Ron Paul

This heated exchange from last night's Republican debate in SC is getting a lot of commentary in the blogosphere today:

Although he clearly sends many conservative talking heads (read: apologists for Bush) into paroxysms, it's interesting to note that Paul is the only Republican candidate in MSNBC's rate the candidates poll who has moved forward significantly in approval after Republican voters have watched the last two debates. Every other candidate for the Republican nomination has either fallen significantly in approval or, at best, advanced one or two points, while Paul's approval has surged at least twenty points after voters have watched him, despite the hostile incredulity of the FOX News anchors and his fellow candidates.

It's not a scientific poll, to be sure, but anecdotally it confirms that the Republican Party has a problem, and that problem isn't Ron Paul.

(And though it should go without saying, let me reiterate that this is not an endorsement of anything any of the Republican candidates said last night, but simply my own personal observation of a trend within the MSNBC online opinion poll following the last two Republican debates.)