No, I didn't choose that headline because I misread the CPAC straw poll results. Yes, I know Rand Paul got the most votes -- but it wasn't much of a win:
Sen. Rand Paul won the 2013 Washington Times-CPAC presidential preference straw poll Saturday, and Sen. Marco Rubio was a close second....What?! Rubio came that close to the filibuster hero of the GOP? A guy named Paul almost lost despite the straw poll's voter demographics?
Mr. Paul won 25 percent of the vote, and Mr. Rubio collected 23 percent....
The annual conservative convention is popular with college students: Of the 2,930 voters, more than half were aged 18-25 and two-thirds were men.When Rand's dad won the straw poll in 2010, he crushed Mitt Romney, 31%-22%; a year later, his margin over Romney was 30%-23%. If Rand can't utterly dominate in this demographic, then maybe we've overestimated his bro-mantic appeal to the right.
Oh, well -- maybe he'll score a blowout win at Netroots Nation. (Um, that was sarcasm.)
