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And our new president is...

The CPAC has spoken and the new president of the United States will be...wait for it...Ron Paul! Yes, the famously prickly, so-called libertarian congressman from Texas is the darling of these right-wingers. If they had their way, he would be moving to the White House tomorrow.

In their straw poll, Paul got 30% of the vote, which may not sound too impressive until you look at how the rest of the vote was divided:

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney: 23%
Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson (who, frankly, I'd never heard of): 6%
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie: 6%
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich: 5%
Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty: 4%
Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann: 4%
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels: 4%
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin: 3%
Radio talk-show host Herman Cain (Who???): 2%
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee: 2%
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum: 2%
South Dakata Senator John Thune: 2%
Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman: 1%
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour: 1%
Other: 5%
Undecided: 1%

I find it interesting that the Sarah Palin wannabe, Michele Bachmann, actually got more votes than her idol. That may be due to the fact that Bachmann showed up at the convention while Palin snubbed them. One of the most exciting moments at the convention, however, was when a Sarah Palin impersonator showed up on the floor. She was immediately swarmed by starstruck right-wingers who thought she was the real thing. Most embarrassingly, this happened while Mitt Romney was delivering his speech which had, apparently, failed to hold the crowd's interest.

It's also interesting that neither Glenn Beck nor Rush Limbaugh showed up in the poll. Or perhaps they showed up as "Other."

The odious Haley Barbour did show up in the vote. Barely. He managed 1%. If this unreconstructed admirer of the White Citizens Council can only manage 1% of the vote at this lily-white gathering, I think his presidential campaign is probably over before it has begun.

Actually, the same could probably be said for the rest of these "candidates."
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