printRep. Ron Paul has won the straw poll at the 2010 CPAC convention, the Conservative Political Action Conference. Out with the regimists!
This is an informal poll; it’s not a well-controlled one. Out of 10,000 conference attendees, approximately 2500, very motivated Paulites voted, which means that they might have slanted the outcomes. On the other hand, it is quite possible that the Tea Party element has assumed control of the conservative movement.
Will they see to it that the bums and their statist sycophants—the Bill Bennetts, Ann Coulters, Rush Limbaughs of the world—are tossed out and replaced with strict Constitutionalists such as Peter Schiff and Rand Paul?
Perhaps as the republic tanks, the people are finally rising…
Update I: Glenn Beck commences the keynote address, and declares: “The Republicans have not had that come-to-Jesus moment.” And: “I am a Republican and I have a problem”—this moment of GOP contrition and recognitions has not transpired, says Beck.
About the Republicans’ quest for that Big Tent: “What is this, a circus?”
My version: “If the Republicans don’t stop their love affair with idiots, it’s not a bigger tent they’ll be seeking, but a giant tin-foil hat.”
At this stage, Beck has descended into America boosterism. The evening is young. Let us hope he does not waste the opportunity to substantially bash the GOP and zero in on economics, monetary policy; in other words, deliver some Paul pearls.
Glenn: “To restore America, we need less Marx and more Madison.”
Praises Calvin Coolidge.
Finally a fleeting Beck Breakthrough: “We don’t need to export democracy; the best example to the world is to lead by example.” But short lived. He fails to return to this vital point.
Beck then makes a huge historical and philosophical faux pas reading the progressive Emma Lazarus’s “The New Colossus” as if hers were the richly textured words of a Thomas Jefferson. Lazarus was a progressive interloper, whose sonnet ushered in all the maxims of mass immigration we’ve come to know.
Update II: Beck’s address was not the stuff of tea parties. He hit all those soaring notes the sentimental yentas on his show and in his audiences love to hear. But as for substance: he gets an “F.”
Update III: Back to Paul. ABC leads with the news that “Conservatives [Have Picked]: Ron Paul For President In 2012.”
Update IV (Feb. 21): Hours after we reported it here on BAB, CNN joins a growing chorus among MSM in acknowledging That This Is News: “Rep. Ron Paul surprise winner of CPAC presidential straw poll.” Whoever asserted that the “the 74-year old libertarian hero” would be in his 80s in two years was sprouting nonsense on stilts. Paul will be young enough to dismantle whole departments; dismiss large sections of the oink sector, and allow us all to begin breathing life into the economy again.
Update V (Feb 22): “The small Beltway Politburo that runs CPAC is worried,” writes Tom Tancredo at WND.COM:
the Beltway Politburo strives to demonstrate their superior cleverness by undermining the grass-roots consensus. On two key issues, CPAC offered detours and blind alleys, not leadership…
Whereas grass-roots conservatives and millions of 912 patriots – along with 80 percent of the American people – understand the need for border security as a precondition for immigration reform, CPAC board member Grover Norquist is busy launching a new project in support of the Obama administration’s plan to grant another amnesty to 20 million illegal aliens. Neither border control nor immigration enforcement was included as a topic for any of the CPAC general sessions.
Interesting essay from former CPAC head Mickey Edwards denouncing Cheneyesque pseudofascism among the 69% of antiPaulists at CPAC:
http:// correspondents.theatlantic.com/mickey_edwards/…/why_im_not_at_cpac.php
Ron Paul would be 82 if he took office in 2013 and served 4 years so perhaps his son Rand or Governor Gary Johnson would be credible “libertarian-Republicans” assuming that the oil and water could really mix. Call me skeptical over whether either the media or the “Republican establishment” would allow a new approach – even Reagan had a struggle getting the nomination in 1980. Leaving Afghanistan and ending the drug war??? – fuggedaboutit (probably!). Then there is the Sacred Holy Cow of Socialist Insecurity to attack Paul over – so, at best, it could be like Goldwater winning the Republican nomination in 1964.
It does appear that Healthcare Romney is son-of-Dubya and yesterday’s news although he has a personal warchest to bring to the primaries. Palin has to answer to quitting her job, personal eccentricities, perceived shallowness, etc. Huck, pardon me, is probably not credible outside the Yeehaw Belt. Then you have the Pawlenties, Grahams, and a lot of standard Wall Street Countryclub Neocon warmongers who may appeal to an anything-but-Obama mentality but so far are not catching on.
I must agree that Beck missed a great opportunity to bring home the point of America leading by example as opposed to exporting democracy. Clearly the Lazarus poem supports the idea of unlimited immigration. The logical progression from the poem is an unlimited immigration policy. Clearly the policy moves by our government in that direction have had consequences we have come to loathe.
