Ronald Ernest “Ron” Paul, Sr. (born August 20, 1935), is a 10th-term Republican United States Congressman from Lake Jackson, Texas, a physician, and a Republican candidate for the 2008 U.S. presidential election. He has represented Texas’s 14th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1997, and its 22nd district, 1976 - 1977 and 1979 - 1985. Paul also placed third in the 1988 presidential election as the Libertarian Party nominee, while remaining a registered Republican. After his 1961 graduation from Duke University School of Medicine and a residency in obstetrics and gynecology (ob/gyn), he was drafted and served during the Vietnam War elsewhere as a flight surgeon.

Paul has been called conservative, Constitutionalist, and libertarian. He advocates non-interventionist foreign policy and voted against the Iraq War Resolution; favors withdrawal from NATO and the United Nations; supports free trade, but opposes illegal immigration, amnesty, and birthright citizenship. Having pledged never to raise taxes, he would abolish the federal income tax; he would reduce government spending by sharply lowering taxes and abolishing most federal agencies; he states he has never approved an unbalanced budget. He also opposes the Patriot Act, the federal War on Drugs, and gun control. Paul calls himself “strongly pro-life”, advocating states’ rights regarding this issue.

During his 2008 presidential campaign, Paul has generated strong support on the Internet and is the top presidential candidate Internet search term as measured by Hitwise, Alexa, and Technorati. He leads the other presidential candidates at YouTube, with over 31,000 subscribers. Supporters “guard [his] image against what they see as a purposeful marginalization by the media”, and cite his victories in four out of the first five 2008 GOP debate sponsors’ own online and phone text polls to argue he deserves more recognition. While he places in the top tier in Republican straw polls and fundraising receipts, he has not polled highly among Gallup samples of Republican voters nationally Source