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Subscribe to RSSWASHINGTON -- Presumed GOP front-runner Mitt Romney has won a straw poll of Republican voters at the American Conservative Union's annual CPAC conference in Washington.
Romney received 38 percent of Saturday's vote on the final day of the Conservative Political Action Conference, followed by Rick Santorum, who garnered 31 percent.
The win is likely to soothe concerns that Romney cannot shore up backing from conservatives wary of his past change of position on abortion and his onetime support for an individual health care mandate.
Romney told a packed audience here during remarks Friday that he is "severely conservative," while Santorum urged attendees not to choose a GOP nominee who cannot excite the conservative base.
"We always talk about how we are going to get the moderates," Santorum said in a clear reference to Romney. "Why would an undecided voter, vote for a candidate of a party that the party's not excited about?"
One-time Romney "alternative" hopeful Newt Gingrich came in third place with 15 percent of the straw poll vote. Rep. Ron Paul won just 12 percent support.
Some 3,408 people voted in the straw poll, the second-highest number to participate in the poll.
Paul has won the poll for the last two years, but he did not participate in this year's conference.
The Texas congressman's past victories prompted organizers to change the format for the poll, doing away with paper ballots and offering online voting for participants.
The American Conservative Union, which runs CPAC, also commissioned a national poll of 600 self-identified conservatives reached by telephone this Tuesday and Wednesday.
That survey showed Romney clocking in in first place with 27 percent, followed closely by Santorum at 25 percent. Third-place finisher Gingrich garnered 20 percent support in the national poll.
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida was the top choice for vice president among straw poll participants, while he and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Romney backer, tied at 15 percent among the national poll respondents.
"This is the first time ever in 25 years that we've ever done a corollary survey that asks the same exact questions," ACU pollster Tony Fabrizio told reporters during a press conference before the release of the results.
The margin of error for the national poll was plus-minus 4 percent.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was the top choice for vice president among straw poll participants, while he and New Jersey governor and Romney backer Chris Christie tied at 15 percent among the national poll respondents.
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So. SIXTY-TWO percent wanted someone else. You know, the Repukes could louse up a one car parade.
I finally figured it out..."First Read" is the ultra liberal media wing of MSNBC and is presided over by Fiesty Redhead. I don't know why it took so long for me to understand that.
Romney purchases every vote that is out there.
How do you know that. Please show sources for your info.
As many have said, google Romney vows to cut Social Security. I dont think we can be surprised that the Republicans are trying to unite even tho their hearts are not in it. Sarah Palin is just an inside joke who cheerleads the ignorant loud faction of the Republicans. But I could really get behind Sarah Palin for VP on a Romney or Santorum ticket. Cant wait to see either of them debate Obama and Sarah vs Biden was pure entertainment that should be reprised.
I thought CPAC had the hard core conservatives. You know, the real believers. It turns out they are just Corporate shills. How sad. Conservatives Pathetically Assembled to Criticize.
Santorum's speech - no man-made global warming was right out of the rushbo radio show. And like the rushbo show, he never talks real numbers like how if everybody had 7 kids then the world would have 300B people in 2090 up from 7B today. He gives you a clear choice.
The GOP always love to play "holier-than-thou" while choosing to do some the most selfish, un-Christian and anti-American things. If you haven't been asleep,...you know the GOP is in it for the corporations and the wealthy they serve,...and they have no interest in governing for the people.
Their newest ploy is to act like their "my way of the highway" rhetoric is somehow the moral high road. It's so ironic,...that it does fool some people, getting them to go against their own best interests.
WE WOULD ALL DO WELL TO REMEMBER THE GW BUSH REGIME AND WHAT LIFE WAS LIKE UNDER HIS ELITIST RULE. The power and money funneled quickly into the hands of the wealthy. Sure,...you got an $500 tax refund check per year, but everything the decider wanted happened. It was bull dozed through and you "had just better get used to it". He bypassed democracy. He gave tax breaks to the corporations and everybody - "SURE here you go",...underfunding the government so as to set the stage for the current showdown we are in regarding the social safety net. His grandfather never wanted that to begin with,...so GW was going to "make it right" according the ideas of his blue blood grandfather.
You can hear the well COORDINATED message shift by all of the Republican pundits.
They are trying to appeal to the population by underlining that they are unapologetically against anything other than unbridled free market capitalism. Sorry folks,....all government is bad, except the things that continue to help make our constituents proportionately more and more wealthy. If you are not in the top few perecent,...you'd have to be insane to go this much against your own best interests. If you "win big" - great !! If you are from the upper middle of the pack and down >>>> "The GOP has nothing for you". Their attitude is "you were free to win,...but didn't". YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN !! We are not a country, but a land full of seperate financial interests,...it's dog eat dog,...but in a "nice" kinda way,...right ?
