It’s hard not to get a bit excited about Ron Paul’s fundraising success today.  In five weeks, he has raised more money ($7.1 million at last count) than he did during the last quarter, which puts him on pace to exceed the stated quarterly goal of $12 million.  Over half of that money (over $4 million as of 10:50 CST) has come from a one-day online fundraising drive.  

Dave Weigel commented earlier today:

Even if you don’t like Paul, you have to gasp at what’s happening in the GOP race. There are three phenomenons running in tandem: Paul’s fundraising, Huckabee’s cash-strapped poll surge, and McCain’s running-on-fumes poll comeback. Anybody working for the Rudy-Fred-Mitt power trio has to wonder why the Republican base is so hungry for these other choices.    

The Trail (a Post blog) writes:

Today, Nov. 5, marks not only Paul’s best fundraising haul in a single day — more than $3.5 million by 9 p.m. EST — but online observers say it’s also the most money raised by a candidate on the Web in a single day [bold mine-DL]. And the day’s not over yet. “Damn. Wow. Um, that’s pretty awesome,” said a stunned Jerome Armstrong who served as Howard Dean’s online strategist. Armstrong, the founder of the popular blog MyDD, said Dean raised as much as $700,000 in one day toward the end of the primary race. “But not a million,” Armstrong added. “What Paul is doing — or what his supporters are doing — is really impressive.”