Posted on 09/24/2011 5:54:54 AM PDT by ken5050
Today is the Florida 5 Presidency Straw poll. Gov Scott has said that he believes that the winner of the poll will go on to win the GOP nomination and to defeat Obama next year.
We thought it would be interesting to conduct our own straw poll of Florida freepers, to see who they liked, and to then compare it to the results today, and see what we might learn, if anything. Some of it is surprising.
FReeper "seekthetruth" maintains a Florida ping list of some 3000 names. On Wednesday, and again on Thursday, she sent FReepmails to the list, asking them to vote their choice for the GOP nominee, replying to me by FReepmail no later than midnight Friday.
NOTES:
1. We did NOT post it on the public threads, as we wanted to keep it to Florida Freepers if possible. Also, we trusted people not to vote more than once, and as I skimmed the replies, I did not notice any duplicates, though there could be a couple. But basically, FReepers are honest.
2. 38 Freepers wrote brief comments, in addition to casting their votes. Reading those, I feel that 23 may have voted for who they thought won the debate, as to opposed to their preference for the nominee. However, I did NOT exclude those votes.
RESULTS:
I received 253 responses:
Candidate.....Votes.....%
Cain...........111.......44%
Newt............41.......16%
Paul............32.......13%
Perry...........29.......11%
Mitt............21........8%
Palin...........19........8%
Conclusions:
Obvious, a totally UNSCIENTIFIC poll, but we might draw some conclusions. Remember that FReepers are usually ahead of the curve, and more importantly, do represent what the conservative base is thinking, and feeling.
Very surprising that the two front runners, Perry, and Mitt, did so poorly. Mitt is not a fave on FR, but given that by nearly universal comments, he's had a good couple of weeks, I expected that he'd break double digits.
Perry obviously has hurt himself with his very weak, ineffectual debate performances. He's appeared NOT ready for prime time. Also, his comments on illegal immigration, the border fence, tuition for illegals, and most important, calling those who don't agree with him "cruel" have turned off a lot of people. Perry had a lot of support on FR when he first entered the race...I think he may well be imploding a lot faster than people think. The next few polls may reinforce this.
Paul's base of support seems to be a solid 10-15% no matter what the forum or venue.
Newt may be making a comeback or sorts. Of course, when you're that far down, having run a lousy campaign, there's only one way to go..UP. He has a big policy address scheduled next week. Also, his obvious skill and brilliance as a debater stand him in good stead against the lackluster performance of others. The base wants another Reagan, but one that they feel in electable.
I have no explanation for the fact that Santorum didn't get a single vote. It's obviously a small sample, so one might have expected that he'd get between 5-10 votes. They may have gone for Cain instead.
Palin obviously has more support on FR than indicated. I suspect that many here ignored her because she wasn't in the Florida debates and/or she hasn't announced, or not. I suspect that Cain got votes from many who are pro-Palin.
Bachman's failure to get a single vote again shows that she's fallen further, and faster than most thought possible. Though many did say that she had a decent debate, it appears that her time is up.
Cain is obviously a surprise here. He's likeable, and his personal story of battling cancer, and his very effective attack on Obamacare obviously resonated. Most have felt that he's run a lackluster campaign. His support may be deeper than indicated.
The BIG story obviously is the near total lack of FReeper support for the two front runners, Mitt, and Perry. I think that this is probably accurate..though not sure to what extent. They don't trust Mitt, and Perry has really disappointed them. He may well turn out to be a political meteor..a short, brief, bright run, then burning up.
The base really doesn't like the field..so there is room for a late entry...which may explain all the talk the last few days about Christie. And of course..Palin still hasn't officially said yes or no either way.
I don't know if the Florida poll today has write-ins...but if they do, and someone had taken a little effort to start a little write-in campaign, I think that Marco Rubio woudl finish in the top 3 easily...which might really open some people's eyes...
FYI..list ping please..
I can’t believe there will be a Straw Poll that Ron Paul wont win. What an exercise in futility!
