Posted on 02/11/2012 4:58:24 PM PST by Starman417
It's another CPAC year, and it appears that not much is new. Mitt Romney will still say anything to convince the GOP and conservative voters that his past doesn't exist, and the CPAC attendees still bounce back and forth between the same two names they've done since 2007... Mitt or Ron Paul. After CPAC 2010-2010 Straw Polls, handing the victory to Ron Paul, Romney regained his crown and chalked up yet another CPAC win with 38% of the 3,408 attendees. Santorum came in second with 31%, Gingrich third at 15%, and Ron Paul trailing last with 12%.
The participation in the straw poll - always traditionally low - seems to echo that same pattern considering the estimated attendance of 10,000 touted. Al Cardenas, chair of the American Conservative Union which sponsors CPAC, had hoped a change of rules, allowing attendees to vote electronically with their phones and iPads, instead of just through paper ballots, would boost the voting participation.
“No one’s stacking the deck this year,” Cardenas said. “It’s a wide-open process. I don’t think any of [the candidates] want to be caught with a perception that they’re trying to stack the deck and then lose the straw ballot. … The outcome will be far less predictable.”All that according to Cardenas adds up to results that, when they’re announced Saturday, will be a real barometer of which presidential candidate the thousands of attendees at CPAC like the most.
“This is the first time that you’re going to have the ultimate focus group of 10,000 people (or whatever it turns out to be) listening to four candidates over the same period of time, voting on who they like the best,” Cardenas told me at his morning press conference. “They’re going to be swayed by the passion of the orator. Whether they end up voting for the person they came in supporting or not, I think that’s one of the most interesting stories for you fellows to follow.”
Personally, I would think such electronic polls leave you even more open to a fraudulent count, as any well versed Ron Paul supporter can attest. In fact, as the masters of swamping any electronic poll, the CPAC officials are lucky that most the Ron Paul voters were MIA, along with their candidate. Indeed, the electronic voting seemed to be one of the hopes CPAC had to keep the Ron Paul supporters from gaming the system, and hope for at least 2/3rds of those attending to participate.
This year, the American Conservative Union and CPAC are moving from paper ballots to electronic voting that will be accessible from a computer or a handheld device, said Al Cardenas, the conservative union's current president. He told The Huffington Post that he hopes this will increase the number of attendees who participate in the straw poll."Obviously, in the past, it's been somewhat compromised because only a third of the people who attend voted," Cardenas said in an interview. "It used to be a fairly cumbersome process because you had to do it manually. Now, for the first time this year we're instituting an electronic vote.
"So people can vote through Saturday afternoon, and before, that wasn't the case," he said. "And we're hoping that instead of having a third of those in attendance vote, we'll have two-thirds or more vote."
Despite the rapidly increasing of attendance at CPAC since 2000, and assuming the "focus group of 10,000 people" is close to the 2012 attendance, a participation rate of 34% via new media is a disappointing voting statistic in itself. And if you further parse the numbers, Romney's win pencils out to a big 1,295 attendees voting for him.
I don't think I'd be jumping up and down, myself. Instead, the lack of participation makes a serious statement on the lackluster enthusiasm by what is supposed to be a charged up base of conservatives, eager to beat Obama with literally any one with an "R" behind their names or, as others have stated, any handy inanimate object.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
CPAC was held in a Mormon hotel...
Ron Paul normally wins it, and you see how critical that is.
/s
Doesn’t the one backed by Ann Coulter always have the inside track?
At this point, I can’t think of one good reason to care about what happens at “CPAC” ever again.
If Romney is to be prevented from nomination, he must be defeated in Arizona & Michigan. I am surprised Santorum did not win straw poll at CPAC, since the buzz was all about Santorum. Andrea Tantoros was gushing over mightily over Santorum at CPAC. Ron Paul has won it only once in 2010?
Given the developments there this year, they need to rename it to RINOPAC.
“If Romney is to be prevented from nomination, he must be defeated in Arizona & Michigan.”
I just voted my Arizona ballot and there were perhaps 15 people on the ballot including Rick Perry and other drop outs. Santorum has no staff here. If Newt is around he must be staying at the No Tell Motel because he has little to no press. Romney has a well oiled organization and has been running ads for quite some time.
My guess is that it will be a big Romney win with the other 14 grabbing the non Romney votes. My daughter is going for an unknown as a protest vote because she can’t stand Newt. My other daughter is going for Ron Paul.
May have something to do with the bus loads of college students brought it to cheer Romney on during his speech.
If you listen again to it the applause pauses were better planned than those used for the old time variety shows.
This is one of the reasons I have no desire to attend CPAC... a bunch of idiots and frauds...
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