Ron Paul Stumps in Nashville

People were turned away at the door of downtown Nashville’s War Memorial Auditorium on Saturday, where over 15-hundred gathered to hear GOP Presidential candidate Ron Paul. The Texas Congressman is a libertarian, but is running as in the Republican primary.

Paul is the only GOP candidate opposed to the war in Iraq, and the subject got the loudest cheers from the audience when Paul brought it up.

“We get bogged down as we get in, into these wars unconstitutionally. We should never go to war without a declaration of war and go in and fight ‘em and win ‘em and get them over with.”

Supporter Lauren Walker drove from Chattanooga to hear Paul’s speech.

“He’s running for what the Republican Party used to be, what they should be, what they’ve gotten away from.”

Paul saw a huge jump in support during the third quarter, raising 5-million dollars. While 3rd Quarter fundraising leader is former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani with about 11-million, Paul is the only republican candidate who saw his money collected increase over the previous quarter.

Many Tennessee republicans have thrown their support behind their home-grown candidate Fred Thompson, but that didn’t seem to faze Paul.

“The fact that he’s from here doesn’t mean that there’s not a lot of people who don’t believe in the constitution and what I’m talking about and very limited government.”

Paul says that the state has one of his most active groups of online supporters.

Paul also raised about 40-thousand dollars at a luncheon at the Sheraton downtown before the rally this weekend.