The absurdity of calling Ron Paul a "second-tier" candidate

Here is the list of straw poll results for this cycle. How can anyone justify denying that Dr. Paul is a top-tier candidate with win records like this against all of the other Republicans? By this metric, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney and Dr. Paul ARE the top tier! Yet the mainstream media continues to ignore Dr. Paul. It continued with the PFC Straw Poll yesterday. There were 42 news stories about the poll beforehand and only 8 reports of the results, and those were mostly reprints of an AP story about a comment made by McCain! Any objective observer must conclude that Dr. Paul is not getting a fair shake.

Ron Paul's Head-to-Head Records (Win-Lose-Tie):
Rudy Giuliani	21-3-0
Mitt Romney	14-10-0
Fred Thompson	11-12-0
John McCain	21-2-0
Mike Huckabee	19-3-1
Sam Brownback	20-2-1
Tom Tancredo	21-1-0
Duncan Hunter	20-2-0