Blog: Sorry Sarah, GOP wants President Paul
Sarah Palin is yet to officially announce any intention to run in 2012
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By Darren Estwick. |  |
Sunday, 21, Feb 2010 12:43
Shock and confusion among the conservative factions of the Republican party as libertarian poster boy Ron Paul wins the presidential straw poll of the Conservative Political Action Conference.
By Matthew Champion.
Veteran Texas congressman Paul was the surprise choice of the CPAC for the GOP's nominee in 2012, the 74-year-old who has made cutting federal spending his life's work carrying the contest with 31 per cent of the 2,400 votes cast.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who unsuccessfully lost to John McCain for the party's nomination in 2008 and had won the CPAC vote for three years straight, received only 22 per cent after a large increase in the numbers of votes cast in the unscientific poll.
But while support for Romney - widely seen as the party's most suitable mainstream challenger to Barack Obama in two years - was stable, the number of votes cast for former Alaska governor turned Fox News commentator Palin was sliced in two.
Palin, who recently described herself as a mother first and foremost and is yet to officially announce any intention to run in 2012, received just seven per cent of CPAC votes, with Tim Pawlenty (current Minnesota governor) and Mike Pence (Indiana congressman) both on six per cent, Mike Huckabee (former Arkansas governor) and Newt Gingrich (former speaker of the House of Representatives) on four per cent.
Significantly, five per cent of votes were cast for 'other' and six per cent 'undecided', exposing a lack of faith in conservative Republicans in the field of candidates shaping up for 2012.
The victory for Paul will not in itself have any major impact on the eventual nomination contest, but it does illustrate widespread GOP support for making cutting federal government spending a priority, as well as deep divisions among party faithful (Paul's victory drew booing and catcalls from the crowd when announced).
The vote also sounds a warning for Palin and any designs she may have on the nomination. Since ending her governorship of Alaska early in July last year commentators whose ranks she has now joined on Fox have been second guessing her next move.
Her critically-panned but commercially-successful memoirs Going Rogue seemed to push Palin further towards declaring her candidacy, as did her rock star status at meetings of Republicans' tea party movements.
But embarrassment over apparently consulting her hand during an interview reminded everyone of the allegations of Palin's volatility and ignorance in a blockbusting account of the 2008 presidential race.
Neither claims made against Palin by McCain staffers - not themselves part of the mainstream GOP - nor the CPAC vote will be enough to convince the former governor that she would be on a hiding to nothing in sticking her head above the parapet and storming the White House, but it will leave her asking herself if conservative Republicans do not want her as their president, who will?
For the Republicans, the search for a challenger to President Obama continues fruitlessly.