Ron Paul: 'The Revolution Is Alive And Well' - @ CPAC

[Lamarr]

Ron Paul supporters came out in force on Friday, chanting their support for the Texas Republican congressman.

Paul was the only speaker so far to fill the entire convention hall at the Conservative Political Action Conference, and some of his supporters were turned away after the room reached its capacity of 1,100 people.

With the conference running an hour behind, Paul’s army assembled early, occasionally breaking into chants of “End The Fed” as other speakers tried to address the crowd.

Once Paul finally took the stage – following appearances Friday by some of the conservative movement’s brightest stars – the crowd was louder and more raucous in their support for Paul than they had been for most of the other speakers combined.

“Sounds to me like the revolution is alive and well,” Paul said, beaming after taking the stage to Queen’s “We will rock you.”

Paul hit all of his themes, rattling off criticisms the monetary and foreign policies of both President Barack Obama and Republicans in Congress.

“Debt is the monster, debt is what is going to eat us up and that’s why our economy is on the brink,” Paul said. “The next step is a currency crisis because there will be a rejection of the dollar and the rejection of the dollar will be a big, big event.”

On foreign policy, Paul urged a pullback from American obligations around the world.

“We are now spending one trillion dollars a year to manage our world empire,” he said. “There is nothing wrong with being a conservative and having a conservative belief in foreign policy where we have a strong national defense and don’t go to war so carelessly.”

Despite his criticism of Republicans, Paul said he is very optimistic about the party’s chances in November, heralding the tea party movement and a resurgent conservatism movement.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33199.html#ixzz0g7ybc6cx

 

[Lamarr]

FOX NEWS HATES THIS ! ! ! !

Ron Paul wins CPAC straw poll

Texas Rep. Ron Paul won the 2010 CPAC straw poll tonight, a victory that will further energize his already enthusiastic supporters but will have little effect on the coming presidential contest.

Paul, who ran for president in 2008, took 31 percent of the vote. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had won the past three CPAC straw polls but placed second this time with 22 percent. Romney is considered the current frontrunner for the 2012 nod.

No other candidate scored in double digits. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who did not speak at CPAC, took third place with seven percent. (Full results are below.)

Be careful not to read too much -- or much at all -- into these results. Paul's supporters are loyal and loud but not, ultimately, that large a group as proven by the fact that he did not win a single primary or caucus in 2008.

2010 CPAC Straw Poll Results

Ron Paul 31%
Mitt Romney 22%
Sarah Palin 7% Haaaaaa!
Tim Pawlenty 6%
Mike Pence 5%
Newt Gingrich 4%
Mike Huckabee 4%
Mitch Daniels 2%
John Thune 2%
Rick Santorum 2%
Haley Barbour 1%

 

[thoughtone]

source: Huffington Post

Ron Paul WINS CPAC Straw Poll, Crowd Boos

In a strong reflection of just how strong his standing remains within the die-hard conservative community, Texas Republican and 2008 presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul won the Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll on Saturday, earning nearly one-third (31 percent) of the entire vote. The crowd, however, booed heavily when the results were announced.

Paul was far and away the most widely anticipated speaker at the three-day conference, with his base of "Paulites" streaming into the main auditorium to hear him rail against government overreach and neoconservativism on Friday afternoon. In many respects, his win in the CPAC poll seemed pre-ordained -- his band of followers having a well-earned reputation for flooding polls and forums like these.

What it portends for a possible 2012 presidential run is anyone's guess. Paul had a similar cult-like following during the 2008 election, only to garner a relatively small chunk of the actual vote.

The other potential candidates who scored well and are more "mainstream" picks for the Republican nomination include former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who earned 22 percent of the vote, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin who came in third with seven percent. Romney had won the last three CPAC polls. Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, another talked about 2012 aspirant, tied "undecided" for fourth place at six percent.

The results provide an interesting reflection as to where conservative hearts lie nearly three years before the next presidential elections take place. But with so much time before formal campaigning begins - and with no White House aspirant even officially announcing a bid- its best to resist the temptation to read too deeply into the numbers. For example, last year, disgraced South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford polled at four percent, while Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal -- no longer even on the straw poll -- came in second at 14 percent.

Nevertheless, the CPAC poll can provide a nice boost (or, at the very least, attention) to prospective candidates. In 2007, Romney etched out a win over former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani by a margin of 21 percent to 17 percent. Sen. John McCain, who wound up winning the nomination, came in fifth with 12 percent of the vote.

