2) He is also the second choice for a lot of voters

Paul is the first or second choice of 22 percent of voters in Iowa and 26 percent of voters in New Hampshire. If you add up all the first and second choices in each state, Paul comes out slightly ahead of the better-known Bush (48-47) and well ahead of everybody else.

In other words, Paul is on the radar screens of more voters in the two earliest presidential nominating contests than anybody else. And that helps.