I really urge everybody to read the CPAC 2010 straw poll results (PDF DOWNLOAD). Many have been belittling the poll, including FOXNews, because Ron Paul became CPACs candidate of choice for president in 2012. Yet if you look at the numbers, the results are rather eye-opening:

64% of respondents identified as male and 85% of all respondents to the poll are below the age of 55. This is significant given that it puts them all at odds with the media age of members of Congress (which is 56 years).

So for the vast majority of "the future" (aka, the youth and young and younger middle aged) of the conservative movement, abortion, gay marriage and immigrant criminalization are close to zilch in importance. Even national security (aka "War On Terrorism") comes in at a distant 18% as a second choice. In the first choice round is just but 8% compared to the whopping 35% of "reduce the federal government".

For reproductive rights, immigration and LGBT rights advocates, this poll is actually a treasure trove of counter-talking points.

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"To fix prices at a higher level than they should be is going to compound our problem."

Ron Paul's assessment of the current crisis is very simple : The government wants to fix prices; to keep the prices of housing, of securities and of the banks at their pre-crisis levels. This obviously goes against the "natural" flow of the markets and it's what historically brought us the much invoked "Great Depression". You can keep prices artificially for so long.

In other words, this bail out will accelerate us into another Great Depression. The bail out is not going to get us out of it.

(H/T The Mess That Greenspan Made)

Austin's NBC News affiliate has conducted a pre-debate poll of the electorate and this is what they've found :

The race for the Democratic nomination is too close to call. The large percentage of "undecided" voters give even more weight to the CNN debates Thursday evening. As Senators Clinton and Obama both tour Texas, they will be reaching out to the undecideds to close the gap.

If the election were held today, who would you vote for? Democrats:

• Clinton 46%
• Obama 45%
• Undecided 9%

Margin of error: +/- 4%

If the election were held today, who would you vote for? Republicans:

• Huckabee 30%
• McCain 52%
• Paul 9%
• Undecided 9%

Margin of error: +/- 4%

Voter interest is high for the March 4 primary and as Texas plays a role in deciding the nominee, the expected voter turnout is historic.

Do you plan to vote in the March 4 primary?
18-39
55% (Democrats)
45% (Republicans)

40-59
61% (D)
39% (R)

60+
49% (D)
51% (R)

They are going to conduct the poll again after the debate. What's really interesting is the reason why they chose the company conducting the poll, Constituents Dynamics:
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It's been a fascinating weekend. On Saturday news broke out that The Boston Globe endorses Barack Obama and John McCain while the Des Moines Register endorses Hillary Clinton and John McCain.

During that same time, Newsweek published "The Sleeper" (on the cover, that is, because inside the atory is called, "The Road Warrior"), an eye-popping quasi-endorsement of the "I'm not dead yet" campaign-machine called John Edwards.

To one-up everybody in sight Joe "I am the heir of Zell Miller" Lieberman exclamates his passion for John McCain.

All this is happening during a weekend littered by the exchange of blogospheric emails and posts on the subject of Chris Dodd's coming filibuster of Harry Reid's FISA. The alleged leader of the Senate Majority announced last Friday he was going to introduce the Judiciary Committee's version of the "Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act" which would grant, among many other wrongs, immunity to the telecoms for aiding and abetting George Bush and Alberto Gonzales in their illegal spying schemes.
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Oh hell no!

Did Tom Joyner diss Giuliani, Romney and all the others that snubbed the forum AND gave a shout out to the Jena Six?

CORNELL! The baddest muddafrugger in the house!

Ok, I am shocked right now that Brownback has said that the United States needs to draft legislation apologizing for slavery. This is the same man that wants to ban abortion top to bottom.

Bob Cox just said, "i think we can agree that Alan Keyes is Tavis Smiley's revenge on the GOP".

AWESOME!

I want to smack Tom Tancredo. And I really want to rough up that asshole called Alan Keyes.

It is official, Tom Tancredo with his anti-immigrant rants, and with his equating the welfare system with being black, has officially become the most hateful guy of the night.

The only half congent think Keyes has said : "GWB focused too much on democracy in Iraq instead of focusin on security here in the US".

Huckabee and Brownback are the only ones that come across as moderates ... that is, until they open their mouths to talk about abortion.

POST DEBATE COMMENTS
There are so many candidates in the republican side that I am actually quite happy that neither Romney, Giuiliani, Thompson and MacCain stayed home.

I think that Huckabee and Brownback had a chance to shine. Huckabee lost me when the talked about the "abortion genocide". That comment was so extreme that I am going to have to give the forum/debate to Brownback --and he's as hateful on abortion and gay rights as the worse of them.
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