| The Conservative Political Activist Conference (CPAC) is kind of the runway fashion show for American conservatives. By that I mean: it's the "high profile" event where conservative leaders trot out the most powerful and popular politicians and pundits. And they say "who they like for president next time."
So who do they like for the GOP presidential nod, next time? Wait for it:
Ron Paul.
That's Ron Paul, with his libertarian crackpot economics, longheld street cred with John Birch Society--the politician whose fans believe it's necessary to coin their own money, with Paul's image on it--beat out Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Tim Pawlenty in the straw poll voting of America's most high profile and active conservatives.
And his name was booed (by those conservatives in attendance!) when the poll was announced. Why, if he won? Because Paul has been the acceptable face of extremism in Washington, because the business elements in the GOP privately consider him a wild-eyed crackpot. In short, he's the kind of guy the nuthouse element of the tea party movement would back: and the sane (if evil) powerful Republicans don't want him and are making that clear. Powerbrokers who cheered for Dick Cheney won't cheer for Ron Paul, for all their deference to the extremist trend in the GOP.
I guess Tim Pawlenty was brought in to address the conservatives voting for Paul and bring them around, make them "his kind of people." But TP didn't blow their skirts up, the warmest conservative receptions went to the most divisive rhetoric and figures.
That's bad for TP, to leave CPAC without the full-throated support of the big money, big media Republicans. TP's on his way out, and he's leaving the state holding the bag for $6 billion in debt. If he didn't get the nod from these powerbrokers this year, his "personal charisma," "inspiring oratory" and "sparkling resume of acheivement" for the foreseeable future are unlikely to bring the biggest players aboard in 2012.
It's funny, because the national headlines I saw yesterday attempt to puff Pawlenty's appearance at CPAC. You would never have known from those articles in the WaPost and LA Times that Ron Paul was nearly for times more popular with the conservatives than Tim Pawlenty. Perhaps the corporate media's attempt to "puff Pawlenty" was done out of fear: Pawlenty is certainly more acceptable to corporate media than John Birch Society darling, Paul.
So TP can't be feeling too good these days, because acclaim at events like this one translate into money and free media. No acclaim means the soft support that doomed the McCain candidacy.
Who came in second to Paul in the poll? Mitt "The Money" Romney. But he can't have been happy with coming in second to a guy who attracts extremists like a magnet. And neither Mitt nor Pawlenty could have been happy about this:
A majority of those polled (53 percent) said "they wish the GOP had a better field of potential candidates."
There was no shortage of competitive and credible candidates in the years prior to the 2000 election. Bush and Cheney ultimately destroyed the competition via money and the cooperation of the conservative media--but the field included credible Republicans like McCain and Liddy Dole and several others.
These days: the guy who captures the lead in the leading conservative event is also the guy who gets booed, because the business world Republicans think he's a nut. "Saner" GOP candidates aren't even competitive, in conservative circles. And that is symptomatic of the rising craziness level these days in the GOP.
And this is the incarnation of the GOP that pick up seats, in event of a Dem fail at the polls this fall. Good luck, America!
(I read about this CPAC poll and the "election" and booing of Ron Paul in Polinaut:_
http://minnesota.publicradio.o... |
