Ron Paul wins CPAC 2012 Presidential straw poll

by Jed Lewison
Daily Kos
Feb. 20, 2010

The results are in, announced first on Fox News, and guess who conservatives chose as their top choice for the 2012 presidential campaign? That's right, Ron Paul.

You may recall that in early 2008, Fox made the Unfair & Unbalanced decision to ban Ron Paul from a GOP presidential debate. But now, just two years later, their network is leading media mouthpiece for the tea party movement spawned by Paul.

Another example of how times change: Glenn Beck is concluding keynoter for CPAC. Though Beck today is the leading teabagger on the teabagger's leading network, in 2007 he expressed concern that some Ron Paul supporters were fomenting domestic terrorism. And now he's keynoting a conference that just tapped Paul as their top pick for 2012.

It's enough to raise the question: are Fox and the GOP taking over the tea party movement? Or is the teabagging on them? Odds are, Mitt Romney, who won the CPAC straw poll for the past three years running, will find out the answer to that question soon enough.