A lot of people were shocked when the CPAC straw poll produced more votes for whackjob Ron Paul than for any of the other potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates. The results broke down as follows:
So, does this mean that the people behind the conservative revival are a bunch of nuts? Nah. The portion of total CPAC attendees who voted for Doctor Faux only amounted to about 7% or so.
Only 2,395 CPAC attendees voted in the straw poll, and the organizers say total attendance has exceeded 10,000. Thus, the math works as follows: 31% of 2,395 comes to 742 and that’s only a little over 7% of 10,000.
Moreover, half of the participants in the straw poll were students between 18 and 25. Students are people too, of course, but they tend to be more excitable and less likey to vote than us geezers.
So, relax. Ron Paul’s unexpected victory in the CPAC straw poll doesn’t mean that the conservative movement has been hijacked by a bunch of isolationist, anti-semitic, gold bugs and truthers.
In fact, media glee notwithstanding, Paul’s straw poll win doesn’t mean much of anything. Unlike James Antle, I think it’s pretty safe to ignore it. As Morrissey suggests, it was an interesting side show.
Comments 5
So, why did you feel obligated to tell us this?
Posted 21 Feb 2010 at 12:56 am ¶“…doesn’t mean much of anything.” You warmongering liberals and neo-cons are hilarious!
“isolationist, anti-semitic, gold bugs and truthers” Must be nice to have such limber a mind to perform those over-generalizing mental and/or ethical gymnastics.
Posted 21 Feb 2010 at 1:13 am ¶So, why did you feel obligated to tell us this?
Uh, because it doesn’t, uh, mean much of anything?? Yes, I know, it’s a hard concept to grasp…
Posted 21 Feb 2010 at 9:09 am ¶I’m no Paul nut job, but he does look like the only conservative in that bunch besides Sarah.
Posted 22 Feb 2010 at 9:42 am ¶When you old geezers are six feet under, and us students have become old geezers ourselves, we will elect nothing but Ron Pauls, Rand Pauls, and Debra Medinas into power. And the conservative movement will be better off (not to mention far more conservative than the current big government nanny state loving bloodthirsty neocons currently infecting the GOP).
Posted 02 Mar 2010 at 7:28 pm ¶Post a Comment