Mitt Romney Campaign Advertising On Ron Paul 2012 Website

The Mitt Romney 2012 presidential campaign is advertising on the popular Ron Paul website DailyPaul.com, indicating that the disparity between the candidates' financial positions is widening.

Romney for President, Inc. is running an advertisement in the secondary banner position on the Daily Paul forums that advertises the Patriots' Day: A Day on the Road with Mitt contest, the two winners of which will be treated to a Red Sox baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston with Romney.

The ad is on a rotating circulation, only popping up periodically as the ads reload while clicking on new links within the site, but it is a sign that Paul's candidacy is facing some dark days.

Daily Paul, which also rotates through ads for poll sites and for Ron Paul himself, is one of the most popular online places for Ron Paul supporters to gather and exchange views, articles and news about the Texas congressman.

Dr. Paul has some of the most tenacious and hardcore fans of any politician in the nation, but he has been unable to get a foothold in repeated GOP presidential primary races.

And now many observers are already declaring his campaign dead in the water, much to the chagrin of Ron Paul and his legion of supporters.

Though there are a slew of states that have yet to go to the voting booth, New York Times reporter Frank Bruni hit Paul hard in a Monday piece that was aimed more directly at sounding the death knell on Newt Gingrich's floundering campaign but also took on the Paul camp. He wrote that no one can remember Ron Paul's 2012 candidacy, and that he is less peacock than emaciated ostrich -- never airborne, head in the sand.

And a new CNN/ORC International poll released Tuesday reveals that 61 percent of the Republicans interviewed for the survey want Paul to drop out of the race.

That news comes on the heels of a Monday spat with Piers Morgan, in which the CNN pundit asked Paul why he wouldn't leave the race:

If I was prescribing some medicine for you right now, congressman, Morgan asked, I'd say the situation is looking pretty terminal for you. ... Why don't you just do the decent thing and just pull out?

Paul, a physician, retorted: Why don't you do the decent thing and not pester me with silly questions?