Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul says his campaign is going “all out” for the Iowa Republican Party’s Straw Poll in mid-August.

Paul ran for the GOP’s nomination in 2008, finishing with nine percent support in the last Straw Poll back in August of 2007.

“There was a time when I thought when that campaign was over I would go back to my usual obscurity and I would keep trying to plug away, but the momentum kept building and the prodding occurred, ‘Do it again! Do it again!'” Paul says. “I think that everybody’s so much more optimistic this time.”

Paul has had a busier campaign schedule in Iowa this time around.  He’s visited the state weekly since mid-May. Paul is freer to travel now, as he’s flying around on his own private campaign plane rather than buying tickets for seats on domestic flights.

“I was still pinching pennies, but they said, ‘Look, if you get in and out ot there,'” Paul says. “Now, I am less pushed for time and I’ve been here more than I have in the whole other campaign — and I still make my votes.” 

Paul is serving in his 12th term in the U.S. House.

Paul says his repeated warnings about the nation’s financial woes are drawing the attention of more and more potential voters.  

“What I find amazing is that there are one million less full-time jobs in this country than there were 10 years ago and there are 30 million more people,” Paul says. “And then they wonder why people don’t feel good about the economy.”

Paul is predicting a major economic melt-down in the United States before the 2012 election.  Paul made his comments during an interview with Radio Iowa.  

President Obama is due in the Quad Cities Tuesday afternoon to talk about the importance of manufacturing to the nation’s economy.  He’ll visit the Alcoa plant and make remarks in Bettendorf.  Sarah Palin, the Republican Party’s 2008 vice presidential nominee, is due to visit Pella later Tuesday for the premiere of a documentary that focuses on her time as Alaska’s governor.