Cash King Cult Leader And Foreign Policy Dunce Wins CPAC Straw Poll

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Cash King Cult Leader And Foreign Policy Dunce Wins CPAC Straw Poll

Feb 20, 2010 23 Comments ›› Pat Dollard

(CNN) — U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, a stalwart foe of government spending, won a blowout victory Saturday in the annual Conservative Political Action Conference presidential straw poll.

With participants naming “reducing the size of federal government” as their top issue, the 74-year old libertarian hero captured 31 percent of the 2,400 votes cast in the annual contest, usually seen as a barometer of how the GOP’s conservative wing regards their potential presidential candidates.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney finished second with 22 percent of the vote, ending a three-year winning streak at CPAC. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin finished third with 7 percent of the vote, followed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty at 6 percent and Indiana Rep. Mike Pence at 5 percent.

They were followed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who tied at 4 percent. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, South Dakota Sen. John Thune and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour rounded out the results.

Five percent of participants voted for “Other” and 6 percent was undecided.

The announcement of Paul’s win, a surprise victory unlikely to have a major impact on the 2012 presidential contest, drew a volley of loud boos from the CPAC audience.

That discontent could be seen in the poll results: A majority of participants said they wished the Republican Party had a better field of candidates to choose from.

But Paul’s victory might be seen, in part, as a result of his support among anti-establishment Tea Party activists — who turned out in force at this year’s conference and expressed some frustration with the Republican Party.

Reflecting the college atmosphere of the annual event, young people dominated the voting: 54 percent of participants were between the ages of 18 and 25.

The poll also contained a bit of bad news for Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who made an under-the-radar appearance at CPAC late Friday.

Follow on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/cpac

Participants were asked to rate their opinions of several top political figures, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader John Boehner, both of whom received a majority favorable rating.

But Steele was the only Republican to garner an upside-down rating, with 44 percent giving him an unfavorable rating and 42 percent rating him favorably.

The three-day meeting Saturday that has featured speeches by Republican leaders, training sessions for local political activists and a renewed purpose to stand firm behind their principles heading into the midterm elections.

Sully

All I take from that poll is that 31% of those ‘voting’ are PaulBots.
mark gibbons

only a retard would vote for that old fool.
IndependantConservative

“Foreign policy dunce”: couldn’t have said it better myself. Every time I hear the arguments of a Paulite wingnut saying the US should stop supporting Israel, I want to cringe. I think a lot of his supporters post on prisonplanet.com. THAT place is really off the wall. I can agree with a lot of the anti-establishment stuff, but those guys go off into Left field with a bunch of crackpot ideas that never should get the light of day IMO.
John

policy dunce writes article
Jim

I guess this shows that reducing government spending is as likely to occur as dismantling the Fed.

John

Oh, the spending will stop..

Just a matter of time before the fiat currency crashes… They can barely keep up now with the printing presses running 24/7/365…

Have fun with your monoply money, your gonna need trillions of them for one happy meal and McDonalds
Sully

“Oh, the spending will stop..”

Cool…. so if nobody HAS to put up with Ron Paul…. why would they?
Sully

And I’ve yet to hear a coherent explanation of what happens to ‘money’ after you PaulBots are done “dismantling the Fed”.
And who exactly does it?
political.fish

A straw man from the straw poll.

John

So the Fractional Reserve System is peretually sustainable?

Fiat currency and its history, looking good there… They always fail…

W was a liar or an idiot… You pick…
Clinton was a liar or an idiot… You pick
Daddy Bush was a liar… History has proven that…
Oboingo, Liar, history has already pushed that…

Can we get someone that is not a member of the Council of Foriegn Relations….

political.fish

I pick that you are an idiot.
IndependantConservative

You never will get someone who isn’t part of the Establishment as President, because both parties are in cahoots with the CFR and the Trilaterals. Glenn Beck is right: I don’t trust either party.

I voted twice for George Bush and he increased the size of the US Government and spending like he was LBJ, not to mention secretly trying to implement the North American Union without the approval of Congress or any debate whatsoever.

I’ve checked out of the Republican party and they will have to earn my vote in order to receive it. No more automatic straight-ticket voting!

Sully

Still no answer to my question there John.
mark gibbons

ron would be high on the list for gallows action on the mall. so would john
http://touchstonesjests.blogspot.com/ TouchStone

BEFORE we can “dismantle the Fed” and get off “fiat money”, we need to – by definition – get back to the old Gold Standard.
BEFORE we can do that, we need to PAY OFF the debt (or at least the majority of it), since THE FED OWNS most of the debt “backing” the “fiat money”.
BEFORE we can do that, we must CUT the deficit.
BEFORE we can do ANY of that, we need to CUT spending.

