Ron Paul Roundup: Beating Obama, Benefiting from Santorum Dropout, Fundraising Must Go On, and a Big, Bold Texan Ad

*While this result is an outlier, Ron Paul is beating Obama today in a one-on-one Rasmussen poll, 44 to 43. (Romney is tying Obama, 45-45).

*With many primaries ahead and many delegates left to be won--and the nearly 200 of Santorum's supposedly won delegates not bound to vote for his no-longer-running self come Tampa--Paul could make much hay from the departure of what had been Romney's mightiest foe, Rick Santorum.

*But a campaign can't continue without money, and Paul wants to pull in a fresh $2.5 million over this coming weekend to have the strength to go on.  

*Politico charts some of the Paul campaign's highest-donation cities, including Austin, the Seattle area, and Fairfield, Iowa.

*"Ron Paul practices transparency down to the last cent." A full report from ProPublica:

His campaign's hyper-vigilance is notable, verging on fanatical.

Every bank fee, every 22 cents at a FedEx, every $1 toll on theFlorida turnpike, every $5.09 pit stop at any Starbucks anywhere, every doughnut from Dunkin' Donuts and Dough Nutz -- it's all right there, itemized in the Paul campaign's copious expenditure reports. In 160 instances so far, the campaign has reported purchases costing a single dollar or less.

Last week, ProPublica examined the spending of the five presidential candidates and the major super PACs, identifying their 200 top payees.  But as part of digging into the more than$306 million spent through February, it was impossible to avoid the other end of the spectrum: The small bucks, if you will.

The Paul campaign tracks every cent like no other, which Paul campaign officials say is deliberate.

*A plea to Paul people: don't be stupid and go third party, just take over the Republican Party .

*His latest Texas-aimed campaign ad, describing him as a "big, bold Texan" up against "a big-spending, debt-ceiling-raising fiscal liberal, a moon-colony guy, a moderate from Massachusetts," with Paul the only "Texan with a real plan to balance the budget":

My forthcoming book, Ron Paul's Revolution: The Man and the Movement He Inspired. My April Reason cover story on the Paul campaign.