Fundies Shun Palin - Make Unusual Choice

Last week it became clear to all of us political "junkies" that Sarah Palin is definitely going to be a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2012.   Last week she went out of her way to speak before a gathering of important Iowa Republicans.   She wasn't asked to speak and (if we are to believe what the reports are) she wasn't paid to speak there.   Rumor has it that she begged the party there to be allowed to speak.

Personally, I think this speaks volumes about her intentions.   This greedy woman doesn't speak anywhere without compensation (usually around $100,000).   She also doesn't allow any press to cover her speeches except for the right-wing press -- those she know will be kind toward any mistakes she might make.   She broke both of those self-imposed rules in the Iowa appearance.   That means she's definitely planning to run in 2012.

But is her brief spell of fame coming to an end?   Are even the right-wingers beginning to figure out that she's just not capable of performing the duties of the presidency?   I would have thought that the right-wing religious fundamentalists would have been her natural constituency.   But when the annual Value Voters Conference was held a few days ago, an event organized and put on by the fundamentalist Family Research Council, Palin did not do well in the group's presidential straw poll.

So how did the fundamentalist's little popularity poll come out?   Here are the results:

1. Mike Pence...............24%

2. Mike Huckabee...............22%

3. Mitt Romney...............13%

4. Newt Gingrich...............10%

5. Sarah Palin...............7%

It's not surprising that some candidates like Ron Paul did not score well with the religious fundie crowd.   His base is among libertarian thinkers, not the religious social conservatives (who disapprove of many of his libertarian ideas).   It's also not surprising that Mike Huckabee scored well with this religious crowd since he's a former fundamentalist christian preacher.   

The real surprise was that more of these "family values" social conservatives would choose Newt Gingrich instead of Sarah Palin.   While Palin has parroted their religious fundamentalism, Gingrich has flaunted his disregard for "family values".   He has twice traded his wife in for a younger model -- once even notifying a wife that he was deserting her while she lay in a hospital bed (certainly not a very "christian" thing to do).

Even more surprising was that the five-term congressman from Indiana, Mike Pence (pictured), won the straw poll.   While his social conservative credentials may be impeccable, he is a virtual unknown.   I doubt if 95% of the American people could tell you who Mike Pence is (or even which political party he's in).   But winning this straw poll could help him with that.   While the general public won't care, a lot of social conservatives do listen to the Family Research Council and other organizations like it.