Posted on 09/18/2010 2:19:54 PM PDT by ejdrapes
By Felicia Sonmez Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) took the top spot Saturday in a presidential straw poll of social conservatives meeting in Washington, a surprise victory over last year's overwhelming favorite, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. Pence placed first with 24 percent in the straw poll of 723 social conservatives at the Family Research Council's fifth annual Values Voter Summit. Huckabee took second place with 22 percent, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney came in third with 13 percent and former House speaker Newt Gingrich took fourth with 10 percent. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin took fifth with 7 percent. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, another potential 2012 GOP hopeful, took 1 percent of the straw poll vote. Pence beat out 16 other leading Republicans on the straw poll ballot. Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty and Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) were originally to appear on the ballot but asked to have their names removed. Pawlenty, who is on a trade mission in Asia, told reporters on a conference call Friday that he "didn't think it would be appropriate to participate" in the straw poll if he couldn't attend the summit.Mike Pence takes top spot in Values Voter Summit straw poll
(Excerpt) Read more at voices.washingtonpost.com ...
‘former House speaker Newt Gingrich took fourth with 10 percent. ‘
Enough said.
How could Huckabee, Mitt and Newt outpoll Sarah Palin? Something’s mighty wrong here.
Straw polls are as meaningless as internet polls. It’s all about who attends the straw poll and is not any kind of gauge of likely voter support.
Pence is great, when I lived in Indianapolis, I would listen to his radio show...in my opinion though he would best serve now as speaker rather than run for president.
LOL, yeah. When you don't attend the event, and every other candidate has staff, supporters, and friends present to back them, you don't finish very high. Most of these folks rounded-up people for the purpose of attending and voting in the straw poll (which is entirely normal).
The truly funny part is: Pence isn't running and has said so. I always do get a kick out of the fact that Romney gets about as many votes in every straw poll as he does in that state's primary.......
The second truly funny part is that everyone picked Sarah Palin as their Veep (#2) to their candidate of choice. This tells you all you need to know in several parts:
1.) She is, cumulatively, the most popular figure.
2.) Everybody thinks they'll need her on the ticket.
3.) She doesn't even need to attend to be everyone’s #1 or #2 choice.
Is there a reason Palin didn’t attend this event? Has she attended in the past?
Pence is the best choice I’ve heard so far for conservatives.
-—”Is there a reason Palin didn’t attend this event?”-—
As the organizers themselves said, “she doesn’t need to.”
She was in Iowa as the headlining speaker for the biggest GOP event in the state. See previous Palin threads for details.
Did Palin even go to the event? =.=
‘former House speaker Newt Gingrich took fourth with 10 percent. ‘
Enough said.
EXACTLY
Huck and Mitt are notorious for paying people to go to these things.
It was not a poll on FR, just regular republicans.
Pence could play James Bond if he was in acting business.
I saw Bachmann and DeMint speak. I thought both were very good. Didn’t see Pence but I can’t imagine Huck or Romney being as good as DeMint.
What makes the "values" of these attendees any better or more relevant than in elections than other Conservative voters?
Pence, Huckabee, Mitt, then Newt... HA!
Going into the 2008 cycle Ron Paul won a bunch of straw polls by busing in supporters.
Pence would make a great POTUS
How about ONE conservative candidate who will NOT give path to citizenship amnesty to illegal aliens. If things don’t change, looks like I’ll be using a ‘write in’.
How could Mitt Romney gotten any votes given his atrocious record on values issues in Massachusetts?
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