Several of the candidates polled attended CPAC in the days, and even hours, ahead of the results being released. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was a keynote speaker on Saturday, preceded by former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum (Penn.). Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty spoke on Friday followed by Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Paul. Romney addressed the audience on Thursday. All others were not in attendance during the three-day affair.

 

[Lamarr]

source: The crowd, however, booed heavily when the results were announced.

Let me guess, it was YOU, Hannity, Glen Beck & a couple other cats from this board in the crowd!



Seriously, Who's side are you on?

I thought you wanted transparency in the govt
I thought you wanted to reverse everything Bush did, ie. the Patriot Act
I thought you were opposed to warrantless wiretapping
I thought you were opposed to NAFTA

Ron Paul has a better solution

 

[thoughtone]

Let me guess, it was YOU, Hannity, Glen Beck & a couple other cats from this board in the crowd!



Seriously, Who's side are you on?

I thought you wanted transparency in the govt
I thought you wanted to reverse everything Bush did, ie. the Patriot Act
I thought you were opposed to warrantless wiretapping
I thought you were opposed to NAFTA

Ron Paul has a better solution

Paul lost me on this one. He is just a politician, campaigning for the next election just like the rest.

DC politics on display for all! ! ! They took HR. 1207 and made it an Amendment to a broader bill. While Ron spent the last 30 yrs pushing for an Audit of the Fed, but at crunch time, he voted against the final bill. The Audit of the Fed should be a standalone bill ( I think it was 3 pages at the most), it has broad bipartisan support as well as support from Main Street. I got a feelin these cats in the Senate will find a way to screw it up, as they are more connected to the Banksters. Here's an excerpt from his interview:


Q&A: Ron Paul Explains Why He Can’t Vote for His Own Fed Audit
You are expected to vote against the bill on final passage, but will there be some silver lining if this bill passes because it has your provision?

Paul: Yeah, I think so. I think it’s not final, and there’s a long way to go. But it sends a very powerful message. Not only did we pass it in the House, but we keep getting new cosponsors on the bill. I think its 316 now. It keeps going up, and the momentum is there. And hopefully the grassroots will direct their momentum towards the Senate.

Did you consider voting for the broader bill to support your amendment?

Paul: For some people who work in a conventional way, it would be, but not for me. People have asked me, and I say I’ll just do what I usually do. I’ll look at the whole bill, and try to make the bill as good as possible but if it’s still something I can’t endorse, then I’ll vote against final passage. But I always try to support all the amendments that I think will improve it, but I treated my amendment like I treat every other amendment.

While Ron spent the last 30 yrs pushing for an Audit of the Fed, but at crunch time, he voted against the final bill.

I’ll look at the whole bill, and try to make the bill as good as possible but if it’s still something I can’t endorse, then I’ll vote against final passage.

Typical republican/conservative. Always against never for.

 

[Panameno718]

Fox News scrambles to discredit CPAC after Ron Paul wins presidential poll

Remember the big conservative conference Fox News has been hyping over the past 10 days?

The Conservative Political Action Conference's presidential straw poll, a key marker of the mood among conservative voters, apparently didn't mean anything to the network. And if it did mean something, the only real result is bragging rights for the individual candidates who were so well exposed. And hey, even Dick Cheney showed up.

Or, at least that's how Fox News characterized the poll, after it was reported that Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) had won it by a wide margin.

CPAC participants voted for Paul as their favored candidate by some 31 percent, giving him the largest margin of victory in recent years. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who has won the vote over the last three years, was the runner up with 22 percent. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was third with seven percent.

Story continues below...
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Over 10,000 people attended CPAC this year. Among them, 2,395 voted in the straw poll.

"It is way early, it is unscientific," said a Fox News host, even as the split-screen showed Glenn Beck on stage at the conference. "Perhaps it offers nothing more than bragging rights, uh, through the course of this year. But, it is quite a, uh, enthusiastic crowd. What a difference a year makes."

What a difference a year makes, indeed. Paul himself said something quite similar a day prior, when he spoke before the largest, loudest audience of any other presenter.

He asked if the crowd remembered when he was the guy "off in the corner" predicting doom, and none in the media paid him any serious mind.

"All the sudden, the crash that I had predicting all along: it came," Paul said. "And now, Fox News TV has had me on about 60 times since the campaign was over."

On its Web site, Fox News said that the vote is "not necessarily a good forecaster" of conservatives' leanings nation wide.

