Does he really or doesn’t he?

Ron Paul, who has created a huge buzz on the Internet since he displaced Senator John McCain as the “maverick” in the Republican primary race, says he has more cash on hand than the Arizona Senator whose campaign has not been doing well in the money collections department:

ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos Reports: Though often regarded as a longshot candidate for president, Republican Ron Paul tells ABC News that he has an impressive $2.4 million in cash on hand after raising an equal amount during the second quarter, putting him ahead of one-time Republican frontrunner John McCain, who reported this week he has only $2 million in the bank.

In an exclusive interview taped Friday and airing Sunday on “This Week,” Paul said his campaign is on a better trajectory than McCain’s.

“I think some of the candidates are on the down-slope, and we’re on the up-slope,” said Paul.

Paul’s cash on hand puts him in third place in the Republican field in that important metric, although he is well behind leader Rudy Giuliani, who has $18 million in the bank, and Mitt Romney, with $12 million.

Paul, who polls show with support in the low single digits, said his surprisingly strong fundraising is the best measure of his support.

Paul is now more popular on the Internet than porn sites (well…ALMOST).

But not every website is hailing the glories of Paul or accepting his campaign’s announcement. For instance, Capitol Hill Blue has this:

Right-wing Republican and Presidential non-contender Ron Paul, the John Bircher with a long history of racism and anti-Semitism, claims he has more money in the bank than John McCain even though his second-quarter fundraising efforts fell far short of his campaign’s lofty predictions.

Paul tells ABC news, in an interview taped for airing Sunday, that he raised $2.4 million in the second quarter of the year and has that exact amount in the bank in cash on hand, exceeding the $2 million claimed by McCain.

If true, the $2.4 million falls way short of claims of $5 million made by the campaign and its supporters in recent weeks and is way less than the $11.5 million that McCain actually raised in the second quarter.

And while $2.4 million may sound like a lot to political amateurs and bottom-rung candidates, it is a mere drop in the bucket in a presidential campaign season where Democratic candidate Barack Obama pulled in $35 million and three top Republican candidates collectively raised $42 million during the same time frame.

“It may seem like a lot to the fringe elements that flock to Ron Paul but it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in the real political world,” says one longtime GOP strategist. “The bottom line is Ron Paul doesn’t stand a chance of winning the GOP nomination.”

UPDATE: 7/7/07 Capital Hill Blue has retracted that post and some others. READ OUR UPDATE.
It’s clear that that website isn’t too fond of Paul, but according to The Hill Paul is taking the Internet by storm on SEVERAL significant fronts:

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani may lead the polls and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney might have the most money among GOP presidential candidates, but Rep. Ron Paul (Texas) clearly leads his Republican colleagues in online support, and his second-quarter fundraising figures will reflect this, the campaign said Friday.

Paul leads all Republicans in YouTube channel views with nearly 2.1 million, according to the popular video website. The next closest Republican is Romney, who has fewer than 700,000 channel views. Only Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has more among all presidential candidates, with close to 5.2 million.

ut Paul’s communications director, Jesse Benton, pointed out that the Texan’s channel has been up and running only three months, while Obama has had a YouTube channel since September of last year.

Among YouTube channel subscribers, Paul is blowing away all competition, with 19,328 as of Friday morning, more than twice as many as Obama.

The Texas lawmaker also leads the GOP field in Facebook supporters and MySpace friends.

Benton credited Paul’s message with the online success, saying it is “really connecting with voters.”

Although Paul is widely viewed as an also-ran, the online support is translating in a bump in the polls, according to the campaign. In addition, several factors also contribute to Paul’s under-performance in traditional polls, Benton said.

For example, the Texas lawmaker has a lot of young followers, many of whom do not use landlines anymore and are not captured in telephone polls.

But do these factors matter?

The key question, as America heads into 2008, is whether Internet frenzy can translate into a candidate winning elections or even major election skirmishes. There have been some sporadic Internet “base” victories (Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman’s defeat in the Connecticut Democratic primary) but so far highly-touted Internet power has not translated into a formidable tool that has been proven to be shown to turn the tide in elections in enduring victories (Senator Lieberman is still Senator Lieberman and Howard Dean is not President).

But there WAS the politically late former Senator George Allen’s “macaca” moment. You Tube now exposes candidates to more voters but the exposure they get can be as damaging as the kind of exposure Pee Wee Herman got some years ago.

The operative question is whether Internet enthusiasm and big chunks of computer user small-individual-donation money can move Paul any closer to being a powerhouse or authentic contender in the GOP primaries? Stay tuned (but be warned that past programs people stayed tuned for in waiting for Internet victories have often been cancelled…).

UPDATE: An email from a reader objects to our citing the Capitol Hill Blue quote in the post above. However we pointed out — and point out — that nowhere do we suggest that quote is an “authoritative” statement on Ron Paul and we clearly do not present it as such.

We are citing it as an example of a view not supportive of Paul — since not a single, solitary candidate mentioned as a 2008 presidential prospect is universally loved. The debate over what Mr. Paul believes or does not believe it is NOT the subject of this post. Also, if you read this quote we make it CLEAR that Capitol Hill Blue is not in Mr. Paul’s cheering section.

Note that TMV on many roundups and posts DOES offer readers a cross section of viewpoints about candidates and news makers. Our roundups on news stories contain many quotes from blogs of all viewpoints which does not mean that we endorse them. Nor do we endorse viewpoints for blog posts linked in our Around The Sphere linkfest posts.

There are websites that only present one viewpoint. TMV is not one of those.

UPDATE II: Andrew Sullivan’s reaction to the news about Ron Paul’s fundraising prowess.