John Stewart ripped the media a new one on Monday night's episode of "The Daily Shows' after recounting how the mainstream media effectively ignored the presidential candidacy of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) even though he came in second in last weekend's Ames Straw Pole in Iowa.

Stewart showed a quick series of various pundits who immediately anointed Rep. Michelle Bachmann, Mitt Romney and Texas Governor Rick Perry as the Republican Party's "top tier" candidates following the straw poll while sidestepping the fact that Paul received 4,671 votes, only slightly below Bachmann's 4823. Governor Tim Pawlenty -- who dropped out of the race after only earning 2,293 votes -- came in third.

In contrast, Perry, a write-in candidate, came in at sixth place with 718 votes while Romney -- who has been considered a top contender among the GOP after announcing his candidacy in June -- came in seventh with a paltry 567 votes.

"How did libertarian Ron Paul become the 13th floor in a hotel?" Stewart exclaimed on air after playing a few highlight reels of news anchors going out of their way to keep Paul out of the straw poll discussion.

Stewart went on to show how even though Paul was warmly received during the most recent Republican presidential debate, and was even met with a round of applause after espousing on his views on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that differed from his fellow candidates, pundits still labled the 12-term congressman as "crazy" and "out of touch."

Ironically, although Paul is considered an outcast among the Republican establishment, he has been called the "intellectual Godfather" of the popular Tea Party movement due to his libertarian ideas that favor limited government and fiscal responsibility. However, Paul is also a vocal opponent of the U.S. war effort overseas and believes states should have the right to individually legalize prostitution, gay marriage and marijuana, stances that sharply divide him from the Republican base.

On Tuesday, Paul's campaign manager Jesse Benton told The Washington Post that the congressman has no intention of running as a third-party candidate.

This is Paul's third bid for the nation's top job. He previously ran as the Libertarian Party nominee in 1988 and then sought the Republican nomination in 2008.

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