Ron Paul 2008 — Hope for America

ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA—Rising Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul emerged as the clear winner of Wednesday evening’s CNN/YouTube Republican presidential debate. 47 percent of CNN voters believed that the Texas congressman Ron Paul won the debate, according to CNN’s post-debate online poll and debate scorecard.

Mike Huckabee came in second place with 23 percent of the vote.

In addition to winning the debate, Congressman Paul placed first in multiple scorecard categories. 46 percent of CNN voters indicated they believed Congressman Paul knew “the most about the issues,” and 44 percent said they felt he had “the best response to user-generated content.” Additionally, 43 percent of voters declared that Congressman Paul’s campaign “got the biggest boost from the debate.”

“The Republican presidential candidates came out in full force Wednesday night, but only Congressman Ron Paul stood out as the clear winner,” said Paul campaign spokesman Jesse Benton. “The crowd’s enthusiasm for his responses on everything from the war and traditional non-interventionist foreign policy to the economy and his promise to eliminate the IRS shows that Americans overwhelmingly support Dr. Paul’s message of freedom, peace, and prosperity.”

The CNN/YouTube Republican debate featured user-generate video questions to which the candidates responded on-stage.

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