Trump Dominates CPAC Straw Poll

 

The Rabid Right Still Loves Their Orange Demagogue

The Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) meets each year. They are a collection of the most rabid right-wingers in this country. With each meeting, they have a straw poll. This year, they showed they still love the orange fool who lost the last presidential election. 

Bernie Sanders Finished A Poor 5th In Liberal Straw Poll

The liberal website Daily Kos recently conducted a straw poll of its readers. They asked those readers who they currently support for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. The results are above, and surprisingly, Bernie Sanders finished a poor fifth with only 11% support -- trailing Elizabeth Warren (22%), Beto O'Rourke (15%), Kamala Harris (14%), and Joe Biden (14%).

This was not a scientific poll. It was just a straw poll to gauge the feelings of the progressive wing of the party. But it shows that Sanders might be in trouble if he decides to run for the nomination again. In all of the Daily Kos straw polls done for the 2016 campaign, Sanders had finished in first place over Hillary Clinton (even though Clinton won the votes of most Democrats).

Has Sanders chance at the Democratic nomination faded? It looks like that may be true. It could be because there are more candidates for progressives to support this time around. Warren, O'Rourke, Harris, and others have credible progressive credentials.

O'Rourke And Biden Top MoveOn's Presidential Straw Poll

MoveOn.org is a progressive organization supporting Democratic candidates at all levels. Recently, they conducted a straw poll among their member to see who they currently support for the 2020 presidential nomination.

The biggest surprise was Beto O'Rourke finishing first among all the candidates with the support of 15.6% of the members voting. Joe Biden was second with 14.9%, Bernie Sanders was third with 13.1%, and Kamala Harris was fourth with 10%. All other candidates finished in single-digits, including Elizabeth Warren at 6.4%, and everyone else with less than 3%. About 28.8% were undecided.

It should be noted that this is just a straw poll of MoveOn members -- not a scientific poll of all Democrats. But MoveOn members have demonstrated they are likely to be donors to Democratic campaigns, and many of them are among the party's workers (block walkers, phone callers, envelope stuffers, etc.). They should not be ignored.

It looks like the O'Rourke candidacy could happen, and would be a formidable force in the primaries and caucuses.

Ben Carson Wins Southern Conservative Straw Poll

This last weekend about 1,500 Southern conservatives met in Oklahoma City for the Southern Republican Leadership Conference. They heard from numerous GOP presidential hopefuls -- and about two-thirds of them voted for their favorite in the SRLC's Straw Poll.

Ben Carson was the winner in that straw poll, garnering over a quarter of the vote in a 16-person field. Carson got 25.4% of the vote, while Scott Walker finished second with 20.5% and Ted Cruz was third with 16.6%. Everyone else (including supposed front-runners like Bush, Rubio, and Huckabee) finished far behind the top three.

This does not mean Carson (or the other of the top three) will get the nomination. But it does show us that Southern Republicans are not happy with establishment candidates. They want an extremist, and the more extreme the better.

Some of you may be surprised that a black man would win a Southern straw poll. You should't be. Southern racists didn't hate all Blacks -- only the ones who wanted to be equal with Whites. They were perfectly happy with "Uncle Tom's" (Blacks who supported and worked for the status quo -- White superiority).

And Ben Carson is the king of the Uncle Tom's. Carson hates President Obama, and blames him for the racial problems in the U.S. -- and actually said Blacks were happy with their place in this country until President Obama stirred them up. He would be a disaster as president.

Rand Paul Wins The CPAC Presidential Straw Poll

A few thousand of the most extreme right-wingers in this country met last weekend for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Most of the presidential hopefuls in the Republican Party showed up and spoke to the group, seeking their support. As usual, one of the final actions at the conference was a straw poll. Slightly more than 3,000 conference attendees voted in the poll this year, and the results are in the chart above (showing the percentage of that vote each hopeful got).

Meanwhile, the right-wing continues to try and convince the public that President Obama is extremely unpopular with the general public. The truth is that any of those GOP presidential hopefuls would love to have the president's approval numbers. The chart below shows the president is currently viewed much more favorably than any of the Republicans. It was made from a recent AP-GfK Poll -- done between January 29th and February 2nd of a random national sample of 1,045 adults, with a margin of error of 3.5 points.

