Free Republic

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.

In a severe embarrassment for the Republican presidential frontrunner, businessman Herman Cain tripped up Gov. Rick Perry in a straw ballot of Florida Republican activists Saturday. The vote has no bearing on the choice of a 2012 nominee but, along with recent campaign events, is likely to increase the chances that the Republican presidential contest will tighten. It comes on the heels of a poor performance by Perry in a Florida debate Thursday night that disappointed conservatives, including delegates who came to Orlando expecting to back the Texas governor. Cain received 37% of the vote, more than twice as many...

Live Event KnightNews.com has been covering the Republican Party of Florida’s Presidency 5 or P5 event for the last couple days. Check out the live stream of Florida’s Republican straw poll provided courtesy of P5 and Knight News http://knightnews.com/2011/09/p5-live-video-stream-watch-floridas-straw-poll-live-at-presidency-5-in-orlando/

Results Herman Cain 37% Perry 15% Romney 14%

At a campaign-hosted free breakfast where the 3,500 delegates at Presidency Five were invited, Rick Perry essentially raised the stakes on the outcome of the straw poll at the Florida event later today, criticizing other campaigns for skipping it. "I think that's a big mistake," Perry said. "I think it's very important." Continue Reading What was clear, however, was how much money and effort Perry's team has put into the straw poll. On every table was a glossy, two-sided direct mail piece encouraging people to vote in the straw poll, and pitching Perry as "America's jobs governor" and as having...

ORLANDO -- There's no scientific polling, but talks with dozens of delegates who will vote in today's Florida straw poll suggest that many are making last-minute decisions to vote for Herman Cain. What seems to be happening is this: A lot of delegates came to Orlando planning to vote for Rick Perry. But Perry's poor performance at Thursday night's Fox News-Google debate gave them pause and re-opened the question of whom they will support. And many of the conservatives who were attracted to Perry will, when asked for a second choice, naturally gravitate to Cain, who, it just happens, had...