DESPITE SHOWING UP IN PERSON, ROMNEY LOSES NEV. STRAW POLL

Source: MSNBC

From NBC/NJ's Erin McPike
SPARKS, Nev. – Ron Paul won the GOP presidential straw poll conducted by organizers at the Conservative Leadership Conference held at the Nugget Casino this weekend “by a large margin,” according to an organizer.

Paul won with 32 percent, McCain came in second with 17 percent, Hunter was third with 15 percent, and "Romney was in the lower numbers because people came out for his event but they just didn't vote for him," according to organizer and McCain operative Paul Jackson.

Although many of the Republican presidential teams had surrogates representing them at the conference, Mitt Romney and Duncan Hunter were the only candidates to speak at the conference, and the victor himself was not there.

Libertarian sentiment dominated the conference, and a number of attendees expressed disappointment with the Republican Party for not catering to many of their views. Several speakers explained that they were looking to move on, echoing much of the discontent that came out of the meeting of the Council for National Policy in Salt Lake City late last month.

FULL story at link.

Read more: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/10/14/410525.aspx

Or is it an organization dominated by Libertarian extremists?

I would expect Nevada to be a strong state for Romney.

So I doubt this group represents Republicans.

Straw poll results are interesting, IMO. Gives me hope for Bill Richardson and John Edwards, or really anybody but Hillary.

From the article:
Almost on cue, Romney said during his speech the next day to the group, “I’m from the Republican wing of the Republican Party,” eliciting a negative response from some rival campaigns and the Democratic National Committee. The DNC jumped and noted that he stole Chairman Howard Dean’s line from the previous election when he told voters he was “from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party” before losing to John Kerry.



Actually, it was a line Dean stole from Paul Wellstone, who was an ACTUAL progressive.

And he usually does a good job of BUYING straw poll votes...it's what he does to create buzz!

I guess Libertarian sentiment dominated the conference indeed!

If it was a relatively small group, it means NOTHING!

I know Paul is gaining support all across the Country, and I find that very funny. None of the other candidates can adopt any of his positions because they are the complete opposite of what they've all been saying, but this kind of info must be driving them all NUTS!

for his guerilla tactics. He's good at stirring up the pot.

That perhaps Romney isn't quite the juggernaut candidate he'd like the national media to believe he is. The media have been suspiciously somnambulent about Romney, and the very large amount of his own money with which he's been funding his campaign. The other GOP candidates will, you can bet, make a LOT of hay out of the fact that Romney got smoked in Nevada, right next door to heavily Mormon Utah.

Let's say I'm not shocked and leave it at that.

Romney went on to sound another theme of his: optimism. He called the Democrats pessimists and said his optimism could go a long way for the Republicans, and he moved onto a point similar to his first, that the country ought to be led by someone who hasn’t spent an entire lifetime in politics. And he ended with a line that played well before the crowd of Reaganites, implying that his energy and passion could echo that of Ronald Reagan’s.