January 22, 2012 12:56PM 

# Ron Paul, President of Twitter 

By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) 

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Ron Paul didn’t do as well with Republican voters in South Carolina as he had done in Iowa and New Hampshire. But he’s still the king of Twitter. (And tweeters, of course, are [the people](http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/19/idUS215807632820120119) who in one day faced down Hollywood and forced leading senators to withdraw their online-piracy bills.) Natalie Jennings of the *Washington Post* [reports](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/post/twitter-volume-on-the-most-tumultuous-day-of-the-campaign--atmentionmachine/2012/01/20/gIQAkHVEGQ_blog.html):

> NBC’s Chuck Todd might have summed up Thursday’s events best with this tweet:
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> > Books about this campaign will have chapters simply titled: “January 19th”
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> [Mitt Romney](http://wapo.st/ujkm0i) faced mounting pressure to release his tax returns as reports surfaced Wednesday night he might have assets in bank accounts in the [Cayman Islands](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/post/mitt-romney-has-millions-of-dollars-in-caribbean-tax-haven-report-says/2012/01/18/gIQAZoU78P_blog.html).
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> The Des Moines Register declared that [Rick Santorum](http://wapo.st/rwKrVx) actually [got more votes](http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/report-santorum-finished-34-votes-ahead-of-romney-in-new-iowa-tally-votes-from-8-precincts-missing/2012/01/19/gIQAJGuRAQ_story.html) than Romney in the Iowa caucuses.
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> [Rick Perry](http://wapo.st/tb68BR) announced he would [suspend his campaign](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/post/rick-perry-expected-to-end-presidential-campaign-live-video-tweets/2012/01/19/gIQAeKcoAQ_blog.html) in a morning news conference.
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> [Newt Gingrich’s](http://wapo.st/w3waCE) second wife, Marianne, said in interviews with [ABC](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/post/marianne-gingrich-newt-gingrichs-ex-wife-tells-abc-news-he-was-asking-to-have-an-open-marriage/2012/01/19/gIQARZvtAQ_blog.html) and The Washington Post that the former speaker had asked her for an open marriage.
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> And Gingrich exploded at moderator John King within the first few minutes of the [CNN debate](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/post/2012-south-carolina-gop-debate-liveblog/2012/01/19/gIQA4kl3BQ_blog.html) that night.
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> And yet, through it all, [Ron Paul](http://wapo.st/vZ7Iue) maintained his lead on the[@MentionMachine](http://www.washingtonpost.com/mention-machine) leaderboard this week. We measured tweets from Wednesday at 7 p.m. through Friday at 4 p.m.

Lots of Cato commentary on Ron Paul [here](https://www.cato.org/search_results.php?q=ron+paul&btnG.x=29&btnG.y=9&btnG=Search&site=cato_all&client=cato-org&filter=p&lr=lang_en&output=xml_no_dtd&proxystylesheet=cato-org&proxyreload=1&getfields=summary). Some Mitt Romney analysis [here](https://www.cato.org/search_results.php?q=mitt+romney&btnG.x=0&btnG.y=0&btnG=Search&site=cato_all&client=cato-org&filter=p&lr=lang_en&output=xml_no_dtd&proxystylesheet=cato-org&proxyreload=1&getfields=summary). Some pretty sharp criticisms of Rick Santorum [here](https://www.cato.org/search_results.php?q=santorum&btnG.x=0&btnG.y=0&btnG=Search&site=cato_all&client=cato-org&filter=p&lr=lang_en&output=xml_no_dtd&proxystylesheet=cato-org&proxyreload=1&getfields=summary). Aaaand my colleagues haven’t been too keen on [Newt Gingrich](https://www.cato.org/search_results.php?q=newt+gingrich&btnG.x=17&btnG.y=7&btnG=Search&site=cato_all&client=cato-org&filter=p&lr=lang_en&output=xml_no_dtd&proxystylesheet=cato-org&proxyreload=1&getfields=summary) and [Barack Obama](https://www.cato.org/search_results.php?q=obama&btnG.x=0&btnG.y=0&btnG=Search&site=cato_all&client=cato-org&filter=p&lr=lang_en&output=xml_no_dtd&proxystylesheet=cato-org&proxyreload=1&getfields=summary) either. What kind of policies would we like to see a presidential candidate propose? Check out the *[Cato Handbook for Policymakers](https://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/index.html)*.

##### Related Tags 

[General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) 

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