Cruz Wins Texas GOP Convention Straw Poll

This is not a real surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to Texas politics. The Texas Republican Party is firmly in the control of the teabagger extremists -- and the delegates to their state convention verified that by choosing right-wing extremist Ted Cruz as their runaway favorite for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. No one else even came close in the convention's straw poll of delegates.

Cruz Wins RLC Straw Poll In New Orleans

Good news for Democrats. It's still looking like the Republicans want to nominate a right-wing extremist candidate in 2016 -- a candidate with no hope of winning.

Rand Paul Wins Straw Poll Of The CPAC Extremists

CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) has just held its annual meeting, where the most extreme right-wingers in America gather to wallow in their far-right ideology and various forms of bigotry -- and this year they added to their normal courses of racism, misogyny, xenophobia,  and homophobia by refusing to allow atheists to set up a booth.

As usual, they invited various right-wing candidates hoping to capture the next GOP presidential nomination to speak before them. And after listening to those speeches, they hold their own straw poll to anoint the far-right's preference for the nomination.

This year 2,459 conference attendees cast a ballot in the straw poll -- and the leading vote-getter was Rand Paul (with 31%). He finished far ahead of any of the other possible candidates -- with Ted Cruz (11%) and Ben Carson (9%) finishing in second and third place. Here is the list of candidates who got at least 1% of the vote:

Sen. Rand Paul...............31%
Sen. Ted Cruz...............11%
Dr. Ben Carson...............9%
Gov. Chris Christie...............8%
Rick Santorum...............7%
Gov. Scott Walker...............7%
Sen. Marco Rubio...............6%
Gov. Rick Perry...............3%
Rep. Paul Ryan...............3%
Mike Huckabee...............2%
Gov. Bobby Jindal...............2%
Sarah Palin...............2%
Condoleezza Rice...............2%
Mitch Daniels...............1%
Gov. John Kasich...............1%
Gov. Mike Pence...............1%
Sen. Rob Portman...............1%
Sen. John Thune...............1%
Donald Trump...............1%
Allen West...............1%

(The caricature above of Rand Paul is from the inimitable DonkeyHotey.)

Cruz Wins 'Baggers Presidential Straw Poll

Some of the nastiest and meanest teabaggers in this country held their annual "Values Voter Summit" this last weekend. They must have a rather loose definition of values, because their main values seem to be selfishness, greed, stupidity, and a hatred for anyone who is different or has a differing opinion. Or maybe they think if they use the word, they won't have to have any real values.

Be that as it may, they met and listened to speeches from politicians who make their living by pandering to the ultra-right. And one of their last activities was to conduct a presidential straw poll, to let the nation know who they think should be elected president. They did not disappoint. They chose the politician who was the architect of the government shutdown -- Ted Cruz.

Cruz, the junior GOP senator from Texas, easily outdistanced his opponents and finished first in the straw poll with 42%. His closest opponents were Dr. Ben Carson (a well-known teabagger activist) and Rick Santorum, both of whom got 13%. Rand Paul finished fourth with 6%, and Marco Rubio got 5%.

Frankly, I'm thrilled with the results of that straw poll. I hope the teabaggers are still in control of the Republican Party in early 2016, because I would love to see Cruz win that nomination and run against Hillary Clinton. His crushing defeat would be the best present Democrats could hope for.

(This caricature of Ted Cruz is by the inimitable DonkeyHotey.)

Right-Wing Extremists Choose Favorites

Each year the most extreme right-wingers in America hold a conference. It's put on by the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC). As the conference winds up, it traditional to have a straw poll on who the attendees think should be the next Republican presidential nominee. The results of this year's straw poll are pictured in the graph above.

This year's big winners were Rand Paul (25%) and Marco Rubio (23%). That's no surprise, since both are right-wing extremists and were expected to do well in the poll. The surprise is that conservative moderate, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, finished fourth with 7% of the votes. Christie was considered too moderate by CPAC organizers and wasn't invited to speak at the convention -- while the other possible candidates were able to speak to the conference.

Of course the race for the nomination is still a long way off, but this gives us a good idea of where the party's extremists stand (and they'll have a pretty big say in who the nominee will be -- especially in Texas, Oklahoma, and the Southern states).