Jake Gibson, micro-blogging for Fox News's Live Shots, wrote that Paul's win was "surprising" and caused very audible booing throughout the crowd. Meanwhile, Live Shots writer Kelley Beaucar Vlahos characterized the poll as an annual competition between the Republicans' "bright lights."

Paul is now, apparently, counted among them. Or is he? National Review praised him, jeering "Feel the 'Ronmentum,'" thus triggering a sharp response from Robert Costa.

"Some older CPAC attendees don’t seem to care much for the Texas congressman, sure, but many young activists seem to regard him as a hero of sorts," he wrote. "When he talks about the debt, like he did on Friday, calling it a 'monster' that will 'eat up' our future, it was with a passion that you can’t fake in politics. He also didn’t mind challenging many of the room’s security hawks on foreign policy."

Indeed, Costa touched on a key undercurrent at this year's CPAC: youth. According to the straw poll's detailed breakdown [PDF link], 48 percent of the participants were students. A full 80 percent of respondents said their number one issue is "to promote individual liberty" and "reduce the size of government." Sixty-four percent of participants were male.

Conservative blog Hot Air questioned whether the poll could be taken seriously, adding: "53 percent say they wish the GOP had a better field of presidential candidates. Is that an outlier produced by the Paulnut contingent too, or genuine proof that there’s room for a dark horse?"

Huckabee, now a paid Fox News contributor, joined other conservatives in kicking sand on Paul's victory, telling one of his coworkers that he abstained from CPAC because it had been taken over by libertarian activists.

“CPAC has becoming increasingly more libertarian and less Republican over the last years, one of the reasons I didn’t go this year," he said, according to Politico.

He also knocked the conference's relevance this year in particular, with so much activity around the tea parties.

"Because of the way that it solicits sponsors, it’s almost becomes a pay-for-play," he said, taking a shot at the group's credibility as a whole. "It’s kind of like, who will pay money to be able to be a sponsor and get time in the program. That’s one of the things that has hurt its credibility in the last couple of years."

FireDogLake noted that even Ann Coulter told a CPAC crowd that she agrees with Paul on everything, except his foreign policy. "Or, put another way," wrote FDL user Blue Texan, "Coulter and the neoconservatives that have taken over the Republican Party want Ron Paul’s pre-WWI, pre-Fed, pre-Social Security, pre-IRS federal government — to go with LBJ’s Great Society military."

Among the poll's participants, 98 percent said they disapproved of the job President Obama is doing. Sixty-eight percent said they approved of congressional Republicans' actions.

In 2009, CPAC was arguably the biggest event in conservative politics all year, featuring right-wing all-stars like Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter and many more. In 2008, pollsters were shocked when Romney beat Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) by just one percent of the vote, even after announcing the suspension of his presidential campaign.

That year, Paul tied for third with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee with 12 percent of the vote. In the same poll for 2009, Ron Paul again came in third place, this time with 13 percent of the vote. He was bested by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, at 14 percent, and Mitt Romney, with 20.

"I believe we are on the verge of something very significant," Paul told CPAC in 2010.

Strangely, in The Washington Post's Monday coverage of the GOP's 2012 presidential contenders, the congressman from Texas was not mentioned once. Staff writer Chris Cillizza instead plugged Romney as the party's "nominal front-runner."

Watch Paul's full CPAC speech here.

This video is from Fox News, broadcast Feb. 20, 2010, as culled by watchdog group Media Matters.



Paul tells CNBC he's "leaning to being undecided"

Monday morning, Paul revealed his 2012 plans on CNBC's Squawk Box. Or lack thereof.

"You don't know and I don't know," Paul told CNBC's Joe Kernan, "so I don't have any plans made. I take one day at a time and that keeps me kind of busy."

Noting "the numbers" he received in the poll, the CNBC host prodded Paul, "Are you leaning towards doing it again?"

"No, I'm leaning to being undecided," Paul joked.

But Paul admitted that "it is significant and it does get me excited."

Paul suggested that "maybe the sentiments about me are changing."

"I think there's definitely been a shift in attitude," he said. "It's not the conventional wisdom of the old Republican Party conservatism. I think something new is coming along."

http://rawstory.com/2010/02/fox-news-runs-damage-control-ron-paul-wins-cpac-presidential-straw-poll/

 

[Lamarr]

Re: Fox News scrambles to discredit CPAC after Ron Paul wins presidential poll

It's catchin on ! ! ! !

 

[Lamarr]

Freedom Is Popular ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Fast forward to 5:45

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