By Gary P Jackson.
I find this truly and absolutely delicious.
There have been a lot of presidential straw polls since silly season started, some going all the way back to a year ago this month. I’ve seen all kinds of results, but I’ve never seen such a blow-out victory for any candidate.
The website Red State ran an interesting poll in September. They asked readers who their first choice was for the Republican nomination for President, then ask who would be second choice through fifth choice. The results for first choice:
Sarah Palin 52.4% Herman Cain 21.4% Ron Paul 10.2% Rick Perry 7.3% Mitt Romney 2.4% Newt Gingrich 2.0% Michele Bachmann 1.1%. None of the other candidates were able to garner as much as 1% of the vote.
Red State did something different, telling voters they could only vote for a person once. In other words, you couldn’t vote for your candidate for first choice, then go on to vote for them as second choice and so on. They told voters that ballots with multiple votes for the same person would be voided.
It’s no surprise then, that Herman Cain was the overwhelming second choice candidate, with 33.7% of the vote. Newt Gingrich was third choice with 19.9% of the vote. Page four sees Newt again with 16.8%. Page five has Newt once more winning with 13.2%.
Out of the five chances for his fans, Rick Perry never gets more than 9.3% of the vote.
As a Palin supporter, this poll is very gratifying. Red State has been little more than Rick Perry Central since the Texas Governor entered the race. Red State and it’s editor Erick Erickson have been notoriously anti-Palin since day one. In fact, Erickson totally flipped out on Friday as the end of the month, and the media hyped “drop dead date” for Sarah Palin to announce her candidacy came and went. You can read about what Sarah Palin really said here.
On Friday Erickson took to Twitter and used his website to attack Sarah Palin and her supporters on an almost hourly basis. It was rather childish, and as William A. Jacobson pointed out, wasn’t doing his candidate Rick Perry any good. Having dealt with Perry fans, Erickson’s behavior is pretty typical though. In another post Jacobson warned Perry that throwing in with the likes of Erick Erickson will do you more harm than good.
Run, don’t walk, away from people who put their own self-aggrandizement and ego ahead of your campaign’s best interests.
Good advice.
A lot of bloggers wrote about Erickson’s meltdown, but we enjoyed HillBuzz’s Kevin DuJan’s a lot!
Wow. Erik Erikson at Redstate is having a complete mental breakdown on his site today, consumed with his obsessive hatred of Sarah Palin
Read it all here.
Red State and the editor’s obsessions have certainly not helped their candidate Rick Perry, but Perry hasn’t helped his own cause either, and new national polls show him fading fast.
The Red State poll, like all straw polling, is not scientific, but is a good indicator of support. Although not a fan of Red State in any way shape or form, we feel they put in the proper safeguards to make sure this vote is legit.
In these sort of polls, it’s the trends that matter. We’ve watched these straw polls for a year now, and the one take-away is Sarah Palin wins these more often than not, and has a solid base of support that never wavers. We see other candidates get hot and then come crashing down. Sarah Palin stays strong and steady. Her support is real and stable.
![sarah-marvelous-eyes-trig[2]](https://thespeechatimeforchoosing.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/sarah-marvelous-eyes-trig2.jpg)
A Time For Choosing 
Now that’s a poll whose participants had something to say.
If this is accurate,this is encouraging….
It’s not a scientific poll, none of these straw polls are, but the numbers are real. I always look at these polls to see if they can be easily spammed. This one was not. As online polls go, that’s the best one can hope for.
The thing to look for in these deals are consistency and trends. The trend in legit online polls is Sarah Palin has been consistently strong for a solid year. Always at the top. The rest come and go. Get hot, get vetted, and then crash and burn.
Well if she doesn’t enter the race at least I know I’m not the only one writing her in. The Republican Party better not take the Citizen for granted or we all might just find that Obama will serve another term. Of course I would prefer his next term in Federal …. no make that Club Gitmo
Great comment!
Things are about to get real fun.
Gary, I’d like your analysis of the Florida early primary move.
I need to put my thoughts on paper about Floriduh, as soon as I learn just a little bit more. For now, I’ll just say it’s a stupid move, and looks to be the GOP Elites trying to steal the process from We The People.
Personally I do not see the point in polling for Sarah Palin until she actually announces. Currently I am a full on Her,an Cai. Supporter, but if Pali. Tosses her hat in the ring I will vote for the person with the best chance of beating her. If she is the nominee, Obama will take this in a walk. The country’s future is FAR more important then her, and risking another 4 years of Obama is not acceptable.
She is damaged right now, she should skip this presidential election and stay relevant as a pundit or perhaps run for senate, she’s still very young and has plenty of time to run for president.
With that said, I am a very big supporter of Palin and would like to see her president someday, but this is not her season, and it should be unacceptable for ANYONE to accept another 4 years of Bambi. Her negatives are far too high to even have a chance, heck Ron Paul has a better shot at beating Obama.
Is this satire? Sarah Palin is the only one who can beat Obama convincingly. Not saying one of the back-benchers can’t win, but Palin can and will whip Obama like a rented mule, just as she has been doing since 2008.
More importantly though, Sarah Palin is the only one with an actual record of success at doing what must be done to save America. What Sarah did in Alaska was a dress rehearsal for what she’ll need to do in Washington.
We like Herman Cain, he’s a nice man, but he has no record whatsoever. He’s never governed a city, never governed a state and never had to bring legislators together to accomplish goals of any kind. All we have from Cain is a bunch of nice speeches. America is in too precarious of a position for an on-the-job-training president.
Again, Sarah Palin is the only one who has an actual record of reformation and restoration. She’s been doing it for 20 years in elected office.
As far as damaged, how exactly is she “damaged”? That’s a left wing/GOP Establishment™ talking point. Thanks to the loons, Sarah is by far one of the most fully vetted people in our nation’s history. She’s been found to be honest, hard-working, and effective.
No other candidate could withstand the thorough examination she’s gone through. No one.
And you think she’ll NOT be “damaged,” pilloried and spat on in another 4 or 8 years? And that, at that time down the road, she’d even be in a better position than NOW to run? Remember, lots of young GOPp “stars” will be gaining momentum and a record – and 2016 will look entirely different, as will 2020. No, NOW (2012) is her hour to make or break, win or lose – and I’m betting on the former in both instances…
This article doesn’t surprise me a bit. I watched the Undefeated with my sister and she says now with confidence that America would be better off with a President as she.
Red State where the HOWE run freely and the moose wins? Unbelievable lol
I will REALLY be encouraged when she comes out and says she’s running.
No matter who actually wins the nomination, these polls seem to be shouting the fact that America wants responsible, Conservative leadership…
Palin is NOT running.
YET
I look at Red State not at all, or with a very jaundiced eye.
So if indeed they,
“.. did something different, telling voters they could only vote for a person once. In other words, you couldn’t vote for your candidate for first choice, then go on to vote for them as second choice and so on. They told voters that ballots with multiple votes for the same person would be voided.”
then this is a somewhat more reliable STRAW poll.
But I am brushing polls off my sleeve like the gnats that they are- and, seriously, poll takers need to get a life till next summer, in my opinion. 🙂
Still I like seeing Sarah’s name up there, so thanks, Gary!