Ron Paul mobbed by reporters at the ABC News Facebook debate

January 05, 2008 11:12 PM ABC's Z. Byron Wolf reports: Ron Paul was the only Republican debate participant to personally grace the spin room at the ABC News / Facebook / WMUR debate (at least when this reporter was present). As such, he was mobbed by reporters and TV cameras, still photographers and radio microphones. He seemed to relish the attention, and said, if nothing else, he has brought the field incrementally toward his way of thinking in some important respects. "If you listen carefully, you hear some of the language out there of some of the things I have been talking about," Paul said. A reporter asked him about the sniggers that seemed to bubble up around him from other candidates during the debate, when he talked about the gold standard. "Well, I have a little more educating to do on that," Paul said. "They talk now about inflation. That was a great step, but they have to understand that it is the falling dollar that is the inflation. So, they've taken one bold step, and I think they're understanding that better," he argued. "But the American people understand it, the crowds I talk to understand it, but you have to go back to what I said about [how] the price of oil is steady in the last ten years, in terms of gold, and if gold were money, the price would not have gone up." Despite any baby steps Paul sees in campaign rhetoric, there remain enormous differences between his pure, libertarian-style Republicanism, and every other candidate. "It's not me being disconnected from our colleagues as much as it is them being disconnected from our platform," he said, starting to spin (metaphorically). One thing he does not have to spin is how long he can stay In the race. "I am in it as long as my supporters want me to be in it, and they finance the campaign, and they do that all spontaneously," he said, not overtly mentioning the $20 million his supporters donated in the final quarter of 2007, but making it clear he has political capital in a very literal sense. "Their enthusiasm is growing every day, so now