Texas Teabaggers Conduct Straw Poll

Texas teabaggers met in Houston the other day. They gathered to hear some candidates (or their proxies) and conduct a straw poll to see where the ultra-right in Texas stands on the presidential nomination and other state races. The organizers were expecting over a thousand people to show up, but as the picture above from the Houston Chronicle shows, it is very doubtful they came anywhere near that total. All those empty seats show that even in a solidly Republican state like Texas it is very hard for teabaggers to draw a big crowd these days.

There were actually two polls taken in the Saddle Up Texas Straw Poll. The first was of those people who actually showed up in person. The results of that poll was just released by percentages and the number of voters was not released -- probably because of the embarrassingly small turnout. The second poll was conducted by texting. About 3300 people voted by texting in their vote. Here are the results of both straw polls:

SADDLE UP TEXAS POLL (IN PERSON)
Ron Paul...............27.9%
Newt Gingrich...............23.8%
Rick Santorum...............21.2%
Rick Perry...............19.4%
Mitt Romney...............6.6%
Jon Huntsman...............1.1%
Buddy Roemer...............0.0%

SADDLE UP TEXAS POLL (TEXT)
Ron Paul...............54.4%
Rick Santorum...............15.6%
Rick Perry...............13.3%
Newt Gingrich...............11.9%
Mitt Romney...............4.2%
Jon Huntsman...............0.5%
Buddy Roemer...............0.0%

I don't think this poll can be used as a predictor of how Texas will vote when it finally does hold its primary on April 3rd. After all, this is not a representative sample of Texas Republicans, but only a small sample of the ultra-right teabaggers. However, I do think a few things can be gleaned from this straw poll.

1. Rick Perry needs to drop out of the race. The teabaggers are his natural constituency, and if he can't carry a majority of them in his home state then he is not going to be able to do it elsewhere.
2. Mitt Romney still has made no inroads into the teabagger vote -- at least not in Texas.
3. Ron Paul is still very good at turning out his supporters for straw polls (although it remains to be seen if he can do the same in the real primary).
4. Republicans still don't know who Buddy Roemer is, or care very much.

(A big tip of my hat goes to Perry at Brains and Eggs for bringing this poll to my attention. He does a very nice job of covering Texas politics.)

Mitt Romney Takes Michigan Straw Poll As Expected

Rick Perry experienced his second defeat of the weekend. After losing big to Herman Cain in the Florida straw poll, he lost even bigger to Mitt Romney in the Michigan straw poll. Romney was expected to win the Michigan poll -- after all, Mitt grew up in Michigan and his father was that state's governor back in the 1960s (the picture above is of a young Mitt with his father in 1964).

The only question was how big would Romney win in Michigan. Perry had been campaigning in the state and hoped to use the teabagger vote to cut into Romney's margin. If Perry could have made the vote fairly close it would have been viewed as a win for him. But that did not happen. Romney got over 50% of the vote, while Perry finished much closer to the rest of the candidates than he did to Romney. Here is how the Michigan straw poll came out (with 681 votes cast):

Mitt Romney...............50.1%
Rick Perry...............16.8%
Herman Cain...............8.5%
Ron Paul...............7.7%
Michele Bachmann...............4.0%
Newt Gingrich...............3.5%
Rick Santorum...............3.4%
John Huntsman...............2.0%
Thad McCotter...............1.0%

Thad McCotter is also from Michigan and got a few votes in spite of the fact that he officially dropped out of the presidential race a few days ago. And once again Michele Bachmann was down with the "also rans" with only 4% of the vote. At least she finished ahead of Jon Huntsman this time. But if she doesn't start improving her standing again pretty soon, she might as well just drop out.

With Bachmann virtually out of the race (along with Huntsman, Gingrich, and Santorum), Perry falling in popularity, Paul unable to get into even low double digits, Cain being the wrong color in a racist party, and Romney unable to score with the teabagger base, maybe there is room for another candidate or two in this race. And rumor has it that Christie is once again re-considering whether to run, and Palin is still teasing the teabaggers with a "maybe" campaign.

I don't ever remember a Republican presidential race that was this interesting -- and there's still a long way to go.

Florida Straw Poll Yields Shocking Result

A few thousand Florida Republicans met this weekend in Orange County, and one of the events scheduled was a straw vote to get an idea of where the Republican presidential candidates stand with the GOP voters in that state. This is the first straw poll Florida Republicans have held since 1995 and is not binding in any way, but the past winners of this straw poll have all went on to become the party's candidate in the general election. Ronald Reagan won it in 1979, George H.W. Bush won it in 1987, and Bob Dole won it in 1995.

