Why Ron Paul's Victory in the CPAC Straw Poll is Meaningless

Shhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!  Don't tell anyone! But I know who is going to win the annual CPAC Straw Poll. No its not that I have seen the results or stuffed the ballot boxes, but nevertheless I know who is going to win, Ron Paul, crazy congressman from the great state of Texas.

As I sit here in the CPAC blogger's lounge, Ron Paul's victory in the  CPAC 2011 Straw Poll are scheduled to be announced in 2 hours and 20 minutes, rather than wait till the announcement, as I did last year, I decided to plan ahead and write it early.

How do I know will win?  He does every year, the man who gets minuscule support within the party is like the kid who is running for High School Class president and gives out candy to gets votes.

Why? The Texas congressman and 2008 presidential candidate almost always does. While his ardent supporters aren’t numerous enough to win him actual primaries or caucuses, they’ve mastered the unofficial straw poll format and they’ve decided those informal polls send an important message. Case in point: The Paul forces are already organizing for June’s Republican Leadership Conference and Ronald Reagan Centennial Celebration straw poll and Iowa’s traditional Ames straw poll in August.

“In 2007, when the media was all but ignoring Ron Paul’s candidacy we realized that straw polls were something we could win, and they are really about the only way to get Ron Paul any media attention at all. So we just all start showing up,” said Brandon Yates, an activist who has been showing up to straw poll events on Paul’s behalf since 2007.

As they do every CPAC, this year Paul's PAC Campaign for Liberty reserved blocks of tickets for CPAC and urged supporters to come out. This has been supplemented with tons of college kids urged (and some say paid for) to make sure that Paul winds up with the straw poll win.  He even bused in 700 kids for the effort. They have been all over the place on the conference floor and here in the bloggers lounge, handing out “Campaign for Liberty” lapel stickers, pitching them as “giving away free liberty," all with the purpose of winning a meaningless straw poll.

They are also the people who screamed "Shekels" at Donald Rumsfeld.

In two hours Ron Paul will be announced as the winner of the CPAC 2011 Straw Poll he deserves it...after all he paid for it.