CPAC's Straw Poll
The Conservative Political Action Committee had their 2012 Presidential Preference straw poll the other day. The results? Romney with 20%, Jindal with 14%, and Ron Paul with 13% (tied with Sarah Palin, no less)!
To understand why this is so amazing, understand that the 2009 CPAC poll doesn't predict who the candidate in 2012 will be. Rather, it measures the impact people had in the 2008 election. That a group like CPAC, who have been rife with Neocons and other faux-Republicans for a while, would put Ron Paul - the only conservative left in the GOP - on equal footing with names like Palin, Jindal, and Romney is spectacular. (Of course, most media is ignoring it, as expected.)
See this article from the Guardian for a contrast between then and now:
"But while the speech doesn't draw much applause - Paul has never shaken a habit to stampede through his text and run over applause lines - what's striking is what the audience doesn't do. It doesn't boo when Paul attacks the war in Iraq and "policing the world". It doesn't move as Paul burrows into the theory of Austrian economics. The audience is steadfast, glued to the seats."
Used to be when Paul decried the Iraq War for the giant waste of money and lives it was, he would be booed by the CPAC folks. Now, they listen with rapt attention. Those who criticzed Paul strongly just last year are now mimicking his words.
"It only makes sense that Paul, who has been arguing for years that the GOP needs to get back to the values of pre-New Deal America, should be winning over young hearts and minds."
Combine this shift among the older crowd to be more in line with Paul's way of thinking (Goldwater Conservatism) with his ability to reach out to the young voters (like myself) and it would seem Paul's Revolution was more successful than it appeared on the surface. While he probably won't run in 2012 (Paul will be 76), he will be able to name a successor, a torch bearer. And that torch bearer will be backed by what's shaping to be an increasingly powerful voice in the Republican and Libertarian parties - a voice that may find a receptive audience in a few years when Bush-Obama's Keynsian policies drive the economy into the ground.
Leave it to Ron Paul to shine a ray of hope into the current mess of politics.
To understand why this is so amazing, understand that the 2009 CPAC poll doesn't predict who the candidate in 2012 will be. Rather, it measures the impact people had in the 2008 election. That a group like CPAC, who have been rife with Neocons and other faux-Republicans for a while, would put Ron Paul - the only conservative left in the GOP - on equal footing with names like Palin, Jindal, and Romney is spectacular. (Of course, most media is ignoring it, as expected.)
See this article from the Guardian for a contrast between then and now:
"But while the speech doesn't draw much applause - Paul has never shaken a habit to stampede through his text and run over applause lines - what's striking is what the audience doesn't do. It doesn't boo when Paul attacks the war in Iraq and "policing the world". It doesn't move as Paul burrows into the theory of Austrian economics. The audience is steadfast, glued to the seats."
Used to be when Paul decried the Iraq War for the giant waste of money and lives it was, he would be booed by the CPAC folks. Now, they listen with rapt attention. Those who criticzed Paul strongly just last year are now mimicking his words.
"It only makes sense that Paul, who has been arguing for years that the GOP needs to get back to the values of pre-New Deal America, should be winning over young hearts and minds."
Combine this shift among the older crowd to be more in line with Paul's way of thinking (Goldwater Conservatism) with his ability to reach out to the young voters (like myself) and it would seem Paul's Revolution was more successful than it appeared on the surface. While he probably won't run in 2012 (Paul will be 76), he will be able to name a successor, a torch bearer. And that torch bearer will be backed by what's shaping to be an increasingly powerful voice in the Republican and Libertarian parties - a voice that may find a receptive audience in a few years when Bush-Obama's Keynsian policies drive the economy into the ground.
Leave it to Ron Paul to shine a ray of hope into the current mess of politics.