Seven states have held nominating contests thus far in the fight for the GOP presidential nod, and Ron Paul has won a grand total of zero of them.



Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) (Charlie Neibergall/AP)

Still, the Texas congressman’s camp contends that it’s well-positioned heading into the nearly month-long stretch before Super Tuesday.

Paul’s national campaign manager, John Tate, writes in a memo Wednesday afternoon that Team Paul is “thrilled” with Tuesday’s results.

“Not one single delegate was awarded yesterday, instead the caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado were the very first step in the delegate selection process,” Tate writes. “And there are still over 40 states left to go. ... We are confident in gaining a much larger share of delegates than even our impressive showing yesterday indicates.”

Tate argues that there are three “significant takeaways” from Tuesday’s trio of contests, namely that 1) Missouri’s primary was a “beauty contest” that does not play a role in the delegate-selection process; 2) Paul “will have good numbers among the actual delegates awarded” in Colorado and Nevada; and 3) Paul will “also have a strong majority of the state convention delegates” in Minnesota, where he placed second Tuesday.

Paul may indeed come out better than expected in the delegate count, given his team’s superior organization and the often-complex rules that govern the awarding of delegates within each state.

But with the latest count showing Mitt Romney taking 107 delegates, Rick Santorum taking 69, Newt Gingrich winning 32 and Paul taking nine, it seems he’ll have quite a bit of ground to make up if he aims to be competitive.

To read the full Paul camp memo, click here.