Romney picked as 2012 GOP front-runner [View All]

[Ghost in the Machine]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Conservative activists on Saturday named former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney the winner of a poll for best 2012 GOP presidential candidate.


Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won 20 percent of the vote in straw poll for presidential favorites.

The poll marked the third consecutive year Romney came out on top.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal placed second in the annual poll, conducted at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Romney received 20 percent of the vote and Jindal got 14 percent.

Close behind were Texas Rep. Ron Paul and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who each received 13 percent of the vote.

The results were culled over two days from 1,757 of the party activists who came to Washington for the annual conference and filled out ballots on Thursday and Friday. Nearly 60 percent of the straw poll participants were between the ages of 18 and 25. More than half of the conference attendees this year were college students.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/28/cpac/index.html