“We are certainly disappointed, and we think that people are missing a very big story here,” said Jesse Benton, Paul’s campaign manager. “You look at ’07, and Mike Huckabee was able to turn what was a very weak second place — Mitt Romney had 4,516 votes and Huckabee had 2,587 — into a huge national story.”…

Benton said “Meet the Press” was one of several Sunday shows that Paul had a “loose arrangement” with to go on if Paul did well in the straw poll, but when he did, “their answer was, sorry our show is set.”

“It was an effort to shut Ron out, no question,” he said.