Still winless, Ron Paul campaign presses on

(Charlie Litchfield/Idaho Press-Tribune/AP Photo)

FARGO, N.D. - Presidential hopeful Ron Paul's hopes for his first win of the presidential season were dashed again tonight when North Dakota handed the libertarian leaning Texas congressman another loss.

The campaign was very optimistic about a win here, even abandoning the Super Tuesday caucus state of Idaho to campaign here Tuesday night.

He told a group of several hundred supporters earlier tonight at a caucus site in Fargo that he was going to win.

"This country is ready and raring," Paul said to thunderous applause.

Paul is sticking with his strategy of focusing on small caucus states and placed big bets on three Super Tuesday states: Alaska, Idaho, and North Dakota.

Those three states have a total of 87 delegates at stake. Paul told CBS News' Bob Schieffer on Sunday that there is a "good chance we come out with a majority of delegates."

The Texas congressman visited Alaska over the weekend.

Paul is the only candidate who made a trip up there, while others sent delegates or held teleconferences.

According to the Washington Post, it's a toss up there. Sarah Palin has ambiguously endorsed Newt Gingrich there, but it remains to be seen how far it helps him.

Paul then went to Idaho, which offers 32 delegates. And although Romney, Santorum and Gingrich have campaigned in the state, only Ron Paul actually has a campaign office there.

Paul won second place in the 2008 Idaho GOP primary and he won a Jan. 6 straw poll of 399 Republicans, the Idaho Statesman reported.

Today was Paul's third visit to North Dakota in the primary season, following a February tour of the state and an event in Fargo last November.

Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have also visited North Dakota, while former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has not.

Four years ago on Super Tuesday 2008, Romney easily won North Dakota's GOP caucuses, getting 36 percent of the vote in a five-candidate field. Although Paul was third, with 21 percent, he fared better in North Dakota than he did in almost all of the 20 other states that held Republican primaries or caucuses.

Matt Becker, a spokesman for the North Dakota GOP reportedly said that the demographics of North Dakota play to Paul's strengths and Paul's North Dakota operation has been the most extensive of any of the four GOP candidates.

Paul's state headquarters, tucked into a small Bismarck office across the street from the city's federal courthouse, has been running for almost four months.

More than $50,000 of the $152,000 in North Dakota contributions reported so far have gone to Paul's campaign, according to Federal Election Commission disclosure reports.

Although Paul admitted that his chances "are slim" of winning the GOP nomination, he shows no sign of slowing down.

In a statement released to this column Monday, Paul explains: "While other candidates are focused solely on the beauty contests to get the headlines, we're undertaking a comprehensive strategy that I am confident can lead to the nomination."

Paul is already planning campaign events in Kansas on Friday and Missouri on Saturday.

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Kingfisher initiates #KFBeerUp, a Twitter-led digital activation campaign

United Breweries Ltd, the manufacturers of Kingfisher brand of beer had organised a Twitter led on-ground initiative called The Mumbai #KFBeerUp. According to the company, the event had more than 125 Kingfisher fans marking their presence and living the Good Times at Bonobo (Bandra).

Samar Singh Sheikhawat, Senior Vice President Marketing, United Breweries Ltd said, “Kingfisher believes that Twitter can be used beyond the virtual space and #KFBeerUp has added a new meaning to ‘experiential marketing’. The objective is to create a channel in the online world where consumers can get together on the GOOD TIMES platform.”

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Santorum touts energy industry, free market at campaign stop in Detroit

Santorum (Paul Sancya/AP)

DETROIT, Mich-- The manufacturing and energy industries--if freed from the shackles of the Obama administration--hold the keys to economic recovery, Rick Santorum told guests gathered here today at the Detroit Economic Club.

Brandishing a hunk of coal (which he said he received during a campaign stop yesterday in North Dakota), Santorum touted the energy industry as a path forward for the U.S. economy in addition to manufacturing-- an issue of great importance to this area, which was hard hit by the collapse of the auto industry.

"The average job in western North Dakota: $90,000 dollars a year," the former Pennsylvania senator said. "Goes a long way in Tioga, North Dakota. There's the opportunity for you, folks. That's what energy and manufacturing can do."

Santorum attacked President Obama for rejecting the Keystone XL Pipeline and failing to support other U.S. energy sources, and for allowing union ties and bailouts to stifle the country's manufacturing industry.

"This is a president who is suffocating this economy. This is a president who doesn't care about you and the cost of living you have to deal with," Santorum said.

Santorum, who was not in office in 2008 when Congress voted for the TARP auto bailouts, took a hard stance against bailouts during the question-and-answer session following his speech. Contrasting himself with opponent Mitt Romney, Santorum said that while Romney, a former Massachusetts governor who earned significant wealth from a private equity firm, supported the Wall Street bailout but rejected the auto bailout, Santorum has been consistent in his opposition.

"If we had just stayed out of it completely and let the market work, I believe the market would have worked," Santorum said. "Would the auto industry look different than it does today? Yes, it would be. Would it still be alive and well? I think it would be alive and equally as well if not better."

In explaining his opposition to the auto bailout, Santorum, grandson of a coal miner, cited his experiences in Pennsylvania dealing with a struggling steel industry, which he concedes today is smaller and experiences inconsistent profits, but is alive and competitive.

Santorum used Thursday's appearance ahead of Michigan's Feb. 28th primary to contrast himself with Romney, who was born in Michigan where his father served as governor, and to argue against some of the attacks he's recently faced.

"I know you folks here in Michigan have been hearing some things on the television from one of my opponents that I am a big spender," Santorum said, referencing a recent ad from Romney's super PAC. But Santorum said any objective look at his records says otherwise, noting a Weekly Standard article published Wednesday that reported the National Taxpayers' Union gave Santorum high-- sometimes even the highest-- marks on spending during his tenure in the Senate.

Santorum also alluded to a statement that continues to haunt Romney-- Romney's comments about being unconcerned about the "very poor," because there are safety nets in place for many of these individuals. "I'm a candidate who cares about 100 percent," Santorum said.

Santorum criticized President Obama for creating class warfare, creating a system where Americans are reliant on government support, and where union bosses rule the public sector. Santorum, who mentioned his grandfather was his union's treasurer, said he does see a place for private sector unions. It's public sector unions that he's "not quite as warm and fuzzy about," Santorum said.

In between arguing that the president's first priority is the government, and Romney's is Wall Street, Santorum spent much of his speech arguing that he's for all Americans. I want to create "an atmosphere for everyone to rise in America," Santorum told the audience.

Recent polls show Santorum cutting into and even overtaking Romney's lead in Michigan as the state's "native son." Santorum is scheduled to hold two more public events in Michigan-- one Thursday night and another Friday morning-- before heading to Ohio, one of the states where voters head to the polls on Super Tuesday Mar. 6.

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