The CPAC Straw Poll Results: Totally Preposterous! :(

The Conservative Political Action Conference finished its convention yesterday evening with the announcement of the results of its straw poll on who should be the GOP Presidential nominee in the Presidential Election of 2012.

Eleven people were on the ballot, including: Governors Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Haley Barbour, Tim Pawlenty, and Mitch Daniels; Senators John Thune and Rick Santorum; and House members Newt Gingrich, Mike Pence, and Ron Paul.

I wish to point out that Romney, Huckabee, Palin, Santorum, and Gingrich are all out of office. Also, realize that the odds of a member of the House of Representatives becoming President are next to nil, as only one, James Garfield, was ever elected, and unfortunately he was assassinated, dying within six months of his taking the oath.

Only about 25 percent of the people who attended the conference participated in the straw poll, which was won for the past three years by Mitt Romney. Romney certainly is a legitimate contender and has the qualities needed to be a serious Presidential candidate, but this year he did not win the straw poll.

Instead, Romney ended up in second place, behind, of all people, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas! This is a shocking and preposterous result, and is totally lacking in reality within Republican ranks!

Paul winning is more the reaction of young conservatives, including college students, who find him appealing because he is against overseas involvement and is a major advocate of small government and low taxes.

But Ron Paul’s chances of being the GOP nominee are less than zero in reality. The Republican party is not going to nominate the only possible candidate who wants to withdraw from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, a man who was basically ridiculed in GOP debates in the 2008 primary campaign by John McCain, Rudy Guiliani, and basically, all the other GOP candidates.

Also, and not meant to be a statement of age discrimination, but face the facts: Ron Paul will be 77 in 2012, and therefore would be 81 to 85 at the end of a first and second term in the White House! Are we likely to elect someone who would be almost the age of Ronald Reagan at the end of his second term when he first takes the oath? Let’s get real!

Also, while there are those who enthuse about Ron Paul, he does not come across well in debate or on television, so it is safe to say that he may have beaten out his ten rivals in this silly CPAC poll, but any of the others are more likely to be nominated than the Texas Congressman, including the controversial Sarah Palin.

My impression is that while there may be lots of discontent toward President Obama, the Republicans cannot win an election for President based on that alone. They have to have a LEGITIMATE candidate as the alternative to the President, and that is going to be very hard to do.

Facing this reality, if the GOP was smart, they would nominate Mitt Romney as easily the best qualified to run, but with the religious influence of evangelical Christians and the basic distaste of Republicans for the Northeast, will they be willing to nominate a former Massachusetts governor who happens to be a Mormon, a group which most evangelicals think of as a cult? Stay tuned! 🙂