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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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Wow, Romney Wins Straw Poll is not the headline. Paul's plan to keep Romney down is the headline? MSNBC, your biased petticoat is showing...
Yeah, the media are TOTAL shills for Ron Paul!
Once again the GOP Cantor get their Stuff together.Its like they have a broken Boehner or something ! But that Palin's in comparison to the big TRUMP card they may yet play,you'll have to take two breath DeMints to get THAT taste out of your mouth. Maybe we should just Newter them all and stick em' in a Sanitorium...that should get them off our Backman....
lmao....
And the winner of the most religious extremist teatard is............
Chuckler's gay lover.
Just saw a bunch of paul supporters here in OR. Aren't they in the wrong state on the wrong side of the country?
Romeny winning the CPAC poll is equivalent to winning best make up at a Star Trek convention.
So Romney did not get 62% of the vote? That's a heck of an endorsement. In Mitt's defense, he is to the right of the Obamination, but who isn't? Mitt will be forever marred by his time as Governor of the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts. How can any conservative trust someone from a state that elected an array of cartoon characters like Barney, John Kerry and Teddy.
The delegates were confused going in, and apparently coming out too.
Romney unilaterally implemented “gay” marriage in Massachusetts.
He instituted RomneyCare, the model for ObamaCare.
A few months after Mr. Romney took office in 2003, what he delivered seemed anything but friendly to the C.E.O. crowd: a bill to financial firms for what they saw as $110 million in new corporate taxes — and a promise of more to come.
Now he claims to be 'severely conservative'?
haha Paul is so much a goofball loser.
Careful Binky, the Paulites WORSHIP the crazy old cracker.
"Why would an undecided voter, vote for a candidate of a party that the party's not excited about?"
You miss the point as usual, Rick. As an independent voter, I couldn't care less how the party feels about a candidate (hence being an independent voter). I care only about how I feel about the candidate.
Everyone is scurrying for Sarah's endorsement !! She has met with each candidate privately at Cpuke. She is threatening a brokered convention,and is trying to see whats in it for her.A nomination ??? NOPE.. So she asked Romey what he has for her,and he offered her FREE supplies at STAPLES for the rest of her life !! After some thought,she called in Newty...So..What have ya got for me Newty...He offered up a hundred grand gift certificate to Tiffany's ..hmmm...She called in Santorum...Rick offered to do her taxes for free...since he does his own and everything...Naw ...she grunted...Bring in Dr. Paul...He told her that he played by the rules and all he could offer her was perhaps some free medical care. She said that since you are a Gynecologist..how about free check ups for life ??? CNN is reporting that Ron Paul is dropping out of the race !!!...and giving up his medical license...and swearing to celibacy for the rest of his life !!!!
Some folks would bet she has no less than 150 GOP-gyno signatures on her upper inner thigh regions....
What a load of bollocks this GOP circus is .
I wouldn't let Romney lead my dog to the nearest fire hydrant!! It's a damn shame the rich can select who they want even within the same party. I sometimes feel that Paul, Gingrich and Santorum are wasting their time and money. The rich repukes will nominate who they want. Voter beware the wealthy is taking away your right to vote!
And did you see mr grover's speech at cpac. He says the gop is winning. He was feeling good. But what's he smoking. The gop couldn't even win the catholic anti abortion payment issue & need to pay more for health care because of their anti-condom large families.
sure he won.... 38%...
amounting to???
A total of 1,150 "straw" votes... and the howdy doody clown wants you to believe he's on a roll!!
lmao
CPAC....In a deft move of brilliance, reduced their vaunted conference to a meaningless absurdity by giving the final speaking spot to none other than Miss Vacuous herself. She's long been exposed as nothing but a pathetic joke, and has now gotten well beyond point to one that's starting to wear on everyones nerves...except for those who gravitate to someone scratching their nails on a blackboard. The CPAC organizers could have saved a lot of time and money and offered something much more enjoyable in her place, they could have had a showing of the movie, "Game Change". If nothing else it would have given these nimrods the ability to see how the rest of the world views this moronic, simple minded woman.....