Chris Stigall had a questionably famous black guest on this morning,....but they were making the point to show how "down wit' conservatism" this guy was",.....YEAH RIGHT. It is so glaringly obvious that the GOP is D-E-S-P-E-R-A-T-E to attract minority voters. They constantly try to convince us and especially minority voters that the conservative party that is in their corner. LIKE IT EVER HAS BEEN,...HAH !!Then you turn to the other Philadelphia morning conservative pundit at 990am,....and he is putting on this really sensible tone trying to say,...convince everyone,...bypass your objections by stating as fact - that ALLLL of the different minorities black, hispanic, Asian, Indian are all becoming soooo convinced that the conservative way is the only way.
Then, BOTH Limbaugh and Dennis Prager,...who are both on at noon in PA,...are going on each their own rant about how the democrats apparent concern for citizens experiencing hard times is completely misguided BS. Then they spout platitudes about how their brand of "YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN NO MATTER WHAT" capitalism is true freedom. You are free to have rich people make their millions by the sweat of your brow,...while freezing your wages for YEARS.
They underscore that there are winners and losers. TRUE, and rightly so, but the problem is the disparity between the two is becoming unacceptably wide. There needs to be an acceptable solution for the middle of the pack,...but the GOP has ZERO INTEREST in hearing those concerns. The GOP is tone deaf to the problems of the middle and lower class. They simply say,...let us have all the money,...give us tax breaks and you'll be fine.
If tax breaks for the rich generates jobs,....where are the jobs ? This is a myth. There is no trickle down.
Times have become harder and harder. Wages are stagnant,...benefits are disappearing,....there are more and more fees and charges from banks and creditors and any company who can force them upon you. Jobs are getting shipped off seas. YET,....there is more and more of the REAL profit of this country funneling into the hands of the top few percent of the population.
The conservatives will tell you that a free market "SETS YOU FREE" to make your million, BUT in this hyper competitive and EXPENSIVE economy,....what is the likelihood that a high percentage of the loyal and hard workers that drive the productivity and,therefore wealth of the top few percent,...will be able to retire or even care for themselves in their old age ? I say,...NOT MUCH.
The guiding hand of government,...per Abraham Lincoln,....is there to do for people ONLY what they can't do for themselves. THE MAJOR ISSUE that confronts Americans today is corporate greed and excess and runaway power. If you think for one moment that when the rich and connected get more and more that they are thinking of putting one cent more than is absolutely necessary back into the rest of the population,......you are dreaming.
Don't let the GOP blind you with their false "freedom" rhetoric,....or their "doomsday" rhetoric. IT IS A LIE. The freedom they are most interested in is retaining all of the financial power and allowing you to work and earn as they see fit until you die.
The GOP have OUTRIGHT told us,...they are looking to kill the entitlements. If you have another solution,....good for you !!! Otherwise the GOP sez,..."you are FREE,...free to beg,...free to search for jobs that don't exist or pay too little to live decently on,....free to work three jobs to make up the difference"....until the day you die because you can't affford medical insurance on the savings from your less than amazing 401K.
Like GW said to the single mom working three jobs,..."that's uniquely American".
That's the GOP for you,...
Vote Obama in 2012.
Vote Obama in 2012.
Vote Obama in 2012.
In September when the Romney Machine is being pummeled by the Obama Machine and all his one percent sins are laid bare, that roaring sound up ahead is not a waterfall, it is going to be a woodchipper. You can't let these Citizens United super propaganda machines choose your candidate because they only put half starch in his backbone. They don't care if he has warts like being a corporate cad. Romney's record is, right now, being explored with microscopes. His victims are practicing their pitches. After the professional reputation grinders get started look for him to be medicated. We are going to have to fine new adjectives other than ugly, not pretty, or brutal for what this is going to be.
Sorry thing about the GOP is that most of those I talk to (these are my friends, although we don't agree politically, we're still friends) are jumping on the "Party Above Person" bandwagon.
As they told me, they'll vote for whomever is the GOP candidate, as long as they are a Republican.
Can you say Sheeple??
Oh, and Moakler...
Easy on the crack pipe
Serfdom.
Stop making sense. It upsets the right wing!
WHY in the 21st Century - - - does religion have anything to do with government ?
Should we be diplomatic and switch religions every month to give everybody a shot at
advertising their religions and telling us why theirs is right !
There have been millions of people sacrificed in the name of "gods" or wars because
of archaic beliefs over the century's and we are still complying with religious rules ?
It is more than the people who really believe, it is the politicians who could care less
that presume to lead in the name of their religions that are sickening to the lowest
level.
