WASHINGTON -- Oftentimes in narratives, the victories of great heroes arise from their deaths. Aeneas. Jesus. John Henry. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Have the rumors of Ron Paul’s demise also been exaggerated?

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“Though victory in the conventional political sense is not available in the presidential race, many victories have been achieved due to your hard work and enthusiasm,” Ron Paul calmly says in a March 6 YouTube “Message to Supporters.”

As always, Ron Paul speaks with words carefully measured. Unusually, he reads from a teleprompter or off-screen cue cards, rather than from paper notes. During this farewell address – as it is dubbed by the mainstream media – he wears a burgundy tie against a light-blue shirt. His left hand covers his right, which does not move from the brown wood desktop that matches the small chest-of-drawers drawers behind and to his left, and the bookcase behind and to his right.

A gold wristwatch peers out from beneath his left shirt cuff. A gold lamp with black shade rests on the brown drawers. The bookcase is modestly stocked with two matching sets of volumes. A viny plant, stretching greenly toward his left shoulder, complements the persimmon, or rust-colored, wall.

The recording of the message could have taken place in Ron Paul’s office in Washington, D.C., his home in Lake Jackson, a cave in Waziristan – anywhere, really. The production is not important.

Of real consequence is the consumption of Ron Paul’s words throughout the country by those who listen, and act upon what they hear.

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“Elections are short-term efforts. Revolutions are long-term projects…We’re still in the early stages of brings about the changes that this Revolution is all about…Counting on the remnant of true believers in a society that is slipping into chaos is not possible. A cadre of hardcore believers is the key to success. The total numbers and percentages are less important.”

Phoenix is home to sand, sprinkler systems and state Sen. Karen Johnson. Its Ron Paul Meetup Group has 672 members, making it the ninth-largest in the country.

Phoenix Meetup members received an e-mail from Johnson on March 3, alerting them that the state legislature would meet the next day to discuss her bill titled “Opposing a North American Union,” a plank of Ron Paul’s platform.

Johnson asked them to e-mail their state House representatives to request that they support the bill. On March 11, the bill failed by a vote of 25 to 34.

A barrage of phone calls ensued.

On March 12, a representative, who had originally voted no, asked for a reconsideration of the bill.

“Wow! You guys are fabulous! The reports we've gotten from the House of Representatives are that the phones have been going K-U-H-R-A-Z-Y-!!!” Johnson wrote to the Meetup group on March 13, this time asking the members to please stop calling the representatives, who had already relented.

On March 18, the bill passed 37 to 22, and is now pending in the Senate.

On March 20, the Phoenix Meetup received an e-mail from the pro-gun organization Arizona Citizens Defense League, asking them to urge their state Senators to pass a bill that would allow adults to carry concealed weapons on school grounds.

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“Also supporting the right candidates and getting credible individuals to become candidates for office at all levels of government is crucial.”

On Wednesday, March 5, Marcus Rivchin receives a phone call. He talks for awhile, hangs up and begins to type:

“Hey guys, This one has been handed to us on a platter of sorts. The San Diego GOP called me and asked me if we can come up with a Republican (a Ron Paul Republican) to run against Bob Filner…”

Approximately 1,016 San Diego Meetup members (the fourth-largest Ron Paul group in the country) learn in an instant that one of them has a chance to run for U.S. Congress with the blessing of local Republicans. A long-shot candidacy, for sure, against an entrenched Democratic incumbent in a gerrymandered district, but with better odds than Ron Paul had to win the presidency.

First, they need to recruit a candidate from within their ranks. Then, they must obtain 40 signatures supporting the candidate in order to appear on the primary ballot. And they have two days to do it.

Almost immediately, two members volunteer for duty. They hold a tête-à-tête, and one candidate emerges. His name is Dan Felzer. He is a mortgage broker turned to politics by Ron Paul. He started a blog in January, and posts there once per month.

His first post is the most interesting. He writes about the beginnings of the European banks, starting in 1773 with German goldsmith Mayer Amschel Bauer (later named Rothschild).

Felzer writes that Rothschild (nee Bauer) colluded with 12 other wealthy individuals to begin what he called the “New Revolutionary Movement.”

“His grand plan was to get them to agree to pool their resources so they could ultimately finance and control the wealth, natural resources and manpower of the entire world,” he says.

According to Felzer, Rothschild’s initial 14-point plan has developed into today’s central banking system. The banks intend to control the world’s assets, including media outlets, and will intentionally trigger an economic holocaust that will sweep across the globe.

“Panic and financial depressions would ultimately result in World Government, a new order of one world government,” Felzer writes.

Felzer faces an opponent in the GOP primary for California Congressional District 51, named David Lee Joy, “a business owner and executive,” as he is identified in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Because he faces a Republican opponent, the San Diego GOP has not endorsed Felzer. Neither has Ron Paul.

Nor has Ron Paul endorsed San Diego Meetup group organizer Mike Benoit, who (if you refer to the Union-Tribune article) is one of “a crowded field of candidates” vying for the CD-52 seat vacated by former presidential candidate Duncan Hunter, a Republican. Benoit is running as a Libertarian. He vowed in a March 20 e-mail to walk door-to-door in the district, “six to seven days a week until the election in November.” He asked fellow Meetup members for their help campaigning Saturday, March 22, followed, perhaps, by brunch.

