Facebook, Part Two: Ron Paul Edition

In my last post, I talked about how Obama and Clinton easily have the highest numbers of supporters on Facebook's politics application. What I didn't mention, though, was the surprising candidate with the third most supporters on Facebook: Republican Ron Paul, with about 28,000.

I think the internet is perfect for nonconformist candidates like Ron Paul who don't follow the party line and don't have name recognition. Ben Worthen, a business technology blogger for the Wall Street Journal, agrees with this idea in this post. Worthen calls the internet "the great equalizing medium" and said that businesses and other politicians could learn from Paul's approach to Web 2.0, which allows supporters to interact with the campaign and feel engaged.

It's no surprise that Ron Paul supporters are described in this article as "clogging Internet straw polls." And it's also no surprise that, in the same article, Ron Paul is quoted as saying "the internet ought to be left free." Since so many of Ron Paul's supporters utilize the internet for his campaign, it makes sense that he supports this medium.