In the meantime, look for some massive (intentional, by the government) inflation, making the Monopoly money worth less (so the debt SEEMS easier to pay), and pretty much pissing off anyone and everyone we default on our T-bills with – INCLUDING OURSELVES.

As for ronpaul and his cultists, theoreticians ALWAYS step on their daubers when they try to apply their Utopian solutions to real problems, since facts and human nature inevitably slap them up-side their heads with Reality.

Back here on Planet Earth, it’s just a matter of IF we man-up and take the Hit – which WILL COME, sooner or later – or do like the current crop of oxy-thieves and drop the bill onto our kids’ laps.

This sh*t sandwich has been most of a century in the making, and we’re ALL gonna have to take big bites.
There are simply NO GOOD (or easy) ANSWERS to this one.

Sully

Is that you Beck?
Where’d the PaulBot go?

Why the gold standard?
Why not the wheat standard?
Maybe if it was the oil standard we’d finally drill here drill now.

If we have a currency based on gold, how does it’s value get set?
By the markets like the dollar?
Or Barney Frank and Chris Dodd?
How do we settle international obligations? Not have any as Paul suggests? Do we pay for goods and services the same way Lloyd’s of London paid insurance claims after the 1906 Frisco quake – by actual transfers of bullion via ship-borne vessel?
That’s alot of boats.
Golly, there’s just tons of questions that get raised when Progressives want to take us back to Stone Age notions of society but, for the Paulites, 1650 will do.

Ya know what? I’d bet that if we paid our debts, reduced the deficit and cut spending the value of that fiat currency would soar.
What do you think?

“The basis of ALL money is belief.”
-Adam Smith
Sully

Glen?
Is that you Beck?
Where’d the PaulBot go?

Hey…. what do you sptose would happen to the value of our ‘fiat currency’ if we paid our debts, reduced our deficits and cut spending but left the Fed alone?
Sully

And what’s so golden about the gold standard?
Isn’t America worth more than ‘gold’?Why not put a value on American industrial and technological prowess and productivity?
oh wait…
http://touchstonesjests.blogspot.com/ TouchStone

The nice thing about the gold standard is that it prevents the government from just “printing” more money.

It’s all about not spending more than they take in – in short, responsibility.
Something AWOL from D.C. for far too long.

That’s the problem with leaving the Fed in place – there’s WAY too many ways to fiddle with the books and make people believe the Fed has more than it does.

As for the rest?
Paying debts, reducing deficits and cutting spending?
That’s what WE all gotta do in our own homes, so why the hell should D.C. be any different?

….the games they’ve been playing for 80+ years have to end.
Sully

lol
So would you agree that fiat money isn’t the problem, it’s the lack of character and commitment of government to the ‘first principles’ of our founding?

Is there even enough gold in the world to support trade between nations?
And shall we revert to shipping bullion back and forth between countries the way Lloyd’s of London did paying claims from the 1906 Frisco earthquake? (That sure is alot of boats.)

Again, fiscal responsibility would actually improve the value of the dollar.
And I’m fairly well convinced now that the quasi-privatization of our monetary system, while flawed and worthy of modification, has been a considerable net positive. Particularly when I consider a monetary system controlled by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.
And throwing babies out with the bath water is foolish and only something a Progressive or PaulBot would advocate.
LechWalesa

except that that questionable gold is tungsten in the reserve

billy_bonney

Ron Paul is sort of Like Lyndon LaRouche,
you agree with 90% of what he says until he gets to some off the wall lunacy.

His domestic policy is right on, gettingon the gold standard would be a good way to control our economy.

Stop spending on stupid social programs

However, this idiot wants to abolish the CIA and other various intelligence gathering agencies that are an intergral part of our defense.

Libertarians are not necessarily conservatives

Billy
Sully

@TouchStone
Yeah that’s how it always goes. The only argument FOR the gold standard is it would be “nice” but never why other than ‘keeping government honest’.
Never a thought about reverting to an antiquated monetary system completely unsatisfactory as a trade medium between nations. (T-Bills are actually ‘credit money’ btw and not ‘fiat’.
) But hey, Ron Paul is an isolationist so maybe that’s not an issue.
And who replaces the Fed? Barney Frank and Chris Dodd? No thanks. The quasi-privatization of monetary policy is worthy of some reform but…..

Nah…. All your points come down to distrust of government and to a large extent I agree but subverting government is not always the best way to improve it.