CPAC Poll: Stopping Gay Marriage Not a Priority for Conservatives

Some interesting developments have come out of last week's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) convention. It all really started back in December when the gay conservative group GOProud announced it would be a co-sponsor of the event, prompting some arch-conservatives to withdraw their support for the event.

On Thursday, former VP Dick Cheney made a surprise visit to the CPackers on the heals of his interview last weekend where he voiced his support for ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell and he was resoundingly not booed.

On Friday, Alexander McCobin of Students for Liberty thanked the American Conservative Union for welcoming GOProud (which he referred to as "GOPride", but thanks for the effort) as a cosponsor and was greeted with boos.

Next, Ryan Sorba, of Young Americans for Freedom, was booed off stage by a bunch of "unruly gays that are trying to infiltrate the party and ruin it." Yes, that's right, folks. If you want to ruin a party, invite the gays.

But perhaps the most bizarre news to come out of the convention were some of the results of the polling of participants. Each year the organizers conduct a straw poll of likely presidential candidates. The winner was former GOP presidential hopeful and libertarian-leaning Ron Paul. Paul's former rival for the White House, former Mass. Governor and rabidly anti-gay Mitt Romney came in second, with Sarah "I didn't quit, dammit" Palin coming in third.

The results of polling of the most pressing issues for conservatives showed that, like liberals, respondents were least concerned about gay marriage, with just 1% saying it was a priority. The most fascinating thing is that when each of these findings were announced at the convention, they were greeted with boos. Yes, folks, they booed themselves. Conventioneers largely brushed off the polling results due to the fact so many younger people were "allowed" to take part. Excuse me, but weren't these young upstarts raised in conservative, "family values"-type families? ("Bristol Pain to the white courtesy phone!")

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