I like Cain. But I can only see him as VP
Interesting results - and it is surprising that Santorum did not get a single vote. I like Cain a lot myself.
My feeling on Santorum is he believes most of the right things - but so do about 100 million people perhaps - and the vast majority of those are not Presidential material. Santorum is one of those 100 million.
Yesterday I went to Cpac. I met ron Paul and Cain there. As I left I had an Epiphany. NO to Romney. No to perry. Its Cain. He is NOT political. He is ABSOLUTELY capable of debating obama. He is a breath of fresh air, honest. If we can get him on the ticket. No more Romney’s no more Perry’s. Please start sending him $$. I don’t have much but I plan on sending him what I can. He needs more airtime!!! The more I hear him the more I love him. There is an Old YouTube out there where he wins a debate with bill Clinton at a town hall meeting. He had Clinton all flustered when he rattled off all types statistics.
WE ARE ALL RACISTS!!
Stop with Romney and Perry. Our candidate is right there in front of us. It is Cain. He is honest non political in otherwords a breath of fresh air. He can and will beat Obama if only we could stop focusing on Perry Romney. The media is electing our candidate again!! Until we start screaming our heads off, He will not get air time. They are setting us up to lose again. They chose McCain. Never again. Start writing and emailing. Get him out front. I don’t want any more of these talking heads. I want someone who us going to fix the problems. Cain has a business model which is outstanding. You can see his solutions aren’t poltical. He honestly has a plan that will work. Get him out front and watch him take off. Cain/Rubio. Oh yes we can!!!!
Stop with Romney and Perry. Our candidate is right there in front of us. It is Cain. He is honest non political in otherwords a breath of fresh air. He can and will beat Obama if only we could stop focusing on Perry Romney. The media is electing our candidate again!! Until we start screaming our heads off, He will not get air time. They are setting us up to lose again. They chose McCain. Never again. Start writing and emailing. Get him out front. I don’t want any more of these talking heads. I want someone who us going to fix the problems. Cain has a business model which is outstanding. You can see his solutions aren’t poltical. He honestly has a plan that will work. Get him out front and watch him take off. Cain/Rubio. Oh yes we can!!!!
Neat story. I had this epiphany in January - and I think you’ll enjoy this:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/top_ten_reasons_to_support_her.html
If Cain were to win the GOP nomination, the Dems would start a major whispering campaign about his health. It’s what they do...”C-A-N-C-E-R”..is he really cured?...can we afford to elect a president?...yada, yada, yada....you know what it would be..and sadly, I think it would impact a lot of voters..
She said the Cain meet and greet last night was incredible. The room could not hold the people who wished to attend, so it was moved to one that would hold hundreds more.
He gave a rousing Reaganesque talk, not a speech, one that made ya proud to be an American.
She showed up prepared to vote for Perry. Not going to happen.
Also, Adam Hasner got the plurality of votes the FL Senate straw poll. Lemieux’s war-chest and hirelings couldn't pull it off, who came in third.
Oh, and it is true, the Paulistas are nuts.
Herman Cain has my vote, I only hope I can cast it for him next year.
I think we can deduce that most aren't happy with Mitt and Perry, for all the reasons mentioend above, and possibly all the "unhappy" voters have coalesced around Cain...I do think that this means that we will ahve at least one more late entry....Christie, Palin, and because the base is crying out for someone with the eloquence of a Reagan...we might see Marco reassess...if there's a lot of support expressed for him.
Can you ask your wife...does he straw poll allow for write ins?
Yes, Ron Paul got five votes for FL Senate.
Governor Scott was very well received. He spoke for about 20 minutes, no notes (or teleprompter).
Rubio is not there, likely due to the poor health of his mother.
Just watched that video. The look on Clinton’s face is priceless.
I’m really liking Cain.
You might be right about that. If he regains some traction in the nomination process you’ll hear some of those whispers in fact.
Join Team Cain - Become An ACTIVE Supporter-- FRMail Me
Then you are not looking.
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