Conservative Republicans Pick Romney for 2012
Posted Mar 03, 2009 at 9:25 AM by Maurice Berger
For the third straight year, Mitt Romney has won the presidential
preference straw poll of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) with 20% of the vote. Bobby Jindal finished with 14%, just
ahead of Ron Paul and Sarah Palin, who got 13% each. Newt Gingrich finished with
10%, Mike Huckabee 7%, Mark Sanford 4%, Rudy Giuliani 3%, Tim Pawlenty 2%,
Charlie Crist 1%, and 9% said they were undecided. The organization, which
supports right-wing Republican values and candidates, is exceptionally conservative:95% said
they disapproved of the job President Obama is doing, 80% "strongly disapproving.” Probably not significant enough to be taken seriously at
this point, the CPAC straw poll is a notoriously inaccurate at predicting the
eventual Republican Party nominee. In 1999, it awarded the straw poll victory to
Steve Forbes. In 2005 and 2006, it went to George Allen, and in 2007 and 2008, to
Mitt Romney.
