Not that I really care about CPAC...but the results are in.
Mitt Romney - 20 percent
Bobby Jindal - 14 percent
Ron Paul -13 percent
Sarah Palin - 13 percent
Newt Gingrich -10 percent
Mike Huckabee - 7 percent
Mark Sanford - 4 percent
Rudy Guiliani - 3 percent
Tim Pawlenty - 2 percent
Charlie Crist - 1 percent
Undecided - 9 percent
Pawlenty's dismal performance isn't really a big deal in my opinion. CPAC Presidential Polls are not good indicators of electoral chances.
1995: Phil Gramm won the poll, received less than 1 percent of the 1996 presidential primary vote.
1998: Steve Forbes, won only two delegates in 1996, dropped out after taking 3rd in Delaware in 2000.
1999: Gary Bauer, dropped out after New Hampshire primary.
2000: Bush won
2005: George Allen, lost to Senator Jim Webb
2006: George Allen, lost to Senator Jim Webb
2007: Mitt Romney, conceded at the 2008 CPAC
2008: Mitt Romney
2009: Mitt Romney
And Bobby Jindal coming in second at 14%? CPAC attendees obviously didn't watch his craptastic response to President Obama's address to Congress last week. Pawlenty is far from being done...
But then again, as evidenced by Bush's 8 year term in the White House, they don't always like the best orators.
1 comment:
Agree. The straw poll is meaningless. Pawlenty got maybe 34 or 35 votes as more people did not participate than did.
The real impact is how well did Pawlenty do in the fundraising ? Besides his convention speech Pawlenty and his wife Mary also spoke Friday night to a closed-door reception for "Rebuild the Party".
OK, but let’s look at his speech.
Pawlenty introduced his wife, Mary, to the crowd : “She is amazing, she is fantastic, and she's hot.” --- I am always amazed at that a politician would describe his wife as “hot” to a group that is dominated by religious conservatives many of whom profess that a woman should be modestly attired in “conceal, not reveal” garments.
Pawlenty also called for a Constitutional amendment to require a balanced federal budget … well that would have been interesting predicament for Bush in funding the Iraq War … one might wonder what gimmicks President Pawlenty would use from his Minnesota experience to resolve the Federal Deficit.
But most outrageous was his appeal of the need to reach out to working-class voters, a group he said agrees with the GOP on most issues, from gun rights to health care to education. The problem, Pawlenty said, is that lower and middle income voters -- a group he terms "Sam's Club voters" -- don't believe Republicans "are for the working person."
First, his comment about guns rights was an unbelievable political ploy that I am sure that Congressmen Oberstar, Peterson and Walz and the 60 plus other Democrats in Congress who signed an Amicus Brief in the Heller DC gun case would disagree.
Second, does he really think that most workers (and businesses) are happy with the increased costs associated with health care and think that Bush and the GOP improved things during the past eight years ?
What has Pawlenty been talking about is cutting Corporate Taxes … not addressing the rising impact of Property Taxes.
So how does cutting the state's corporate tax rate in half over six years (which costs the state $120 million in FY 2010-11, $410 million in FY 2012-13, and more in the future) help those "Sam's Club voters" ?
Coincidentally, Pawlenty has been visiting business groups who may respond to the future of lower taxes but today are experiencing downturns in business that are producing more job cuts and business closings.
I don't understand why Pawlenty isn't being confronted by what his actions will do to property taxes • that all business pay - profitable as well as unprofitable --- and "Sam's Club voters". Pawlenty is proposing a 23% cut in Local Government Aid and a 27% cut in County Program Aid ( the tally is $372 in FY 2010-11). Why would any business want a cut in an Income Tax that they may not have to pay when they are faced with Property Tax increases ?
The real unanswered question is will Pawlenty run for Governor again in 2010 … voters will weigh his two terms and may not want him to run for President in 2012. So, if he runs, a loss in the Governor’s race will make him the George Allen candidate of 2012.
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