Nor has he endorsed Pam Farley, a member of the Austin Meetup (size: 1,291; rank: 2). Pam is running for the board of the Anderson Mill Municipal Utility District, which lies just northwest of the Meetup group’s North Austin office. Pam has allied herself with a fellow Ron Paul supporter and an independent, Steve Robert Nelson and Elizabeth Elleson. (At this time, it is unclear which is which.) Together, the three hope to unseat three MUD incumbents and gain a majority of the five-person board.

For now, Ron Paul is officially backing only two candidates: Murray Sabrin of New Jersey for the U.S. Senate and Jim Forsythe of New Hampshire for the House of Representatives.

However, many more are running beneath an unsanctioned banner of Ron Paul. Major candidates can be found here, here and here. And innumerable individuals inspired by Ron Paul’s run are filling up the slots at the bottom of ballots across the country.

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“The presidential campaign will soon wind down. But we do still encourage all efforts to gain the maximum number of votes and delegates in all the remaining primaries and to continue the caucus process that is ongoing in the other states by loyal volunteers.”

On Saturday, March 15, Missourians convened in caucuses throughout the state. Ron Paul Republicans were in attendance.

Jackson County includes Kansas City -- a place former Nebraska Sen. Kenneth Wherry, in 1943, said Shanghai could be just like someday, with American assistance.

Bunk Farrington is chair of the Jackson County GOP. He was not prepared for the appearance of 135 rowdy Ron Paul Republicans (including a couple of leprechauns, apparently adhering to the Roman Catholics' observation of St. Patrick's Day).

The Revolutionaries refused to compromise with the regular Republicans, who responded by walking out on the caucus. "Farrington set his gavel down, left the podium and the auditorium along with the diminishing group of seventy Republicans regulars," an attendee writes. The Ron Paul Republicans, well-versed in Robert's Rules of Orders, took over the meeting and chose delegates and resolutions to their liking.

According to Monday newspaper reports, the Revolutionaries "commandeered gatherings in the city of St. Louis, St. Louis County, Kansas City and Springfield," in addition to "at least a half dozen rural counties." (A 17-year-old delegate testifies to similar circumstances in Minnesota.)

The Ron Paul-controlled caucuses passed resolutions for withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, opposing the Patriot Act and ending wiretaps without warrants. One resolution calls for repealing the Missouri GOP's "winner-take-all" primary system, which would release presidential delegates from the obligation to vote for John McCain.

Estimates are that one-third of Missouri's state delegates now belong to Ron Paul. They will meet later this spring at congressional district and state conventions to determine the state party platform.

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“I will continue to make every effort to visit any state where the enthusiasm for liberty exists. The campaign for freedom will continue in this new phase.”

Ron Paul tells Newsweek's website that the trouncing of his opponent in Congressional District 14 has revitalized him, much like brake use charges a hybrid's battery.

He is touring Pennsylvania in anticipation of its April 22 primary. He says he can't bear to "just quit" when he still has so much support in the state and elsewhere. Ron Paul won't endorse John McCain; indeed, he prefers Ralph Nader over his fellow Republican. (Ron Paul has expressed his admiration for Nader's sense of principle in the past.)

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“Let me give you an update on the proposed rally in D.C. I still like the idea of a national rally to demonstrate our strength and enthusiasm…The presidential campaign will not be the organizer of any one event. If others are able to put it together in a dignified manner (and there are many quite capable of doing this), I will encourage it, and if practical, attend. I don’t mind playing a key role in the Revolution, but it has to be more than a Ron Paul Revolution. I have always claimed this whole effort was much bigger than one individual. It looks to me like June 21 would be a good date for an event in D.C.

The town of Asheville is cradled in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains. It is the birthplace and burial ground of novelist Thomas Wolfe, and the home of "Granny Warrior" Linda Hunnicutt.

Hunnicutt travels the country in support of Ron Paul in an RV painted like the American flag. Revolutionaries fund her journeys through donations to a PayPal account on the Granny Warriors website.

Hunnicutt was one of approximately 250,000 viewers of Ron Paul's YouTube message. She has accepted the responsibility for organizing the national "Freedom Rally" in Washington, deeming April 15th, Tax Day, a more appropriate date for the event than Ron Paul's suggested June 21, the summer solstice.

Ron Paul and wife Carol have agreed to speak at the rally, which will take place on the west lawn of the nation's Capitol. Also appearing will be American Indian activist Russell Means, subject for Andy Warhol, a star of Last of the Mohicans and former opponent to Ron Paul for the 1988 Libertarian Party presidential nomination.

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“We live in dangerous and exciting times, and with world events changing rapidly, our efforts are all that much more important…As bad as it may seem and overwhelming the burden appears, today’s events should be seen as a tremendous opportunity to change the government for the good. Let us all stick together in this great cause of liberty and show the love that we all share for liberty and the Constitution. Thank you for joining in.”

**Note: posted Sunday night, light copy-edit and change of title on Monday at 11:15 a.m.**