Bernie Sanders surprises with strong second place showing in Wisconsin straw poll.

Courtesy of Politico: 

Hillary Clinton is crushing the rest of the Democratic presidential field in national polls, but over the weekend, in a Wisconsin straw poll, there was reason to give the Clinton camp pause and the Bernie Sanders camp hope — Sanders scored a strong second-place finish with 41 percent of the vote, to Clinton’s 49 percent. 

The Vermont senator, a self-described democratic socialist and a long shot for the White House, received 208 of 511 delegate votes at the Wisconsin Democratic Party convention in Milwaukee on Saturday, while Clinton won votes from 252 of the delegates, leaving her just short of a majority.

Vice President Joe Biden and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who announced his candidacy late last month, each received 3 percent of the vote. Former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, who is considering a bid, won 2 percent, while former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee, who announced his long-shot candidacy last week, received 1 percent. 

I don't give a whole lot of credibility to straw polls, but I think it is for the Sanders campaign to feel a little wind beneath their sails and for the Clinton campaign to feel him breathing down their necks.

I also think it is interesting how strong Sanders is in comparison to the other wannabe giant killers on the Democratic side. 

In my opinion there really is no downside to Sanders giving Clinton even the appearance of a legitimate challenge. And I hope he continues to dog her right up until the nominating process.

Results of CPAC straw poll show that Jeb Bush does better than expected and Sarah Palin beats Mike Huckabee.

Here are the CPAC straw poll results courtesy of the Washington Times:  

25.7 Sen. Rand Paul 
21.4 Gov. Scott Walker 
11.5 Sen. Ted Cruz 
11.4 Dr. Ben Carson 
8.3 Former Gov. Jeb Bush 
4.3 Former Sen. Rick Santorum 
3.7 Sen. Marco Rubio 
3.5 Donald Trump 
3.0 Carly Fiorina 
2.8 Gov. Chris Christie 
1.1 Former Gov. Rick Perry 
0.9 Gov. Bobby Jindal 
0.8 Former Gov. Sarah Palin 
0.3 Former Gov. Mike Huckabee 
0.3 Former Ambassador John Bolton 
0.1 Sen. Lindsey Graham 
0.1 Former Gov. George Pataki 

1.0 Undecided 
0.7 Other 

A couple of surprises.

One that Jeb Bush was able to come in fifth in a rather hostile environment.

Two that Rick Santorum is still even allowed to participate in these things anymore.

And three that Sarah Palin was able to come out ahead of a man who actually quit his successful show on Fox to prove that he was serious about running, while all she does is shake her moneymaker until things get hot and then up and quits each election cycle.

The Values Voters folks demonstrate once and for all that their "values" lead them to choosing the worst candidates imaginable for President.

  Courtesy of the Washington Post: 

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) has come in first in the Values Voter Summit presidential straw poll for the second year running. Receiving 25 percent of the votes cast, down from 42 percent in 2013, Cruz was the favorite for the 2016 Republican president nomination among the 2,000 social conservatives activists at the conference. 

Dr. Ben Carson, the former neurosurgeon, was second in the poll with 20 percent of the vote, up from 13 percent last year, while former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee came in third with 12 percent. Other speakers at this year's summit include Rick Santorum, who was fourth with 10 percent, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, fifth with 7 percent.

Holy crap!

The first, second, and third choice was the guy that thinks we are about to throw Lorne Michaels in jail, the guy who thinks Obamacare is worse than 9-11, and the guy who said that women needed government to help them control their libido?

All I can say to the idea of any of these three imbeciles being chosen as the GOP nominee in 2016, is "Yes please!"

Update: Even among this group of mental midgets Palin was only able to garner nine votes. 

Damn, how many forks is that now sticking out of her?

Former Iowa state senator pleads guilty to taking bribes to stop supporting Michele Bachmann and start supporting Ron Paul for the GOP nomination. Funny thing, turns out Bachmman was paying him as well.

Courtesy of the Washington Post: 

A former Iowa state senator pleaded guilty Wednesday to concealing campaign expenditures and obstructing justice as part of an endorsement-for-pay scheme that roiled the Iowa Republican caucuses in 2012. 

Kent Sorenson, of Milo, Iowa, admitted in federal district court that former Rep. Ron Paul’s presidential campaign secretly paid him $73,000 after he dramatically dropped his backing of Rep. Michele Bachmann in late 2011 and endorsed Paul’s White House bid, saying at the time that Bachmann was no longer a viable candidate. 

A furious Bachmann charged then that Sorenson was being paid to flip his support to Paul -- an accusation that Sorenson, Paul and his campaign officials all denied. 

But in court papers filed Wednesday, Sorenson acknowledged that he had been paid by both presidential campaigns.

As it turns out Sorenson was already being paid between $7,000 to $7,500 a month to support Bachmann and the Ron Paul people simply out bid her.

I guess there really is no honor among thieves, or Republicans right?

At the time Sorenson gave this statement to explain his change of heart:

“The decision I am making today is one of the most difficult I have made in my life,” Mr. Sorenson said in a statement. “But given what’s at stake for our country, I have decided I must take this action.” 

Mr. Sorenson said he was “saddened at the dismissive way she’s been treated among some conservatives,” but he said that it had become clear Mrs. Bachmann was no longer a viable contender.

