Political Ruminations

Romney Wins CPAC Straw Poll

By a narrow margin, GOP frontrunner, Mitt Romney, won the straw poll at the Conservatives Political Action Conference, with Rick Santorum placing second, and Gingrich and Paul coming in third and fourth, respectively.

The Washington Times/CPAC straw poll results of 3,408 conservative activists showed Romney with the support of 38 percent of respondents. Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum was in second place at 31 percent.

When the results were announced, a packed ballroom erupted in both cheers and jeers as supporters of all four candidates sat in the room.

Does this mean anything? Probably not. Santorum currently enjoys a 15-point lead on Romney overall, according to Public Policy Polling.  Mostly this just demonstrates something we already knew --- that Conservative voters are not all that happy with Romney. This doesn’t mean that he will not win the nomination, and  I still believe that in spite of any and all setbacks, he will be the eventual GOP nominee.

Morning Quote: Mitt Romney in 2008

“If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and frankly I’d be making it easier for Senator Clinton or Obama to win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.”

- Mitt Romney at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in 2008, as he discontinued his presidential campaign, and suggested that a vote for a Democrat is a “surrender to terror”.

Via Bob Cesca

Jim DeMint at CPAC

“We don’t have shared goals with the Democrats.”

- Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) during the opening of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) today.

Huh. I guess this means that Republicans don’t share our goal of a safe and prosperous United States, Sen. DeMint? Or our goal to keep our country free from terrorism? Or one of the many other goals which we should certainly all share regardless of political affiliation.

Wondering where all their fake patriotic fervor went.

Morning Quote: Rep. Steve King

Moronic Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) at CPAC, getting his hate on for an organization that helps women and men with family planning and things like cancer screening:

Harry Reid can defend those ghoulish and ghastly and gruesome practices that Planned Parenthood is advocating along with child prostitution and illegal immigration. He can play defense on that. They didn't do very well in the Senate when they tried to defend ACORN. I don't think they'll do any better this time.

Via Andy Kroll at Mother Jones

HT Bob Cesca

VIDEO: Jon Stewart Makes Fun of CPAC Morons

Listening to these morons has to make you wonder if the words “sane”, “politician” and “republican” can ever again legitimately appear in the same sentence. Enjoy.

 

Andrew Breitbart Served at CPAC

The New York Times reported today that Shirley Sherrod filed suit, and Breitbart was served at CPAC, emphasis mine:

Andrew Breitbart, the owner of several conservative Web sites, was served at the conference on Saturday with a lawsuit filed by Shirley Sherrod, the former Agriculture Department employee who lost her job last year over a video that Mr. Breitbart posted at his site biggovernment.com.

The video was selectively edited so that it appeared Ms. Sherrod was confessing she had discriminated against a farmer because he was white. In the suit, which was filed in Washington on Friday, Ms. Sherrod says the video has damaged her reputation and prevented her from continuing her work.

Mr. Breitbart said in a statement that he “categorically rejects the transparent effort to chill his constitutionally protected free speech.”

Fine. Protect the creep’s right to free speech, and charge him with cyberstalking.

Jamie at Intoxination:

What’s funny is if you follow Breitbart on Twitter, there’s been more than one instance where someone says something about him and he threatens a lawsuit. He’s a typical right-wing thug, that thinks he has constitutional protections, yet people he disagrees with don’t.

I wish Mrs. Sherrod all the best, and I sincerely hope that she is able to teach Breitbart a well deserved lesson in respecting the rights of others.

Dick of the Day

WTH? I can not understand these people BIrther morons, who are either completely nuts or are just evil, take your pick.  Donald Trump is the latest idiot to jump on the crazy train, and   he used an appearance at CPAC to go full Birther:

Our current president came out of nowhere. Came out of nowhere. In fact, I’ll go a step further: the people that went to school with him, they don’t even know him. They never saw him. They don’t know who he is. It’s crazy. [Wild applause.] With no track record — and, I will tell you, he’s got nothing to criticize. He’s a wonderful guy, he’s a nice man, but there was no record. Nothing to criticize. He didn’t go in wars. He didn’t go in battles. He didn’t beat this one, that one, have enemies all over the place. Nobody knew who the hell he was. He’s now our president! He’s our president!

Utterly freaking STUPID.

Via Bob Cesca