Most observers expected Texas governor Rick Perry to easily win the straw poll. After all, Florida is one of those states where the Republican Party is controlled by the teabaggers -- and the teabaggers are Perry's natural base of voters, especially in the South. But the Florida party activists shocked the nation by giving a win to an unexpected candidate, and by giving that candidate more than twice as many votes as Perry (who finished in second place, barely ahead of Romney. The winner was businessman Herman Cain. Here is the order of finish for the candidates (with 2,657 votes cast):

Herman Cain...............37.1%
Rick Perry...............15.4%
Mitt Romney...............14.0%
Rick Santorum...............10.9%
Ron Paul...............10.4%
Newt Gingrich...............8.4%
Jon Huntsman...............2.3%
Michele Bachmann...............1.5%

What happened to Perry? Some think he's fallen in popularity because he didn't do too well in the last two debates. That doesn't surprise us Texans, who knew he just doesn't think well on his feet and under pressure. It's why he refused to debate his Democratic opponent in the last gubernatorial election.

However, I think his stand on an immigration-related issue may have more to do with his defeat than his debating ability. He came out in favor of granting in-state college tuition to illegal immigrants attending Texas schools. He tried to defend that position in the last debate by saying those who opposed that don't "have a heart". He seems to have forgotten that most of those opposed are in his teabagger base, and they don't like being called heartless (even though it's true).

But as shocking as Perry's loss was, Michele Bachmann's last place finish was equally shocking. Her pitiful 1.5% of the vote placed her behind even Jon Huntsmann, and shows just how far she has fallen since she won the Iowa straw poll just a few weeks ago. She has now joined Newt Gingrich as the "walking dead" of the GOP field -- candidates whose campaigns have died, but they just refuse to admit it yet.

I still don't think Cain can win the Republican nomination. There's just too much racism in the party. But his win in Florida definitely tarnishes the Perry candidacy. This race has again become interesting.

Why Is The Media Ignoring Ron Paul ?

I'm not a fan or a supporter of Rep. Ron Paul (and I sincerely hope he's not elected president --or any of his Republican opponents either). While I like some of his libertarian stands on social issues, I abhor his economic views and think they would be disastrous to this country. But I can recognize unfairness, and I don't think the American major news media are treating Rep. Paul fairly.

This has been especially apparent in the last couple of weeks. The Republicans in Iowa had a straw poll for their party's presidential candidates -- something they have been doing for many years now. And while winning the straw poll there doesn't guarantee a candidate will win the Republican nomination, or even that they will win next year's Iowa caucuses, it does give a quick snapshot of how the candidates stand in mid-America at the present time.

This straw poll is heavily covered by the media, and it's outcome is debated for weeks on the major media outlets. This year the straw poll was virtually a tie between two candidates -- Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul. Although Bachmann got the most votes (4,823), she only bested Paul (4,671) by a scant 152 votes out of the 16,892 votes cast. That's less than a 1% difference between the two (actually 0.90%). It couldn't be any closer.

All the other candidates were way behind those two. Tim Pawlenty, who dropped out because of his poor showing in the poll, finished third with less than half the votes of either Bachmann or Paul. And the rest finished far behind even Pawlenty. That would lead a reasonable person to expect that the major media would be full of talk about Bachmann and Paul, especially when discussing the Iowa straw poll. But that didn't happen.

There were three Republican candidates being discussed after the poll, and Ron Paul was not one of those three. All the media pundits and talk shows wanted to talk about was Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, and Rick Perry -- in spite of the fact that both Romney (567) and Perry (718) did poorly in Iowa. Ron Paul, who got more than five times as many votes than either Romney or Perry, was ignored.

This is not my imagination. The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism conducted a sample survey of the coverage, and what they found was rather shocking. Here is what they looked at: the three network panel shows on August 14th, the morning and evening network news programs on August 15th, and four hours of primetime and one hour of daytime coverage from each of the three major cable news networks on August 15th.

