The WSJ’s Washington Wire notes:

For the three months ended Sept. 30, Paul out-raised old Washington hands including Democrats Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, who took in $1.5 million, and Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, who raised just under $2 million.

For the year, Paul has collected around $6 million. He remains stuck in national polls at around 5% or less — about the same level of support as another Republican dark horse, Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor.

Which leads Glenn Reynolds to ask

Can you still call him a minor candidate?

To which I would answer: yes, you can. If, ultimately, a candidate has no realistic shot at the nomination, will do nothing to shape who the nominee will be and will eventually end up with single digit vote totals, I am not sure how that candidate is anything other than minor.

And yes, by that definition Dodd and Biden are minor candidates as well. Indeed, save for the fact that they are US Senators who have a long track record of being on TV, what makes them even noteworthy in the Democratic race? Huckabee, too, is currently a lower tier, if not minor, candidate as well. The only reason I don’t simply categorize him as unconditionally minor is that given the GOP field one could see him bubbling up to some double digit finishes and maybe even being a darkhorse veep candidate. Paul isn’t. For that matter, I can’t see either Dodd or Biden as being veep-able either. Dodd is too dour and who in their right mind would want Joe Biden speaking his mind on the campaign trail as their running mate?

And in regards to Paul in particular, one cannot ignore the fact that substantial numbers of persons in his own party consider him something of an outsider, if not a crank. That contributes, I would argue, to one’s status as a minor player in the game.