Well, it’s about 11:10pm EST right now and RonPaulGraphs.com is showing about $5,650,000 in donations today.

Earlier on I extended the linear pattern of the chart and estimated that it’ll hit 6.3 million around midnight. I think it’s fairly safe that it’ll happen now.

UPDATE: Apparently I was off when I said $6.3 million. At midnight the graph shows $6.0 million. That’s still a pretty impresive one day pull.

In related news, Mike Huckabee is polling as a ‘Tier 1′ candidate now on the national level and his campaign donations for Q4 are approaching $1.2 million.

I just stumbled across a story on what the presidential candidates don’t like to eat and saw this response from Huckabee:

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee: “Carrots. I just don’t like carrots. I banned them from the governor’s mansion when I was governor of Arkansas because I could.“

Little quips like that bother me. I know it’s silly, but they just leap right out at me.

I suppose that quip struck me hard because I’ve seen numerous reports of Huckabee saying he’d support a nation wide ban on smoking if he became president. From what I gather Huckabee has become pretty health conscious in recent years, and if you ever see some YouTube videos of him as governor of Arkansas you’ll notice he’s lost a lot of weight. And that’s cool, I like that, and think it’s really awesome that he got all health minded. But, Huckabee seems OK with the notion of shoving his lifestyle choices down our throats for our own good.

I do not hold to that.

Note to Huck: If the president thing doesn’t work out I’d suggest starting a line of fitness centers with the Chuck Norris Approved endorsement. I’m not being snarky here. It’s worth a look.

Here’s the story. The best part:

Michigan GOP Chairman Saul Anuzis said he is pleased the primary will be held and said Republicans will participate even if Democrats switch to a caucus.

Good.

Mike Huckabee’s latest commercial featuring Chuck Norris:

I’m at a loss for words right now.

Well, color me slightly surprised.

As it sits right now Ron Paul has gathered up $2.75 million today. If you check the Ron Paul Graphs site you’ll see that he’s been recieving donations at a pretty steady rate of $200,000 an hour since early this morning:

Click to enlarge.

The average donation size for today is just south of $100, probably close to $98 if I’m reading the other graph right. If this holds up for the rest of the day, and I figure it will, he’ll be approaching $4 million by midnight eastern standard time.

This is nothing to sneeze at. Howard Dean was pretty well known for his ability to raise money, and his online campaign only managed to net $700,000 in a single day.

“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.”

Damn straight it’s impressive!

Ron Paul’s funding is increasing.

I’m seeing more signs for him in my area.

Going door to door on Saturday dropping off Ron Paul phamplets I find people that know who he is, and get excited seeing folks handing out his literature. It’s exciting to ask people, “Have you heard about Ron Paul?” and they light right up.

When I met up with my family on Sunday my dad asked me what I was up to lately and mentioned the literature drop off thing. When he heard “Ron Paul” he said quite simply, “Yeah, I’ve heard of that guy. He’s the only one that appears to be making any sense right now.” That’s awesome!

I am excited beyond words right now.

… and in the time it took me to write this post, Ron Paul has now gone from $2.75 million for the day to $2.9 million.

I really think we’ve got a chance here.

UPDATE: Looks like the total sits at $4.2 million. Holy shit!

There’s a push out there to raise as much money as possible for Ron Paul on November the 5th.

The above link is asking you to pledge $100, but anything will do. It’s also pointless to pledge, because by the time you read this it’ll already be November the 5th, so just go ahead and donate. As of right now there are 18,201 pledges, and I’m one of them.

Count me in for $100 come tomorrow.

I wouldn’t be susprised if Ron Paul got a $2,000,000 cash injection on November the Fifth.

Here’s something fun. A nice little sheet on the 2008 Presidential Campaign’s current funding levels.

Giuliani is in the lead with $16 million on hand and a meager $169,000 in debt.

Romney has a little over $9 million on hand, but he’s got $17 million in debt.

Thompson is next with over $7 milion on hand and nearly $700,000 in debt.

That brings us to my guy, Ron Paul, with $5.4 million on hand and $0 in debt. Yay for fiscal conservatives!

McCain has about $3.4 million on hand and $1.7 million in debt.

After that it tapers off quickly.

Huckabee has $650,000 on hand, $47k in debt.

Hunter has $132,000 on hand, and an even $50k in debt.

Tancredo has $110,000 on hand, $295,000 in debt.

Brownback, now out of the race, has $95,000 and $0 in debt.

Finally, we have Alan Keyes, also out of the race, with $12,000 on hand and $12,000 in debt.

[Ed: I originally posted that Keyes was out of the race. Apparently I'm mistaken. I presumed his lack of participation in the debates meant he was out of the race.]

What’s it all mean? Well, I honestly have no idea. But we do see a clear seperation between those with money and those without right now in the Republican Primary. Anybody gathering less funds that McCain is well beyond long-shot status at this point. That isn’t to say you shouldn’t vote for them in the primary. Far from it. Vote for who you think would represent you best, that’s what America is all about.

I know it probably doesn’t look like it, but right now I have no desire to start argueing with people over who they should vote for. I’m not sure I ever will again in my life. It’s usually a pointless exercise. Now, if I get the chance to engage somebody about a candidate that they’re unaware of, I’m all for that. If you want my opinion, which by default I assume you reading this do, then I’ll offer that up too, but I’m tired of the bickering.

That isn’t to say I’m tired of anything that has happened lately. Far from it. I find the comments left here on the posts I’ve made recently about the candidates to be great. When I posted about Huckabee seemingly looking good on the gun issue Thane Eichenauer drops a handy reminder in the comments that Huckabee has a history of raising taxes. That’s good! That’s the stuff I want to know about!

Reasoned discourse is good. Keep it coming!