This is just futher proof that the Elite Republican Party wants Romney at all cost. By his winning the Straw Poll they think they can convince us that Romney is a conservative. If Romney is conservative I just won the Powerball last Saturday night and I don't buy tickets. i just hope that the people see through this little ploy and throw Romney out.
Republicans pretend to be Conservatives.
Republican Mark Foley and his Congressional Page Boy Toys...
Republican Mark Sanford commits Adultery with his Hot Tamale in Argentina...
Newt Gingrich and his Adultery...
Etc, etc, etc...
Vitter,
Republican Larry Craig and his Airport Restroom Boy Games,
Etc, etc, etc..
Oh, did I say Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich were both Draft Dodgers during Vietnam and Mitt Romney keeps his Millions in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands...
im a democrat and its kind of sad to look at the republican party these days. denying facts no matter the evidence. demonizing poor and middle class people. its sad that our rivals are self destructing. the candidates are horrific. its like me a steelers fan looking at the cleveland browns. there once was a great rivalry but now its so lopsided its embarrassing to hate them. this far right bs that they love right now has to stop. climate change is real that is why 98% of climate scientists agree on it. its not a conspiracy its threatening our enviroment which is the only one we have if you didnt notice. women rights ARE womens choice. stop trying to legislate that. its real sad.
pittsburgh: Don't think anyone is denying that there is climate change -it has been going on since day one. The issue is what is causing it and can much be done about it. Look at the cycles of the planet heating and cooling. Humans may be contributing, but would it happen without humans? I don't think it is a simple issue. As to women's rights we all have rights, but there are problems when your right impacts the rights of another person. There are different views on "when" life begins. Somehow, the issue needs to get resolved since it seem to continue to grow. Until it is resolved the personal decision will have to carry, but that does not mean tax payers should foot the bill. A personal decision and personal responsibility to foot the bill.
luih;
These latest results show the desperation of the T-publican party. Instead of standing for its so-called principles, it is playing politics to the max. One thing seems clear, they will suffer a calamitous defeat in November. We will all win! LOL
You libbies are particularly surly today. Is it because you finally realize how much Obama is screwing up or are your welfare checks late?
Mitt when you used the word severely I thought you used the wrong word as you would use it to describe negatives Such as we suffer from sever ignorance.We are severely corrupt.We suffer from a sever lack of ethics and morale's.Maybe you did use the right word sorry.
They are just not good on words or definitions. Don't know why but that is not their forte!
Conservatives would have stopped the Internet from happening. It's common knowledge that the conservative Republican party hates the National Science Foundation. It was the NSF that made the Internet happen, they had the vision to open the door. None of this Internet would be here if it was up to the GOP. http://www.livinginternet.com/i/ii_nsfnet.htm
July 1, 1956. The Steve Allen Show, New York City. "As Elvis rehearsed for an appearance on The Steve Allen Show, national media buzzed with backlash against Elvis's hip-swinging performance on Milton Berle's show just a few weeks earlier. Conservative critics called Elvis a "disciple of the devil."
Conservatives fear a free society, trying to control what people do... whether it's in Iran or the USA! Conservatives are bad for America.
Palin was up there chanting USA. She is for the USA now? I thought she was set on destroying it as we know it. That is why she had her 1773 sign or whatever. Why does she think we need a screech owl for a mascot. We do not and have never needed the disharmony and outright hatred her kind which is not a fundamentalist Christain attitude portrays. Like Mrs. Bush said she needs to go back to Wasilla and stay there.We do not need her down in the lower forty eight for anything! The GOP can and better do better if they want to remain a respectable party!
"Romulian Romney" has broken the straws/backs of many hard working American Workers. As the GOP/RNC "Speculator and Chief" the "Romulian" has broken the backs/straws of many corporations. By sending them into bankruptcy, and moving the jobs overseas. He wanted to break the back/straw of the American Auto Industry. Remember that one Michigan?? Citiizens from the great state of Michigan! Are my fellow citizens doing their reading, researching, and thinking concerning the past "Economic Antics" of "Romulian Romney??" One is hoping so! He wants to break the backs/straws of individuals who are in foreclosure by letting them go bankrupt. Remember that one Nevada? The "Romulian" moves his poltical straws back and forth all the time. The "Speculator and Chief" is a severe economic back breaker, a severe poltical flip-flopper, and a severe Moderate Liberal. Maybe he is a severe Conservative?? Maybe he is a severe Communist? Maybe he is a severe TeaBegger?? Oh! That's right! He is just "Severely" Cognitively Disabled.
He votes like a democrat most of the time,his record is not one of a conservative republican.