The surprise was the strength of Congressman Paul's support, who came in a close second.  The congressman received 25% of the vote compared to Romney's 29%.  The strength of Paul's support was shocking to most of the professional political pundits, who thought Paul was one of the GOP contenders who should be left out of future debates.  This was also evident at the Democratic Presidential Debate when the establishment media dismissed Congressman Kucinich.  While the press may dismiss Paul and Kucinich their online followers are growing exponentially.  According to TechPresident.com Paul's MySpace support has jumped more than 20% this week to over 15,000 "friends”.  More astonishing is that Paul's YouTube stats have increased 621.2% this week with 533,314 video downloads.  Kucinich's numbers on social networking Web sites and YouTube have seen a similar spike over the past few weeks.  Why are these two candidates doing so well online, but so poorly in the minds of the establishment press? 

Both candidates represent the fringes of the political spectrum, and both have been able to spark interest because of internet based technology.  Without this technology Paul and Kucinich would not be able to reach nearly as many people.  This technology shows us that it is possible to reach millions of people without being a top tier candidate or raising tens of millions of dollars.  The ultraconservative stances of Paul and Kucinich's far left positions demonstrate the ideological diversity across the Internet.  Despite how far apart these two members of Congress are on ideology they have found common ground when it comes to the Internet.  These ideological bookends have become tech twins.

www.techpresident.com

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,272719,00.html