Bern
02-13-2011, 01:07 PM
The 2007 CPAC straw poll was the launching point for the 2008 primary campaigns. It's hard to find media articles still online (most news media outlets don't store old articles forever), but I did find a few for this exercise.
WaPo is hardly the media source GOP interests look to to get their guidance. Even so, the first paragraph of their 2007 straw poll coverage story is a suggestion that Romney is the front runner:
Presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney yesterday won a straw poll of conservative political activists gathered in Washington, a very early indication of how an important Republican constituency might vote.
...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/03/AR2007030301078.html
Further sampling of media reports from the 2007 poll:
The former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, is the first choice of conservatives' hearts, and the former mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, is the most broadly supported candidate by conservatives. Those were the results today of the annual CPAC Straw Poll, measuring the presidential preference of attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
...
http://www.nysun.com/national/romney-giuliani-top-conservative-straw-poll/49736/
Romney emerges as insider favorite for GOP in '08
Who's the insider favorite for the Republican nomination? The answer may come as a surprise.
...
Conservative activists met in Washington on Saturday and took their own straw poll for the Republican nomination.
The winner? Again, Mitt Romney, who was the top pick of 21 percent of the CPAC attendees. Seventeen percent picked Giuliani, 15 percent picked Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, 14 percent picked Gingrich and 12 percent picked McCain.
...
http://articles.cnn.com/2007-03-05/politics/schneider.romney.cpac_1_john-mccain-romney-and-giuliani-arizona-senator?_s=PM:POLITICS
Also, consider how CNN reports first from 2009:
Romney picked as 2012 GOP front-runner
February 28, 2009
Conservative activists on Saturday named former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney the winner of a poll for best 2012 GOP presidential candidate.
The poll marked the third consecutive year Romney came out on top.
...
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-02-28/politics/cpac_1_straw-poll-conservative-political-action-conference-mitt-romney?_s=PM:POLITICS
and now from 2011:
The results of the Washington Times CPAC straw poll of presidential candidates are in, and the winner is Texas Rep. Ron Paul, with 30 percent of the vote. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was the runner-up with 23 percent.
There were 3,742 ballots cast in the annual survey, which is a chance for devotees to name their pick for president in 2012. Fifty-six percent of those surveyed said they were generally satisfied with the field of potential candidates and 43 percent said they wished the GOP had a better field of potential candidates. ...
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/12/rep-ron-paul-wins-cpac-straw-poll/
It's laughable.
WaPo is hardly the media source GOP interests look to to get their guidance. Even so, the first paragraph of their 2007 straw poll coverage story is a suggestion that Romney is the front runner:
Presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney yesterday won a straw poll of conservative political activists gathered in Washington, a very early indication of how an important Republican constituency might vote.
...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/03/AR2007030301078.html
Further sampling of media reports from the 2007 poll:
The former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, is the first choice of conservatives' hearts, and the former mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, is the most broadly supported candidate by conservatives. Those were the results today of the annual CPAC Straw Poll, measuring the presidential preference of attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
...
http://www.nysun.com/national/romney-giuliani-top-conservative-straw-poll/49736/
Romney emerges as insider favorite for GOP in '08
Who's the insider favorite for the Republican nomination? The answer may come as a surprise.
...
Conservative activists met in Washington on Saturday and took their own straw poll for the Republican nomination.
The winner? Again, Mitt Romney, who was the top pick of 21 percent of the CPAC attendees. Seventeen percent picked Giuliani, 15 percent picked Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, 14 percent picked Gingrich and 12 percent picked McCain.
...
http://articles.cnn.com/2007-03-05/politics/schneider.romney.cpac_1_john-mccain-romney-and-giuliani-arizona-senator?_s=PM:POLITICS
Also, consider how CNN reports first from 2009:
Romney picked as 2012 GOP front-runner
February 28, 2009
Conservative activists on Saturday named former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney the winner of a poll for best 2012 GOP presidential candidate.
The poll marked the third consecutive year Romney came out on top.
...
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-02-28/politics/cpac_1_straw-poll-conservative-political-action-conference-mitt-romney?_s=PM:POLITICS
and now from 2011:
The results of the Washington Times CPAC straw poll of presidential candidates are in, and the winner is Texas Rep. Ron Paul, with 30 percent of the vote. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was the runner-up with 23 percent.
There were 3,742 ballots cast in the annual survey, which is a chance for devotees to name their pick for president in 2012. Fifty-six percent of those surveyed said they were generally satisfied with the field of potential candidates and 43 percent said they wished the GOP had a better field of potential candidates. ...
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/12/rep-ron-paul-wins-cpac-straw-poll/
It's laughable.