Ron Paul and Guy Fawkes

It's fun to watch Ron Paul's supporters act as if the $4.3 million dollars he raised IN ONE DAY makes him a serious presidential candidate. Raising that much money, period, much less in one day, is a very impressive accomplishment, but Ron Paul is still a fringe candidate, and no amount of money is going to make him a serious one.

What's interesting about the $4.3 million is the energy behind which it was raised. Although Paul's campaign played along, the drive was organized by outsiders, led by Trevor Lyman, a music promoter and Paul enthuiast who created a web site, www.thisNovember5th.com. It was Lyman's idea to tie the fundraising effort into Guy Fawkes Day, celebrated every November 5th in England.

Fawkes, a mercenary who participated in an unsuccessful plot to assassinate King James I by blowing up the Parliament on Nov. 5, 1605, is the model for the protagonist in the graphic novel and movie "V for Vendetta." Using clips from the movie and the English schoolyard refrain "Remember, remember the 5th of November," Lyman's Web site spread the word.

So Ron Paul is tapping into the anti-government, throw-the-bums-out mood of many disaffected Americans. Whether they show up to vote or not is a live question -- remember, these are much the same people that Kinky Friedman was counting on to make him Governor of Texas -- but even if they do, Paul has gotten to broaden his message and appeal quite a bit to be taken seriously by the voters.