Gee I wonder if it was THIS news that convinced Bachmann to not seek reelection?

By the way, the guy who orchestrated all of this for Ron Paul, Jesse Benton, is now running the reelection campaign for Mitch McConnell.

Color me unsurprised. 

How to tell if you are a Right Wing fringe group. When Sarah Palin, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz win your presidential straw poll for 2016.

Courtesy of Conservative HQ:  

While the top three vote getters in CHQ’s 2016 Republican presidential straw poll haven’t changed – former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul – occupy the top three spots, Palin has jumped back into a commanding lead in last week’s balloting. 

Palin took 41% of the week’s votes, with Cruz dropping back to 30% and Paul taking 17%. 

Over the course of the past few weeks the Cruz vote had been growing bringing him to within one point of Palin in the previous week’s balloting. 

Rounding out the top tier are two other limited government constitutional conservatives; Dr. Ben Carson and former Senator Jim DeMint, now President of the Heritage Foundation. 

Notable in their absence from the top tier of potential candidates are the usual establishment Republican suspects – Jeb Bush and Chris Christie -- and Marco Rubio also failed to attract any votes in this week’s voting.

Holy crap! That is is some DEEPLY Right Wing fringe thinking right there. 

Their TOP candidates are Palin, Paul, and Cruz? Too bad Joe McCarthy is dead, he could have rounded out the top four.

And Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, and Marco Rubio don't even make the list? Seriously?

I take it electability makes you immediately ineligible to be considered.

These are the fringe lunatics which are currently tearing the Republican party apart. If they had their way the GOP would not even acknowledge that Obama was President and would be handing out automatic weapons and fundraising in preparation for the coming civil war.

Could you imagine a ticket that featured Rand Paul, Palin, or Ted Cruz? It would be the end of the Republican party.

Could the Democrats get that lucky?

Could be, stay tuned.

The results of the CPAC straw poll are in.

Rand Paul, did the best, just like his dad before him. Of course as we know that has NEVER resulted in a great deal of support during a presidential run.

Odds are Rand is too arrogant to realize that however.

Then it is the great brown hope, Marco Rubio, Rick "Don't Google me bro!" Santorum, Chris "I did not get invited" Christie, and Paul "I did not lose that last election, blame the other guy" Ryan rounding out the top five.

Apparently Jeb Bush, KNOWING that winning this poll is the kiss of death in the presidential race, asked that his name be taken out. So all that was left was this clown car full of losers.

Wow! Check out who is sitting right down at the very bottom.

Uh oh! It looks like perhaps somebody did not wow the participants as much as she thought she wowed the participants.

Damn! That has gotta hurt!

Oh well considering how many phony boobs the CPAC participants saw perhaps they simply did not find Palin's all that interesting.

(H/T to Hot Air.)

Now its "on like Donkey Kong" as Rick Perry surrogate calls Mitt Romney's Mormon faith a "cult."

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:

Robert Jeffress, Southern Baptist Convention leader and pastor of the 10,000-member First Baptist Church of Dallas, has never endorsed a political candidate, but at the Values Voters Summit on Friday, he announced that he was throwing his support behind Rick Perry. “I don’t think Michele Bachmann is going to win the nomination. I don’t believe that Herman Cain is going to win the nomination. I think it’s going to come down to a Perry-Romney fight,” he told me shortly before taking the stage to introduce Perry to the crowd. “And I felt like at this time, it was critical for a pastor to tell other Christians why it is imperative to vote for a Christian rather than a non-Christian.” 

In other words, Jeffress, one of the first major religious right figures to choose sides in the GOP primary, wants to make sure that the Republican Party doesn’t nominate a Mormon. Romney’s religion, he says, “is going to play a huge role. It’s a role that many people are unwilling to speak about.” He, however, is more than willing. “Quite frankly, part of my hesitancy in supporting Governor Romney is I do not want to give credibility to a cult like Mormonism, which I believe having a Mormon president would do,” he says. 

After Perry’s speech—a fairly underwhelming iteration of his standard stump address—Jeffress expressed similar sentiments to reporters gathered at Washington’s Omni Shoreham hotel for the religious right confab. Soon, the story of Perry’s anti-Mormon ally was all over the place. This creates a challenge for the Texas governor, but it also gives him an opportunity to capitalize on some evangelicals’ antipathy to the Church of Latter-day Saints.


Look let's be honest. ALL religions start off as a cult.

The only real difference between a cult and a religion is the number of believers, and who is disseminating the information.  I doubt even the most devout Christian could effectively argue that Christ's little band of apostles were not considered a cult by the Jews of that time  who eventually decided to take steps to rid themselves of the annoying rabbi with the God complex.

Whatever did happen to that little cult that could anyhow?

I find it even more humorous that all of this drama occurred at the Values Voters Summit.  A place that neither Rick Perry nor Mitt Romney should even have bothered to show up to. At least not according to these results:

Value Voter Summit Straw Poll Results 
Ron Paul – 37 percent 
Herman Cain – 23 percent 
Rick Santorum – 16 percent 
Rick Perry – 8 percent 
Michele Bachmann – 8 percent 
Mitt Romney – 4 percent 
Newt Gingrich – 3 percent 
Undecided – 1 percent 
Jon Huntsman – 0 percent

But hey, at least Rick Perry is not a loser AND a fake Christian, now is he?