CPAC, for all of you out there that don't know what it is, is the Conservative Political Action Conference, and is a conservative staple. This years list of speakers included Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Mike Pence, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, etc. etc. Over the years Republican candidates have used CPAC to gauge the audience response as to whether or not he/she would take a Presidential stab. The "straw poll" is a poll that indicates each individuals popularity.

Here are the numbers and large number of people that ran in this "straw poll".

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

It is important to note that only 2,395 votes were cast while the estimates of how many people showed up was well over 10,000. Of course, I'm sure this won't stop hard-core Paul followers from proclaiming this a victory for their man.

However, if less than a fourth of those that attended voted for this, what are the odds that this poll is accurate enough to make that judgement? Also, let's do some math. The Ron Paul section has really only two guys on this list that are in that libertarian vein: Pence and Paul. Add those two numbers up, it's only 36%, which would mean only 36% of conservatives are of the RLC type. That leaves 64%, which is split amongst all of the other candidates, and as we all know everyone has their "pet" politicians. I'm sure most of the other 64% would be more than willing to vote for a different person if the name came up on the ballet, but the odds are most of the conservatives that  are in that 64% would not vote for Paul. Why? Most conservatives at that rally were probably "neo-cons": which would clash quite a bit with Paul's isolationism (OH that dreaded word again! I'm sorry, I'm sorry...non-interventionism which would force us into isolationism. My bad.) Pence, I actually like quite a bit, however he isn't nearly as extreme about certain things like Paul is, and most other thinking people of the remaining 64% would probably still cast a vote for him.

The point of this post? The straw man poll means nothing, thank God.