Leader of the Pack

At Least the CPAC


For the second year in a row, 11 term Texas Congressman Ron Paul emerged as the winner of the straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference. It's good for bragging rights, but Paul's libertarian positions often run afoul of the authoritarian militaristic & intrusive social conservative factions within post-Reagan Republicanism.

The result in 2008: his Presidential bid didn't win any primaries.

Of the more conventional candidates only Mitt Romney scored in double digits... But as governor in Massachusetts, his Romney-care health plan included the individual mandate the Tea Party hates, and numerous Republican controlled states have challenged in court... Not to mention, that as a Mormon, evangelicals question his Christianity as often as they do Obama's.

The rest of the field was in single digits. What's up with that?


NJ Governor Chris Christie isn't even planning a 2012 nomination run. He firmly says he's not ready, and yet he beat most of the candidates toying with a run. That reveals another rift... The party splits again over those elements with over-enthusiastic promotion of the new and unproven, while a majority historically settles on the next in line.

CPAC is a farce; an exercise in futility with mandatory attendance.