RE: Straw Poll Results From The Politco Website:
“CPAC organizers were plainly embarrassed by the results, which could reduce the perceived impact of a contest that was once thought to offer a window into which White House hopefuls were favored by movement conservatives.
A spokesman for the conference rushed over to reporters following the announcement to make sure they had heard the unmistakable boos when the screen first showed Paul had won the straw poll.
It seems that many of the CPACers want freedom; freedom to follow the same worn path only when led by ‘their’ guy.
The speech Ron Paul gave last evening was very good, unlike Beck, who to me appears as a slightly improved version of Sarah Palin.
Myron: Thanks for the link to the article in The Atlantic…a good read.
I’ve never been a fan of Glenn Beck, but perhaps I’m not seeing in him what you see. He has a childlike quality that I find off-putting.
At any rate, I find all this talk of revitalizing the GOP more than a little tiresome. When being associated in any way with the GOP becomes the political kiss of death, I’ll stand up and take notice. Until then I will continue to keep the Mauser clean and bury any hope of the Republicans somehow becoming conservative again.
The Republican base is too stupid to nominate Paul. They’re a bunch of bed-wetters that see a raghead under every bed, with the only solution being constant war. And how would we pay for all of this without the Fed’s printing press?
No, Paul does not have a chance – unless the currency crisis hits us before the campaign gets into full swing. When the dollar meltdown occurs, the government defaults, and our empire crumbles, maybe the rubes in flyover country will recognize that Paul was right all along.
Sigh… We’ll probably not have an opportunity to end drug wars, make-the-world-safe-for-democracy wars, socialist retirement, socialist medicine, fascist banking and manufacturing policy, or all the rest of it until the currency actually crashes. On the day that happens, we’d better be ready to present and defend the freedom alternative against the plans that must surely be in place for ‘orderly continuity of government’.
Still, it’s great to see the crestfallen reaction of the neo-cons who think they’re going to run out in front of the Tea Party parade and lead it. Ha!
Myon,
Found your link an interesting read. BTW just because I live in the south does not make me stupid. In Huntsville, Alabama we have the second highest density, if you will, of high tech workers in the country. So we don’t all suffer from Intellectual Inertia, to borrow a phrase from Ilana [meticulously quoting Peter Brimelow], in the so called Yeahaw Belt!
Better a redneck than a pencilneck.
Ron Paul is fine but he has made some pretty controversial remarks in the dark days following 9-11 which would make him a no-go in a general election if not in the primaries. His ideas are outstanding but his age and comments on certain issues would doom him. I honestly believe there is a dark horse candidate poised to stride in and take the prize: Gary Johnson, libertarian Republican, former governor of New Mexico. He has an excellent resume like Ron Paul, a background in government and business. I really like him and hope we hear more from him soon!
I went to one of the CPAC sites that had videos, read the comments. Well only a couple of hundred of the then 2500+. Lies and smears against Dr. Paul, and Austrian economics; numerous statements calling Libertarians ‘loonies;’ so I assume a lot of them knew what the differences in economics or politics really were. I didn’t see anything that I would call “Redneck Republicanism” which is like the ‘tea party’ a restoration of values, financial and moral. It was more like young/old ignorant Democrats; probably the Neo-conservatives which from what I can see are not conservative at all. Most wanted a “Elvis” to run for president and lamented that they couldn’t find someone with a ‘leadership image.’ The writers were a perfect companion to the “Your Kids, dumb etc,” in Ilana’s list of articles; or the Roman “Bread and Circus politics” of the first four millennium. I too like Gary Johnson, but he is in the dark horse category and he has to get past the neocons as much as Ron Paul does.
Raylynn wrote, “Ron Paul is fine but he has made some pretty controversial remarks in the dark days following 9-11 which would make him a no-go in a general election if not in the primaries. His ideas are outstanding but his age and comments on certain issues would doom him.”
Really? Ron Paul’s “pretty controversial remarks…following 9-11” had the advantage of being spot-on accurate. Unless and until the Republican Party rids itself of both the RINOs and the War Whores, it will deserve to lose. That’s not going to happen.
Here’s a prediction. All that Barrack Obama has to do in order to salvage his Presidency is attack Iran (or support an attack on Iran). Not to worry. There will be an “incident” (provoked or imaginary) to support our next “defense of freedom.” The Neocons will be magically transformed into supporters of our wartime President. Anything else would be “unpatriotic.”
Frank Brady I personally agree with most, if not all, of Ron Paul’s remarks but I was speaking of the general public and primary voters. They don’t think like you, me, or many people on this blog. We must keep educating, day in and day out. That is all we can do.
Raylynn, you are absolutely correct. Wish I believed the mass public is educable. I’m at a point where I think it isn’t. That’s sad, because what it reduces to is that the wheels are going to have to completely fall off before most folks understand they have a problem. The government schools have done their jobs far too well.