Posted on 08/27/2011 3:03:18 PM PDT by justsaynomore
Two Georgia pols went in; one came out a winner at the state GOP’s presidential straw poll Saturday. Herman Cain, formerly an Atlanta talk radio host, took 26 percent of the vote to nab the first-place spot.
Newt Gingrich, who represented Georgia in Congress for nearly two decades, finished fourth with 18 percent of the vote. Continue Reading
In between were second-place candidate Ron Paul, who fell less than 1 point short of Cain’s total, and Rick Perry, who drew 20 percent.
The full standings, from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Jim Galloway, who notes the lack of enthusiasm for Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann:
– Herman Cain, 232 or 26 percent; – Ron Paul, 229 or 25.7 percent; – Rick Perry, 179 or 20 percent; – Newt Gingrich, 162 or 18 percent; – Mitt Romney, 51 or 6 percent; – Michele Bachman, 29 or 3 percent; – Rick Santorum, 4 or .4 percent – Jon Huntsman, 3 or .3 percent; – Thad McCotter, 1 or .1 percent; – Buddy Roemer, 0; – Gary Johnson, 0
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62188.html#ixzz1WGjmY9KR
Pinganator! Herman Cain wasn’t there - he is flying back from Israel this weekend, but the turnout was great! It was good to meet a lot of FReepers there :-)
I like Herman Cain. I think he'll be the second black man I've voted for in a Presidential Primary. And don't worry, the first was in the 2000 Republican presidential primary.
I’m not sure what the Ron Paul playbook is, but I felt like saw at least 100 people with Herman Cain buttons, t-shirts, stickers and talked to many of them. I saw dozens that I knew from Facebook and Free Republic. His table was hopping and there was a lot of enthusiasm there. Ron Paul had a lot of people there too, but a pretty different, and much younger, crowd.
Herman supporters were mostly white, middle-aged families.
Granted, Cain staff chartered a bus of supporters from north of the Perimeter, but many like my family, drove down.
When I say “chartered a bus” - Cain’s staff didn’t pay for the bus, people bought tickets for it.
Cain is genuinely popular with the Georgia GOP. He gave a whale of a good speech at our state convention. I think Cain does well here simply because most people know who he is and understand what he stands for.
I agree, this is not a surprise at all considering he won the Fulton GOP, Cobb GOP, Cherokee GOP and several others.
The bus is part of the Ron Paul playbook. The Paul camp tends to charter busses, pay for admission and any "contribution" required to vote, and generally buy the entire result.
justsaynomore wrote:
I’m not sure what the Ron Paul playbook is ....
<snip> Granted, Cain staff chartered a bus of supporters from north of the Perimeter, but many like my family, drove down.
Because of this, Ron Paul wins a lot of straw polls like this. But his support in the straw polls represents every person in the state who will vote for him in any election. It doesn't represent his potential strength among the general public.
I do think he has better name recognition in the Atlanta area than he does nationally.
MNJohnnie wrote:
Cain is genuinely popular with the Georgia GOP. He gave a whale of a good speech at our state convention. I think Cain does well here simply because most people know who he is and understand what he stands for.
Also, being a FairTax proponent in Neil Boortz's back yard helps a lot.
We heard Herman Cain speak here in Oregon a few weeks ago. He’s definitely terrific, & I think if most people could see him in person they would be equally impressed.
I hope whoever gets the nomination draws in all of our candidates to run as a team & gives them a spot in the next administration. They all of strengths & weaknesses, but it would be a good way to unify the Republicans who are just all over the place this year with no clear leader.
I explained in my post after that, Cain did not PAY for the bus, people bought tickets for the bus - cost between $20 and $50 and included bus fare and ticket. A volunteer arranged the bus is all. Only about 30 folks even went on the bus.
That is completely different than buying votes, it is just glorified carpooling with everyone pitching in.
Herman Cain is running between 46 - 57% name recognition nationwide. But he has been at the top of the Gallup positive intensity poll for 13 of the last 14 weeks.
It doesn’t help that the media has their darlings and pooh-pooh everyone else.
Get real. ALL the candidates do whatever they can that's legal to win -- and ALL the losers bitch about it claiming "it's unfair and illegitimate because he or she bought votes". Ron Paul supporters were also griping that "Bachmann only won in Iowa because she had a Randy Travis concert at her booth". It's just the way that these straw polls work.
It does say something that Ron Paul was only 3 votes behind Cain in Cain's home State and #3 Perry was 50 votes behind him.
Palin/Cain 2012!
Palin/Cain 2012!
One gives pain the other raises cain !!!
Southern folks don’t need Mitt around anyhow.
Glad Cain is getting some support...I hate it that the LSM is not giving him a chance to get his name out there more...
He’d make a terrific president.
Just give us a conservative candidate the we can unite behind....Cain, Bachmann, Perry, Palin any true conservative...but please no Ron Paul (progressive libertarian) or Romney (progressive RINO). I don’t want to have to gag when I cast my vote.
ping
bump.
Ron Paul gets the best legitimate results that money can buy.
My question was more whether this result for Cain indicated widespread popular support, or just an exercise in campaign spending to "buy" a good finish.
For someone who doesn't raise that much money, Ron Paul spends a whole lot on these straw polls. Just my observation.
Paul brings in supporters from outside the area. In 2007, he swamped the Cobb County GOP Picnic with people from outside of Cobb County.
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