*Updated: Added Fund Raising Graph*

I’m throwing my hat in the ring for dark horse Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul. I did a post last month on Congressman Paul when he raised a record $4.3 million dollars in one day. Since then, I’ve spent a lot of time researching his platform and investigating the feasibility of some of his ideas, like eliminating the Fed, eliminating capital gains tax, and re-legalizing gold as legal tender. It’s radical, but they are legitimate ideas that may fix some of our country’s problems.

There are many reasons to like Dr. Paul. He’s the only Republican anti-war candidate. He has never voted to raise taxes, or voted for an unbalanced budget. He also voted against the Patriot Act, Military Commissions Act, and Iraq invasion. Since this is a blog for wealth managers, I’m going to focus on the fact that he is a respected economist who sits on both the Economic and Financial Services Committees. He is famous for being the only Committee member to ask tough questions of Greenspan and now Bernanke.

I’ll start with the first of two videos, an interview with Ron Paul on CNBC after he interviewed Bernanke on the latest rate cut:

Whether you agree with him or not, when is the last time you heard a presidential candidate speaking intelligently and authoritatively on economic policy?

One of Ron Paul’s unique positions is that he wants to put us back on a gold standard. That sounded scary until I researched it. What Paul wants to do is simply to re-legalize gold and silver as currency, not do away with the US dollar. We would be able to purchase a new gold-backed US currency and use it to invest in the stock market and purchase goods. It would reduce the ability of the Fed to print money and devalue the currency since they would now have to compete with an in-house commodity-backed currency. That might be a problem short-term because we’re currently printing our way out of the housing crisis, but long-term it should largely prevent us from getting into these types of situations.

What really got me comfortable with the concept of gold currency is that I started reading positive things from respected national economists. At worst, it shouldn’t hurt us and, at best, it will dramatically help our economy. Here’s my second video which is a follow-up to the first, where Kudlow interviews a panel of economists, including Don Luskin and Steve Forbes, who endorse Paul’s plans for a gold-backed currency:

That’s a fairly impressive stamp of approval for Dr. Paul’s economic policy. CNBC goes on to talk about traders on the floor of the Chicago options exchange cheering Paul as he thrashed Bernanke–another powerful endorsement from the financial services industry.

Ron Paul has momentum but still sits in a range of 5-11% in most polling for early primary states. However, polls lag and many don’t list Paul as an option. My feeling is that they may under-represent his support by at least half. If I’m right, he’s still a long way from winning but who isn’t in this election? Mike Huckabee was polling in single digits until this week, and now he’s the front-runner in several early primary states. I guess it helps to be a Baptist minister when half of last week’s debate centered around who loves Jesus the most.

The good news is that Congressman Paul is out-raising every other Republican candidate. He has already raised $11.5 million for this quarter, which is more than any GOP candidate raised in the prior quarter. He should finish with more than $20 million, mainly due to a second “money bomb” that is scheduled for Sunday, December 16th. I think he will raise $7-8 million dollars in a single day, all on the Internet, all from individuals.

Funny aside: Completely separate from the campaign’s fundraising numbers, a grassroots group raised $400k so they could hire a Ron Paul blimp to fly around the early primary states. As The Tick once said, “Hey cool! They’ve got a blimp!”

So does Paul have a chance? I honestly don’t know. I’ve never paid much attention to politics, and if our country wasn’t moving so spectacularly in the wrong direction, I probably wouldn’t care now. But I don’t think we have *ever* had a primary this fragmented, where no candidate is polling higher than 25%, and there are six legitimate contenders on the field. I think this will come down to a nasty fight at the Republican convention, and Paul is one of four candidates who can afford to stick it out that long.

If Dr. Paul doesn’t win the Republican nomination, there’s a chance he will run as a third party–he did it once before as a Libertarian. Consider a third-party anti-war candidate (who is an economist) running against two pro-war candidates in a country where 70% of the citizens are against the war, and most list “the economy” as their top voting issue. I like those odds.

Regardless of his chances, I think Ron Paul is the best candidate, so he gets my endorsement. I planted my first yard sign and stuck my first ever bumper sticker on my truck. I’ve donated money and even went to hear Paul speak a few weeks ago. Regardless of the poll numbers, I’m going to be voting for him in my first primary election. I’d love it if you would spend a few minutes checking him out.

http://www.ronpaul2008.com

Thanks!

PS. If I’ve persuaded you, click here to pledge $100 to his Tea Party fundraiser on Sunday.