Ron Paul Parking Lot — Supporters Hell Bent For Presidential Candidate

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas About 20 or so of them were standing in Grand Prairie at the height of the Texas summer.

If it was any hotter outside last Tuesday, you might have mistakenly thought in a daze that someone had dosed their body in gasoline, as if the act would end the Iraq war faster.

“Every time someone honks, I forget the heat,” said Bryan James, 40, of Carrolton, whose cardboard sign read “Liberty.”

Although he brought extra drinking water (sans kool-aid) to share, James was not the official leader of this particular band of torchbearers.

No, they claim another Texan with two first names as their white knight.

“We’re the only president candidate [support] group out here. That says something about the people who support Ron Paul,” said Dan Turney, 27, of Arlington. “The message must be good because we’re out here in 108-degree heat.”

Even before this show of support, Dr. Paul’s campaign for the Oval Office had already become a cult classic.

The 71-year-old obstetrician was the Libertarian Party’s presidential nominee in 1988, a candidate fit for ideological purists.

Up until recently, it seemed as though Paul’s following was limited to an Internet phenomenon, a few loyalists using computer tricks to inflate the candidate’s online poll numbers after the last three GOP debates.

“Well, I guess that was the theory just a couple of hackers sitting in their underwear in their basement, but Ron Paul supporters are real people,” said Turney, chuckling.

There are real people behind those YouTube and GoogleVideo profiles posting the interviews of the 10th-term congressman in less than a blink of an eye of their initial release.

But will it translate into delegate votes in the 2008 Republican National Convention to be held in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Sept. 1-4, a whole year from now?

Nevertheless, this fanaticism for Paul manifested itself on the corner of Lone Star Parkway and North Belt Line Road, the roadway entrance to the NOKIA Theater.

“He’s the only man who can save our government right now. I think he can bring the most change the fastest,” said Sarah Gail Adams, 24, of Fort Worth. “I’ve never seen a man to vote for. Not in my lifetime.”

Phyllis Buckman, 58, a housewife from Fort Worth, echoed those statements, standing on the road’s right-of-way with a “Paul 4 Pres” placard for three hours that afternoon:

“This is the first candidate I have ever felt answered all the needs for a presidency. He’s the best thing that happened in the political scene I can think of,” she said.

Whether Paul’s supporters fully realize this yet, there was a certain irony at play outside the fourth of five “Sean Hannity’s Freedom Concerts,” now in its fifth year.

“Go away!” yelled a middle-aged woman from the passenger’s side of a land cruiser.

The irony of her scream was apparently lost on even her.

She was going to see (among others) former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Romney so happens to practice the same faith