The online organizational efforts of Texas Congressman and presidential hopeful Ron Paul appears to have paid off this week-end at the Ames, Iowa straw poll.

Media reports, the campaign itself, supporters and self-styled pundits all noted both the turnout at the festivities on Saturday as well as his relatively strong showing against his rivals.

A Wall Street Journal postmortem analysis of the poll results called Paul's fifth placement "impressive," given his "narrowly-defined" candidacy.

Other reporters on the trail noted throughout the week-end that the fairground was covered in Ron Paul signs. And one excerpted post on a Paul-supporter libertarian-leaning Web site notes:

"Lastly, Ron Paul, though fifth, showed that he was able to translate his Internet support into votes on the ground in a difficult environment with little name recognition. That he received approximately 500 more votes than his campaign gave away tickets while only spending a week or two in the state indicates he may be the only Republican candidate that can truthfully claim grassroots support (the Paul campaign only opened their official Iowa headquarters this past Friday.)"

Paul had said that he had hoped to place fourth in the poll – nevertheless, his campaign sounded an optimistic note.

"On behalf of Dr. Ron Paul and his wife Carol, and the Ron Paul 2008 campaign staff, I thank our supporters and volunteers in Iowa and throughout the country for the strong showing in the Iowa straw poll. We are pleased and encouraged by the results," wrote his campaign chairman Kent Snyder in a note sent out to supporters, and on the campaign Web site.

Paul placed fifth with 1,305, or 9.1 percent of the votes, behind Congressman Tom Tancredo (13.7 percent, ) Kansas Senator Sam Brownback (15.3 percent) and Mike Huckabee (18.1 percent) and Mitt Romney with 31 percent.)

He beat out former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson (who spent half a million on the Ames campaign,) unofficial Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson, and front runners New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Arizona Senator John McCain (none of whom participated in the Saturday speech-making and festivities.)

Like Huckabee, Paul's Ames, Iowa campaign did not provide transportation for supporters. Volunteers organized their own transportation through Meet-Up, manned phone banks and placed advertisements in newspapers on behalf of their candidate. Paul campaigned throughout the week in the state, and he also placed television and radio advertisements.

Photo: via Travis Church, aka "Kaptain Krispy Kreme" on Flickr.