says (though without a source) that Mike Huckabee raised only a million [Update: here's a post on Huckabee affirming the $1 million figure]. And this was supposed to be the darling of the values voters. In the past, the Religious Right had greater organizational strength and anointed certain candidates, like Dole in '96 and George W. Bush in 2000, very early. Such endorsements were in a sense self-fulfilling prophesies. Now, there's less organizational strength, andJames Dobson is wondering about a third party.

My goodness. If the Republicans can't even keep the Religious Right, then Bush's failure as a President and political leader would be complete.