Ron Paul a Conservative? (Part 1)

An unexpected thing happened at the annual Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference. Ron Paul won the CPAC straw poll for President. I can tell you for sure I didn’t expect it.  My February 19 posting contained these words – “On February 18, the established Conservative Political Action Committee began its annual 3-day conference which brings social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, security conservatives, and Ron Paul devotees under the same roof…” I wrote these words after CPAC kicked off, but before the straw poll results were announced – because I heard an anecdotal report on the radio a large number of Ron Paul people were there, and frankly I found that report a bit odd. This is, after all, the conference that had previously chosen Mitt Romney three years running.

When the news of Ron Paul’s victory broke on February 20, I was participating in the hyper-democratic debate supported by the Internet comment boards. One of the comments stated only 2400 out 10,000 CPAC attendees voted. These numbers jive with something I just read in Politico – so I’m taking them as accurate enough.

Therefore, Ron Paul’s straw poll win could be dismissed purely on the grounds of statistical insignificance. A professionally conducted Gallup poll (see my January 11 post) shows 40% of Americans self-identify as "conservative." So, that equates to approximately 120 Million “conservative” citizens across the fruited plain of America. The 2400 out of 10,000 figure means only 00.008% of American “conservatives” even attended CPAC; and of this statistically insignificant sample, only 24% even bothered to vote. Of this doubly insignificant sample, Ron Paul took 31% - hardly resounding.

A couple of thoughts on these percentages….

First, a dedicated group of political operatives could easily engineer their desired result given such a small sample. IOW – this could easily have been an ACORN orchestrated ballot “surge” designed to sow divisions in the Conservative movement. One never knows who’s trying to fix what these days.

But, more to the point, I think the telling figure is the low percentage of attendees even bothering to vote.   No one, not even the criminally biased MSM, can deny the TEA Parties are the animating force in the Conservative coalition for 2010. The TEA Party movement remains a ‘leaderless’ movement focused on principles, not personalities. TEA Party patriots are keeping their powder dry as far as deciding to whom they give their political allegiance.  If there were a national TEA Party straw poll held today, "the first person listed in the phone book" is as likely to win as anyone with enough name recognition to be on CPAC's radar.

When the news broke, I found myself in the middle of this little Internet comment board dust-up. Expect my next post to be titled “Ron Paul a Conservative? (Part 2).” Therein I will attempt the deeper examination into Mr. Paul’s policy positions I promised the comment board devotees - and not just because I like to keep my promises. I give Ron Paul and his devotees credit for being sincere in their beliefs, and these beliefs seem to be rooted in a respect for the Constitution, so they deserve the courtesy of forthright debate.