The polling straw -- is it new, or is it the kind that does a really good job growing mushrooms? Keeping all those pachyderms penned up indoors for all that time must have produced prodigious transformations of new straw to used straw.
Picture this...Its August in Tampa Bay,and the convention floor is packed with tea party crazies,and in the back rooms the power brokers are all in a huge fight to get their boy nominated, Sarah Palin gets up and gives one of her usual ballon juice speeches,and then she stops,and starts to cry,and looks out at the teatards and says...NOMINATE ME !!!!! This is gonna be sooooo cool !!!!
Who cares, what are there like three conservatives out there? Like any one of these conservative clowns is actually electable to the presidency! These "conservatives" won't pull the shades over the eyes of the middle class who have been spat on by them for 10 years!
Go Romney....this country is middle to right....not left left or right right.....Romney for President with Santorum as VP would be great ticket.
JustMee: A great ticket would be to send Romney and Santorum to the nut house with no refund. These suppose to be men are starting to believe their own lie's and are two control freaks with anger issue's when they are put under stress or get caught telling a lie.
With Mitt. The more you get to know him the less you will like him. Mitt's big buck Super-pac smear campaigns are starting to backfire on him because he isn't getting big numbers after destroying the other guy. Santrum is running a clean fairly positive boots on the ground pressing the flesh campaign and old Mitt will seek to destroy him too. However Rick"the fetus in a bottle" Santorum is way too much of a social extremist for the majority of the voting public so he will not do well in a general election against Obama if he happens to win the Republican nomination. With Mitt the died in the wool hard core Republican base will have to hold their noses when they place their vote this fall since he isn't any ones sweetheart.
Looks like Romney is going to be the nominee. With Romney being a lib we need someone to balance the ticket. Ann Coulter would be a good choice. She is very competent and it would be nice to see her make Biden cry.
Common Man-3493893: Why would want to put an undercover whore like Ann Coulter in the white house? Her face is so screwed that she would turn daylight to dark and she is the only woman who sounds more illiterate than Glover Norquist.
Hawk, sorry to hear you are so intimidated by Ann.
Given the decidedly sorry state of the GOP's field of candidates, this endorsement essentially makes Romney the tallest midget in the NBA...
Obama has been the most devastating to happen to the U.S. dollar in our history. The U.S. dollar is virtually worthless abroad anymore.
I don't want a president that was attempting to give bass loads of our money to the Palestinians to free up their resources to attack Israel some more. Enough is enough of this clown.
Thank god, or Allah in his case the U.S. congress shut him down on that one.
Funny thing is, I am not a Republican, a Democrat or a T.E.A.
Republicans and Democrats have our country in ruins. I vote my conscience by voting against them both.
I decided that during the last presidential election when virtually every Republican and Democratic candidate were so unprepared and unqualified to be president.
I say to all you Democrats on this site so far, Your party is just as bad as the Republicans, and your liberalism is just as sickening as the Republicans conservatism. Both of you have your heads in the sand.
I urge all to kick both parties out and get some real change for once. Vote anything but Republican or Democrat for now on. Remove their base at the local level, and they will both fade into history as a dark period in American history; where they belong.
No matter what you think about Romney, he is far better than Obama. Obama doesn't know the first thing about leadership and is waaaay over his head. He just lies his way through!
yes/no: Whats the matter have you been drinking stupid juice today? You need to stop trying to play the flip flop psychology game because those code words(do you know what code words mean?) that you are using died 125 years ago. Not only are those republican candidates over their heads but also are has dumb as a dead rock. You really do need to wake up from that nightmare of believing the gop don't you think?
yes/no, most people don't care who the republican nominee is. They are not supporting a republican they will be voting to get rid of Obama.