And speaking of the Conservative Political Action Conference, for the second straight year libertarian favorite Ron Paul has won CPAC’s straw poll of prospective Republican candidates for President in 2012.
Mr. Paul received 30 percent of the vote, and [Mitt] Romney won 23 percent. The rest of the potential contenders finished in single digits, including Sarah Palin, who declined an invitation to speak here; she received support from only 3 percent of the poll’s voters.
Organizers said that more than 10,000 people from across the country attended the conference, but only 3,742 of them participated in the straw poll, the results of which offer little indication of which candidate will emerge to take on the president. The tepid showing of many of the candidates underscored the problems they face as they seek to introduce themselves to Republican primary voters. The conference is intended to allow candidates to test the themes of their prospective candidacy.