And here is what that sample showed. Rick Perry was mentioned 371 times, Michele Bachmann was mentioned 274 times, Mitt Romney was mentioned 183 times, and Ron Paul was mentioned 29 times. Finishing in a virtual tie with Bachmann in the Iowa straw poll had earned Paul no respect at all. He was pretty much ignored in the discussion of who could win the nomination.

And that's nothing new. The media has been ignoring Ron Paul all year. From January 1st through August 14th, most of the other candidates have been mentioned prominently in news stories far more than Paul. Here are the numbers:

Mitt Romney...............120
Newt Gingrich...............112
Michele Bachmann...............108
Donald Trump...............94
Sarah Palin...............85
Tim Pawlenty...............52
Jon Huntsman...............44
Rick Perry...............33
Ron Paul...............27
Rick Santorum...............21
Herman Cain...............11

This is pathetic. Gingrich's campaign has been dead for a while now and he was never rated very highly. Trump was a "maybe" candidate for only about a month. Pawlenty and Huntsman have never scored as highly in any poll as Paul. And Rick Perry has only been a candidate for about a week. Yet all of them were covered more by the media than Ron Paul.

Of course this is nothing new for the media. Instead of just covering all the candidates in a roughly equal manner, they feel like it is their duty to decide who the real candidates should be and then only cover them. This is wrong. The news media does not have the responsibility to choose the candidates that Americans should consider. Their responsibility is to cover all the candidates and let the American people choose who they want. In choosing who deserves coverage, the media has abdicated it responsibility and failed in its mission.

And this doesn't just happen in everyday news coverage or the talk shows. It is even worse when it comes to the political debates -- especially the national presidential debates or the statewide gubernatorial debates. The media usually limits participation in the debates to those who they think "have a chance to win". Candidates from minor third parties (like the Green Party or the Libertarian Party) are not allowed to appear and have their views heard by the American people. How are they expected to garner support when the media shuts them out?

It is the job of the media to cover politics, and electoral politics are a very important part of that. But they were never meant to be the gatekeepers of electoral politics -- deciding who gets to be covered or heard and who doesn't. It is important to the protection of our democracy that this be changed -- especially in light of the failure by both major parties to address the serious economic problems facing this country.

Ron Paul has not been treated fairly, but his being ignored is only a symptom of a far bigger problem with the media.

Bachmann & Paul Lead Iowa's Straw Poll

Iowa Republicans held their big straw poll on Saturday and they had a respectable turnout -- some 16,982 people cast ballots according to the Des Moines Register. There are varying opinions on the importance of the straw poll. Some say it is meaningless, and others view it as a good predictor of how Iowa will go when their real caucuses are held. If nothing else, it is a snapshot of what Iowa Republicans are thinking right now.

The big winners of the straw poll this year are Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul. This is no big surprise since both were believed to have strong support in the state. Bachmann was born in Iowa and lives in a neighboring state, while Paul has built a fairly strong organization in the state. Here are the results:

Michele Bachmann...............4,823 (28.55%)

Ron Paul...............4,671 (27.65%)

Tim Pawlenty...............2,293 (13.57%)

Rick Santorum...............1,657 (9.81%)

Herman Cain...............1,456 (8.62%)

Rick Perry (write-in)...............718 (3.62%)

Mitt Romney...............567 (3.36%)

Newt Gingrich...............385 (2.28%)

Jon Huntsman...............69 (0.41%)

Thad McCotter...............35 (0.21%)

That adds up to 16,774 votes out of the 16,892 votes cast. After you subtract the 3 votes cast for the Iowa State Fair Butter Cow (a sculpture made from butter), that still leaves 115 votes unaccounted for. It is probably safe to assume that all or most of those went to Sarah Palin, Gary Johnson, and Buddy Roemer -- all of whom were not on the official ballot.

Although she would never admit it, I think that has to embarrass Sarah Palin. She has not declared herself as a candidate and was not on the ballot, but she did have a movie premier in Iowa a couple of weeks ago and visited the state last Friday. I think she was holding out for a "draft Palin" vote in the straw poll -- something that obviously did not happen. This might finally convince her to stay out of the race.

Pawlenty is trying to put a good spin on his third place finish, but it was a pretty weak third place finish -- with him getting less than half the number of votes of either of the top two finishers. If that's the best he can do in a state that borders his home state of Minnesota, where is he going to do any better?

