The Atlantic has the scoop on Paul’s ads – old and new… but Ron Paul just picked up a huge chunk of TV time in Iowa and New Hampshire.

And the ad is damn good:

ABC News has the story, too.

According to a CNN report, Texas Congressman Ron Paul is pulling out his secret weapon to campaign in Iowa: Kentucky Senator Rand Paul.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky will head to the first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa later this month to campaign for his father’s bid for the White House.

The younger Paul’s Iowa swing will come just before the Ames, Iowa, straw poll. GOP Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who’s making his third run for the presidency, is putting a lot of money and effort into doing well in the crucial straw poll.

This is the first time Rand Paul will campaign for his father since Ron Paul formally announced his run for president May 13. But the senator did stump for his father during swings through Iowa and New Hampshire, the first in the nation primary state, earlier this year before the elder Paul announced his candidacy.

Ron Paul headed to Kentucky twice last year to campaign for his son’s bid to win the open Senate seat.

The Paul presidential campaign told CNN the two men will not appear together during Rand Paul’s events in Iowa. The elder Paul is holding campaign events in Marshalltown and Cedar Falls, Iowa Wednesday.

“Rand Paul’s message strikes a strong chord with the Tea Party here in Iowa,” said Drew Ivers, Ron Paul’s Iowa chairman, in a statement. “His message of stopping out of control federal spending is exactly what the Republican party needs at this time.”

Earlier this year, Rand Paul considered a White House run of his own if his father passed on making a bid.

While the Elder Paul has been spreading a libertarian message in Congress for years, the Younger Paul is much more equipped to communicate that message.

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The Des Moines Register revealed some interesting numbers this morning:

Two-time candidate Mitt Romney and tea party upstart Michele Bachmann are neck and neck leading the pack, and retired pizza chief Herman Cain is in third place in a new Des Moines Register Iowa Poll of likely participants in the state’s Republican presidential caucuses.

The results are bad news for the earnest Tim Pawlenty, a former Minnesota governor who is in single digits despite a full-throttle campaign.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and business executive, claims 23 percent, and Bachmann, a Minnesota congresswoman and evangelical conservative, garners 22 percent. Neither has done heavy lifting in Iowa.

The rest of the Republican field is at least 12 points behind them.

We’re only a couple months away from the Ames Straw poll, where Texas Congressman Ron Paul has shelled out a pretty penny for the prime location. This is the same spot Romney held in 2007.

While there’s still time for movement between now and the Iowa Caucuses next year, the same cannot be said between now and the Ames Straw Poll in August.

But there are a number of very interesting factors that make comparing this 2011 to 2007 difficult:

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