Q&A: Presidential Candidate Ron Paul

Do you have a pollster?
Not really. We do a little bit of polling in New Hampshire. We didn't hire a permanent pollster. Somebody did some work up in New Hampshire to get a baseline because it's a pretty good state for us. It's a state that we'll be working hard in.

What do you have to do to stay in the race? Do you see yourself going through February 5 and into the March primaries?
I think if the curve continues, the money's going to keep coming in. We just take one day at a time and see how we do, and every day is better than the last. We don't have a goal that says we have to be first or second or even third in two or three states. We have to do well—if you're last in the first five primaries, you better reassess things. But I just don't think that's going to happen. Just as we surprised people on how many Meetup groups we have, how many volunteers we get, how much money we raise, how well we do in post-debate polls—why shouldn't we expect a surprise in the primaries?

If you're polling in New Hampshire, you must see an opportunity with that state's large group of independent voters. How do you appeal to them?
If we motivate them, we'll get their votes because who else is going to motivate them on the other side? They're tired of the war. The Democrats—they all backtrack. They've all joined Bush's foreign policy. I don't know how anyone can tell the difference between what they're saying and what Bush is saying. They all say, "We'll be better managers." I don't want to manage the war. I want the war to end. That's what the people are sick and tired of. No real choices.

You've at times been compared to Barack Obama for motivating supporters, to Howard Dean for your online effort, and to Ralph Nader, because of your potential as a third-party candidate. Do you see yourself in any of those modes?
A little bit of each, I guess. I've been in a third party. Of course, Howard Dean did use the Internet, though I don't think anywhere near to what's happening now. Obama—I think the longer that goes on, what really is he saying? I think he got some credit for newness, but he's a young person and comes across as a fresh face. I think my ideas are actually younger in spirit. He's talking about the same old clichés—government programs, perpetuating the war, don't take anything off the table in dealing with Iran, can't let them have a nuclear weapon or we'll bomb them.

How has the deteriorating situation in Pakistan affected your campaign message?
It fell right in my lap. It's exactly what I said. Ten billion dollars we paid into this guy's coffers to keep a military dictator who overthrew an elected government. And we're supposed to die for spreading democracy? We're going broke. And now we've created chaos in that country. We had Bhutto come back in there. Everybody over there knows our CIA is trying to run things. That's why he's so unpopular. As long as we're going to interfere, there will be a motivation for people to get rid of our puppet government and turn against us as well. That's where the radicalism comes from. It's a response to a foreign policy that is seriously flawed.

Would you consider a third-party run?
I have no intention of doing that. I've done it before, the laws are biased against us, it costs a lot of money, and even though we've raised a lot, you really need a lot more. It doesn't interest me at all. I've refiled for my congressional seat. That's Plan B.

Who has helped you put your campaign strategy together, particularly your online strategy?
There hasn't been any. The strategy was to present a platform, something I believe in. People ask me, "Well, who prepped you for your debates? What do you when you go in to Jay Leno—do you have someone prep you?" I figure I've been reading about this, studying it, trying to understand it, explain it, and vote a certain way for 30 years. There's no strategy other than trying to get the information out, and the Internet provided the vehicle. I knew there was something strange going on because when I finally yielded to the many requests to run and said, yes, I would do it—then it got leaked on the Internet, and we didn't even have an office. And then, we had literally thousands of calls from people—"Why don't you answer our E-mails? Why don't you do this?" We didn't even have an office set up. The Internet does the work. Then they get excited. They form the groups. We've never organized a Meetup group, yet there's 1,100 of them. Not that we're connected to them; we make good use of them. We say we're coming to town, and they'll get the people out. And then, when we want to raise some money, we'll send periodic E-mails out. But yesterday, it was all their doing. We had no idea whether they'd raise $1,000 or a million. To get $4.3 million was pretty amazing.