Santorum has to be disappointed also. He put in more time in Iowa than any other candidate, and still couldn't even get a double-digit percentage of the votes. He might as well fold up his campaign tent and go home -- and the same could be said about Gingrich, Huntsman, McCotter, Roemer, and Johnson. Cain said he was hoping for a top-three finish, but his fifth place finish is probably as good as he's going to do anywhere.

That leaves Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. Romney made a point of not trying to win the straw poll, although he has visited the state several times. I think he just knew he couldn't beat Bachmann in Iowa. But even saying he didn't really try in Iowa can't explain how poorly he really did there. Getting only 567 votes (3.36%) has to be viewed as a crushing defeat for Romney.

Rick Perry was not on the ballot, but he has had some people in the state for a couple of weeks trying to organize a write-in campaign for him. He may have lost some votes by announcing his candidacy in another state on the same day of the straw poll -- thus stealing some of the poll's thunder. Was that a blunder? Only time will tell. But getting 718 write-in votes (far more than any other non-ballot person) keeps his campaign at least credible.

Is GOP Tiring Of The Palin/Perry Tease ?

Sarah Palin has been teasing Republican voters for quite a while now with her "Maybe I will, Maybe I won't" stance on the presidential campaign. This has allowed her to keep on raising money through her PAC because her supporters are hoping they are helping fund a presidential run, and it has also allowed her to dodge any debates or media interviews because she's not an official candidate.

Now Rick Perry is playing that same game. He's saw how well it is working for Palin (and like Palin, he doesn't do well with the media -- avoiding them like the plague in his last run for the governor's office). For about a month now he's allowed his aides to leak just enough "maybes" to keep people interested (he hopes).

But there are signs that the Republicans may be tiring of the cute political game Palin and Perry are playing -- at least the Iowa Republicans are. The Iowa GOP is having their political straw poll in about three weeks (August 13th) and they're getting a little peeved at the Perry/Palin duo. It seems they think if a person wants their support for the nomination, then they need to declare their candidacy and get themselves to Iowa and ask for support.

Since Perry and Palin have not declared themselves as candidates (and there is no real reason to think they even will do so), the Iowa Republicans have decided to leave them off the straw poll ballot. This won't help either one, as the Iowa straw poll is viewed as a good way for a candidate's campaign to get a nice boost. It looks like the Iowans are telling these two campaigns they need to make up their fickle minds or forget it altogether.

There are nine candidates who will be listed on the straw poll ballot. These include the six candidates who have paid $15,000 for a booth (which also gives them the right to make a speech). Those candidates are Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, and Thaddeus McCotter.

In addition to the six who have opted in fully for the straw poll, the Iowa GOP also has included three other candidates on the ballot because those candidates have declared their candidacy and have at least a modicum of support. They are Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman, and Newt Gingrich.

Three declared candidates were left off the ballot, ostensibly because they have failed to generate any support at all. They are Buddy Roemer, Gary Johnson, and Fred Karger (whoever the hell he is).

Romney Flip-Flops Again - Loses In Straw Poll

There have been accusations of politicians in both parties being flip-floppers (changing their position on a issue to get votes), but Mitt Romney may well be the king of all the flip-floppers. In an effort to appeal to the right-wing teabaggers currently controlling the Republican Party, Mitt has changed his position on a number of issues -- like gun control, abortion, gay rights, and immigration. Now he has done it again.

After asking for and accepting disaster relief from the federal government (in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007), Romney has now decided that FEMA shouldn't be helping disaster victims like those in the Memphis floods or the Alabama & Missouri tornadoes. He says it's "immoral" for the federal government to increase the national debt by helping disaster victims. He obviously doesn't realize how hypocritical he looks to accept these funds for his own state as governor, but oppose them for people in other states when he needs right-wing votes to become president.

The truth is that this country has always had a national debt. It was millions of dollars in debt when George Washington took office and has remained in debt ever since then. While the current debt is fairly large, it has been larger in the past (as a percentage of GDP). And if Romney and his Republican cohorts were serious about cutting that debt, all they have to do to make a great start on it is eliminate the Bush tax cuts, the corporate subsidies, and the tax credits for exporting American jobs.

But Romney and his party of NO don't want to do that. They don't want to make their rich buddies pay their fair share of taxes. They would rather cut programs that help hurting Americans -- including programs like FEMA that help the victims of natural disasters. Frankly, that's worse than just flip-flopping. That's just downright mean!

