One Mans Opinion 3/1/2011

By Dewaine Shoulders

I’ve said it before, and I have to say it again… Poll numbers this early on do not account for much more than reasons to speculate about a certain candidate (or potential races that may or may not happen) by the talking heads in the MSM.

That being said, I’ll now discuss the latest poll numbers (Imagine that!).

The February Townhall/HotAir GOP presidential Straw Poll ran and the results are in. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin claimed a victory over Ron Paul. And we all know that the Paul faithful votes early and often. Sarah Palin took the victory with 18.23% of the vote. Texas Congressman Ron Paul ended up with 15.49% of the vote.

What’s surprising are the so-called ‘Front-runners’ that were mentioned in the poll. The February poll results reveal a tightening in the race when compared to the January poll results.

Here’s the breakdown of the poll numbers.

Sarah Palin 18.23%                                  Paul Ryan 2.70%

Ron Paul 15.49%                                      Mitch Daniels 2.61%

Mitt Romney 11.03%                                 Michelle Bachmann 2.43%

Newt Gingrich 10.89%                               Tim Pawlenty 2.31%

Mike Huckabee 8.49%                               Undecided 2.15%

Chris Christie 7.78%                                  Jim Demint 1.74%

Herman Cain 6.27%                                   Rick Santorum 1.17%

John Bolton 3.24%

John Thune, Rick Perry, Haley Barbour, Gary Johnson and Jon Huntsman all received less than one percent of the vote.

Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman, Rick Perry and Paul Ryan were new to this month’s poll and
Senator John Thune (R-SD) was removed from the poll since he officially announced that he would not be running for President.

With the rumor mill running amok about who might toss their hat in the ring, these poll results could influence who will and won’t run. This could be a very interesting month for the GOP and the pundits in the MSM.

Regardless of how the MSM and other left-leaning bloggers would like to point out (that Sarah Palin would lose if she ran), she seems to be polling high consistently and that should raise the stakes as to Ms. Palin’s future political aspirations. To me, she’s odds on favorite to win the nomination. To the elite in the GOP, she’s their worst nightmare. To the left, she represents something far worse: An end to their plans to build a socialist utopia.  

So, this message goes to Gov. Sarah Palin… Do you remember the line in that Robert Redford movie? “If you build it, they will come!”

Well, if you run, the people will vote for you!

But that’s just my opinion, I could be right!