Ignored by the media and dismissed by the Republican Party in general, liberty-minded Congressman Ron Paul leaped into third place today in the Gallup Presidential Nomination preference poll. Paul jumped over Michele Bachmann, the Tea Party darling/lunatic, relegating her to fourth-place in the current poll. Here's how the numbers shake out today.

That's right. Ron Paul jumped into third place...and the media continues to ignore his candidacy. I can't explain it as anything other than outright bias against the man and his ideas.

MBA BY THE BAY: See how an MBA could change your life with SFGATE's interactive directory of Bay Area programs.

One thing to take away from the poll is that it only includes current, declared candidates. It does not, for example, include potential candidates Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, Chris Christie, Rudolph Giuliani, or George Pataki - all of whom have made noise about possibly jumping into the race at a later date.

One of them could possibly be very successful following a later-entrant strategy. As of today, a full 17% of respondents indicated "no preference" in their vote.

Think about that for a minute. "None of the above" essentially takes second place right now, ahead of everyone but Rick Perry - and even Republicans aren't crazy enough to nominate Rick Perry. This means one thing: there is room for either one of the marginalized candidates (like Ron Paul) to gain a lot of support, or a new candidate to emerge and become an instant challenger.

Given his three percent jump in the polls (despite the entrance of former Democrat and popular Texas governor Rick Perry into the race) shows that Ron Paul's numbers are steady and rising. Are we witnessing the promised Ron Paul revolution, or has the Texas congressman maxed out his voter numbers? I suppose the analysis depends on who you ask.

Certainly experts are beginning to see the benefits of signing on to Team Ron Paul. The Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign announced today that constitutional and international law expert Bruce Fein will join the campaign as senior advisor on legal matters.

"Bruce Fein's participation adds to our campaign's already intellectual heft, enabling us to more broadly engage the conversation about constitutionality, civil liberties and the dangers to national security of an increasingly interventionist foreign policy," said Ron Paul 2012 Campaign Chairman Jesse Benton.

According to the Ron Paul for President Website (ronpaul2012.com), Mr. Fein served as associate deputy attorney and general counsel to the Federal Communications Commission under President Ronald Reagan. He served as Research Director for Republicans on the Joint Congressional Committee on Covert Arms Sales to Iran, and on the American Bar Associations Committee on Presidential Signing Statements. He has been a Visiting Fellow for Constitutional Studies at the Heritage Foundation and an adjunct scholar at American Enterprise Institute. He has advised numerous countries on constitutional reform, including South Africa, Hungary and Russia.

Apparently the American people are starting to take notice, too. According to the most recent Rasmussen survey of likely voters, Ron Paul is a mere one point behind President Obama in a head-to-head matchup - a better result than any of the other GOP contenders received.

This is despite the media blackout around Ron Paul's campaign, and despite the media's insistence that Ron Paul can't beat Obama. This poll suggests he can.

If you're interested in the Ron Paul campaign, and tired of the general media ignoring the campaign, stay tuned to Benzinga.com and/or specifically, find my personal story page here.

If you want to volunteer for his campaign, you can find his website here.

You can reach the author by email john@benzinga.com or on twitter @johndthorpe.

(c) 2011 Benzinga.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published in its entirety or redistributed without the approval of Benzinga.