Comment: I didn't know who Obama or Romney were

Until they ran for prez. Ron Paul on the other hand had already built up pretty sizeable national support over the years based on his voting record. I remember him saying that a great majority of his campaign donations for congress came from outside TX (I myself sent donations several times prior to the 2008 campaign). Ron Paul definitely was the driving force that motivated people to search him out on the net through his debate performances and through word of mouth from already existing supporters and on comments sections under articles related to the debates and other election related news articles. There were already multiple existing websites related to and friendly to RP including a few of his own that came up under a google search. Not saying RP.com didn't help at all, I just think you're giving them more credit than is due.