KANSAS CITY, MO. (AP) -- Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul says the U.S. is "slipping into a fascist system" dominated by an alliance between big government and large corporations.
The Texas Congressman drew an estimated 2,000 standing and chanting people to Kansas City's Union Station as the party's establishment dined on steak across the street at the Missouri GOP's annual conference.
Kansas Republicans were holding a similar convention in a suburb across the state line. Paul told reporters afterward he hadn't been aware of the GOP events being held nearby prior to his speech.
Paul's event came on an evening when the Des Moines Register released a poll showing him with the widest lead of three Republican presidential contenders over President Barack Obama if the election were held this week in Iowa. Both Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum had leads within the poll's margin of error in a state that Obama won in 2008.
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