by 
Ron Paul will be spending a sizable amount of his recent haul of campaign contributions on radio and television ads in New Hampshire and other early primary states:
Hoping to defy more expectations, Rep. Ron Paul is ratcheting up his maverick Republican presidential campaign by launching TV and radio commercials in early primary states and setting an ambitious $12 million fundraising goal.
…
With just over two months until the first primaries, experts question whether the libertarian-leaning congressman from Lake Jackson can expand his intense following to make a credible showing in these early contests.
Officials with Paul’s campaign acknowledge they have an uphill battle, but say they plan to broaden his support with an advertising campaign that includes $1.1 million in television spots that begin airing Monday in New Hampshire.
More:
A new poll of likely Granite state voters for the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College showed Paul garnering 7 percent of the GOP primary vote, ahead of Mike Huckabee and Thompson.
In New Hampshire, state GOP chairman Fergus Cullen cites evidence of support for Paul in campaign signs that appear to outnumber those of other candidates.
Cullen noted the signs are on private property, not on the side of the road, indicating that individual owners, rather than the campaigns, have taken the time to put them up.
$12 million is a lot of cash – about as much as Fred Thompson raised last quarter – and would give Paul a chance to spend dollar-for-dollar with his rivals for a change. Can his campaign do it? I can’t put a dollar figure out there but my sense is that he will do well raising funds again this quarter, barring a bad case of foot-in-mouth disease.
That’s one thing I would be surprised to see happen, at least at this early stage. Why?
Glenn McCall, the GOP chairman in York County in South Carolina, said Paul has come across in debates as more sincere than his rivals.
Voters “feel that some of the other candidates are too polished and not true to themselves,” McCall said. “Dr. Paul, they feel, is being natural. He is being himself.”
New Hampshire will be put-up-or-shut-up time for Ron Paul. I think he will up his numbers there compared to what they are now, especially considering the little state’s love for underdogs and lost causes, both of which Ron Paul represents.
Love him or loathe him Paul is the most interesting person to hit American politics in recent memory.