------------------------------

Meanwhile, the Republican Leadership Council (RLC) meeting in New Orleans had a straw poll, and Romney did not do well in it. He finished a very poor fifth place. I'm sure his campaign will claim that was because he didn't attend the affair, but Huntsman didn't attend it either and he finished a very respectable second. I think it's just further evidence that Romney is not nearly as strong a candidate as many expected him to be (especially since he won this straw poll a year ago). Here are the numbers for the RLC straw poll (in raw votes -- not percentages):

Ron Paul...............612
Jon Huntsman...............382
Michele Bachmann...............191
Herman Cain...............104
Mitt Romney...............74
Newt Gingrich...............69
Sarah Palin...............41
Rick Santorum...............30
Tim Pawlenty...............18
Gary Johnson...............10
Buddy Roemer...............9
Thaddeus McCotter...............2

Teabagger Presidential Straw Poll

A couple of thousand teabaggers met in Phoenix this last weekend for a policy summit and cheerleading session. Leaders from many different teabagger groups were there. One of the last events they had was a straw poll to see just who these teabagger leaders were considering supporting for the Republican presidential nomination. The results of the straw poll were a little surprising.

The winner of the poll was Herman Cain (pictured above), former CEO of Godfather Pizza and current right-wing radio talk show host. Although he finished first,he got less than a quarter of the vote. And that could be because he was one of only three candidates to actually attend and speak to the teabaggers. The other two finished in second and third place (Ron Paul and Tim Pawlenty).

Here is how the poll came out:

Herman Cain...............22%
Tim Pawlenty...............16%
Ron Paul...............15%
Sarah Palin...............10%
Mitt Romney...............6.5%
Michele Bachmann...............5.6%
Everyone else had little support

Even though she didn't attend the teabagger summit, Sarah Palin has to be disappointed in the outcome of this straw poll. She (and Michele Bachmann) consider themselves to be the queens of the teabagger movement, and would have been expected to do a little better. It doesn't look like these teabagger leaders consider Palin and Bachmann to be viable candidates, and if the teabaggers don't support them then where is their support going to come from?

The poll won't hurt Romney. He's never been a favorite of the teabaggers, who consider him more of a moderate Republican rather than one of their own. If he gets the nomination it will be because establishment moderates support him and conservatives think he's the only one that could beat Obama.

Of course straw polls don't mean much this far out and I seriously doubt Cain could do that well with the rank-and-file teabaggers. In fact, Ron Paul easily won the online poll conducted in conjunction with the summit. But it is still interesting -- especially in the rebuff of Palin.

Ron Paul Wins CPAC Nod Again

The American Conservative Union hosts a conference each year that is attended by thousands of conservatives representing dozens of different conservative organizations. The Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC as it is commonly called, allows these conservatives to get together, swap ideas, and help to set the conservative political agenda in the United States.

The CPAC meeting also gives presidential hopefuls (primarily Republican) a chance to get their message out to their fellow conservative activists, in the hope they can generate support for their candidacy. Although it is by no means indicative of who will actually win the Republican nomination next year, CPAC's straw poll does give a good indication of where the candidates stand with conservatives at this particular time (and it can identify those who are not really viable candidates).

This year's CPAC meeting was held over the last weekend, and the straw poll shows that two candidates are far ahead of the rest of the field with the conservatives attending the conference. Those two candidates are Ron Paul, who finished in first place, and Mitt Romney, who was not far behind him. Everyone else was basically an also-ran. Here's how the straw poll came out:

Ron Paul..........30%
Mitt Romney..........23%
Gary Johnson..........6%
Chris Christie..........6%
Newt Gingrich..........5%
Tim Pawlenty..........4%
Michele Bachmann..........4%
Mitch Daniels..........4%
Sarah Palin..........3%
Herman Cain..........2%
Mike Huckabee..........2%
Rick Santorum..........2%
John Thune..........2%
John Huntsman..........1%
Haley Barbour..........1%
Others..........5%
Undecided..........1%

Even though it's just a pretty meaningless straw poll, these results have to be rather humiliating for some supposedly serious candidates like Gingrich, Palin, Huckabee, Santorum, Thune and Barbour. All of these candidates consider conservatives to be their natural base, and they have been rebuffed by these politically active conservatives. They have some work to do.