In answer to Kate, I'm doubtful that a rigged system of small state primaries is what's holding Ron Paul back. I think it has more to do with the fact that he's a crazy person who's constantly talking about the Gold Standard. That said, he's got a couple issue positions that inspire really intense support, and the net allows those diffuse, previously-disconnected advocates to aggregate their efforts and raise some serious money, achieve some real visibility, etc. But unless voting is replaced by some metric charting the frequency of favorable blog posts, the internet will never be able to convert a relatively small number of intense supporters into a broad number of voters. Indeed, what's interesting is how unrepresentative blogospheric buzz really is. Presumably, the more mature the net gets, the less that will be true, and so the more trouble candidates like Paul will have breaking through. --Ezra Klein