Bachman wins Iowa Straw Poll. Paul second. Pawlenty third. Romney fourth, er, seventh.

[DRey]

Bachman bests Paul. Pawlenty third. Romney fourth. Works for me!

[Munz]

>Nothing about this is going to be easy<

You said a mouthful right there. I know that between Obama playing the blame game .. the media not wanting to admit what a pos he is or how they have backed him this whole time. That they will attack anyone who runs as a conservative and the money that will be pouring into Obama will be monumental.

I am betting that the attacks that come out this election cycle will be second to none as far as dirty politics go.

It will be an uphill battle the whole way for sure. But as i said, in such a climate as we have politically, people are very VERY upset. They will want a stark contrast between Obama and anyone. That is the person who will win.

[Las Vegas Ron]

If he was born in the US, he’s a US citizen...

Yes he is, however those are not the requirements to be President on the US.

Senator yes, POTUS no.

[BunnySlippers]

Good one!

[Liberty1970]

I see two interesting observations based on comparison with the poll results four years ago:

1. Romney WON in 2007. Never mind that he didn't "compete" in this one, you would still think there would be a fair number of those 31% who voted for him around. There is no way for his camp to spin this - his support there has evaporated.

2. By my rough math, it looks like there were ~14000 votes cast in 2007. Several thousand more were cast today. That's a healthy increase, and thus a good sign.

[Bainbridge]

I like that.

[DoughtyOne]

Congrats to Congresswoman Bachmann on her win today.

I am glad we’ll get to see her continue on from here viable for the time being.

She may not remain in for long, but I do like the idea of her pushing Conservatism in public for as long as she can.

[newzjunkey]

I think Perry showed ZERO class to announce when he did and draw attention away from this event.

Seriously?

[BunnySlippers]

I think Rick Perry may be our next President.

[newzjunkey]

Bachmann basically had to win this. She had "favorite daughter" status.

I'm sorry Pawlenty placed as well as he did.

Santorum did better than expectations.

I don't think this straw poll will "thin the herd" this year though.

[anniegetyourgun]

IOW, it really doesn’t matter who wins this....the GOP machine has already picked their guy.

[chilepup]

Hey guys,

Good finish a this straw poll, but it is just that, a straw poll. Considering that Paul and Bachmann bought many, many tickets to the campaign, they really didn’t do a whole lot. Guys like Santorum and Cain did well because they got raw intensity votes...they didn’t have to get a ton of tickets to secure a victory. The Iowa Caucus will be a better gauge.

[Antoninus]

thanks for the input Barack, I didn't know that you participated on Free Republic

I have explained my reasons for this many, many times. In a nutshell, I believe it's better to have a known enemy in the White House than a false friend. I think Romney is only marginally less a socialist than Obama. As bad as that is, the real problem with Romney is that he will have NO meaningful conservative opposition to his agenda if he becomes president. At least with Obama, the Republicans oppose him out of sheer necessity.

Romney will also destroy the GOP as a vehicle for conservatism. I saw how Romney operated in Mass. He basically made the Mass GOP into an impotent shadow of the Democrats, allowed the Democrats to go full-bore socialist, and helped them advance their agenda on all fronts while pretending to oppose it.

If that's what you want for the country as a whole, then by all means, vote for Romney. I'm done voting for liberals--regardless of party.

[COgamer]

“The Government of Cuba does not recognize the U.S. nationality of U.S. citizens who are Cuban-born or are the children of Cuban parents.”

Am I missing why we should care what the government of Cuba has to say, or why US law or election law should hinge on irrelevant statements coming out of Cuba?

[presently no screen name]

I think she’s far happier being a king-maker in GOP politics and earning some serious money from the speech circuit and her gig at Fox.

What you don't get about Sarah is - it's not about her but our country. In this order God Family Country. She's weighing it out on the impact on her family first along with seeing if anyone jumps in that is capable - who has the experience - to lead this country - if there is, no decision needed. If it were about her - she would have been one of the first to jump in.

So much for what you think makes her happier. It doesn't matter what she does - she's successful at it. Her kingmaker comes from her heart to make sure right candidates are chosen FOR our country. I haven't seen any of those who threw their hat in the ring do that because it's all about them. She, however, has the heart of a servant. She's wired that way, that's what makes her good at it and has accomplishments under her belt.

[boatbums]

Ya think O’Romney will get the hint???

[boatbums]

Perry — Bachmann 2012?

That might work for me.

[NJBushcountry]

Way to go! Bachman 2012!

[Monorprise]

In 2009 & 10 the Left declared Open war upon the American way of life, liberty, and perhaps most pointedly our pursuit of happiness.

On that day conservatives began to declare war upon them, and take this fight seriously. This is no longer a matter of simply beating them the left. This is about destroying them, ripping them to spreads and sewing their ideological lands with salt so that nothing ever grows there again!

Its time to end the era of communist wealth redistribution, to build new systems of completing checks, balances, and relieve valves(limited testing chambers) to help prevent them from ever growing into a serous force against our rights or our children’s rights again.

This can be done, its just a matter of thinking our actions and plans thou. Setting human nature against human nature to balance our our darker and even (some of our foolish lighter) impulses.

To secure the blessing of liberty to ourselfs and our posterity we must see to it that our system of goverment takes advantage of and works with Human nature to maintain a balance of freedom rather then trying to control & suppress the basic nature of men (human nature).

This is our charge, this is what we must do to win the war in the long run. This is what our forefathers attempted to do(with significant success), and this is ultimately what we must understand if we are to restore what they once had.

[CatDancer]

Absolutely! Anybody who can be a mother should be president! That means I should be, too. Shucky darn, missed my chance.

[Sun]

Bachmann will be on Face the Nation, and probably some other Sunday talk shows. Maybe all of them. :)