The place – CPAC
The news – Ron Paul wins their Straw Poll
The result – Ecstatic Paulbots everywhere!
CNN is shocked by the result stating with their headline, “Rep. Ron Paul surprise winner of CPAC presidential straw poll”
Well, eh, actually not so much. For the past three months I have been getting emails from Ron Paul supporters telling me how they were going to CPAC to flood the polls for their man and make sure he won the straw poll which, they saw, as a means to getting Mr. Paul bonafides as a legitimate candidate in 2012. Ron Paul in the end did indeed win with 31% of the vote. And like the typical self-fulfilling prophecy now I am getting the same obligatory emails from the Ron Paul supporters telling me how this proves that the Republican Party will have to give him a hard look in the next Presidential primaries.
The problem is that winning the CPAC straw poll has not done so well for former Governor Mitt Romney who had a three year win streak going now has it?
Ron Paul’s victory actually drew at least as many boos as it did cheers and the cheers were louder for both Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin who finished second and third. And another part of the poll which asked if people were satisfied with the field of potential candidates before them and a majority answered no, that they were not. So winning a poll where the majority are not happy with the selection is not a good thing in my opinion.
But that still hasn’t stopped, like I said, the Ron Paul supporters who would run off a cliff for him from being happy with their coup at CPAC. And of course each and so many of them had to throw in the obligatory jabs at the, “military industrial complex,” and the, “unconstitutional wars” that we are currently fighting which they hope that Paul could get elected and end. Yep, just like the 9/11 Truthers who think that there were secret agents of President Bush planted explosives in the World Trade Centers they are still trying to pretend that there was no declaration of war against Iraq even though there is. Declaring it ok to use military force is the same as declaring a war – get over it. You don’t send the military in to have tea parties with the natives.
There were also quite a few people who emailed me and who said that they were planning to vote for Mr. Paul in the straw poll to send a message to the GOP but that they personally would not vote for him come election time. Again not very good for Mr. Paul and his supporters. Protest votes are never to be counted on and people who vote against something rather than for something are not easily drawn in line on Election Day. The fact that the boos were so loud for Mr. Paul but practically nonexistent for others tells me that a lot of half-hearted protest votes were indeed cast.
Ron Paul is the sort of guy conservatives and libertarians want to represent them when he is talking about fiscal responsibility and keeping spending within the limits of our Constitution. But they flee from him in droves when he inevitably starts complaining about how America is the reason the terrorists exist and he shys away from defending liberty abroad with a typical pseduolibertarian mindset of, freedom for me but not for thee.
America does get far too involved in foreign affairs in extra-constitutional endeavors. Even I have said that for years and there is no doubt of this. But that does not mean we should swing the pendulum so far to the other side and adopt the hardnosed isolationist policies Mr. Paul has often touted. And I think in the end that Americans will reject Mr. Paul for higher office than he already holds simply because they already have so many times before. And then I will get the angry emails from Ron Paul supporters telling me how it is all a conspiracy to keep him down and deny the American people who they really want for President. Yeah, I get those all the time and they always make me laugh.
Ron Paul is where he belongs – in the House of Representatives. He is a good fit for that body and can do his best work there.
RSS Feed
Loading ...