DIDN'T SHOW, WINS ANYWAY – AT 10:44 A.M. ET:  Mitt Romney, who didn't attend, won the straw poll at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans.  The certifiable nutcase Ron Paul, however, was only one vote behind.  From CBS:

NEW ORLEANS -- Mitt Romney won the straw poll at the Southern Republican Leadership conference here Saturday in a victory that will be taken as a sign of the former Massachusetts governor's strength as a 2012 presidential candidate.

That's because the 2008 GOP presidential hopeful elected to skip the conference to continue his book tour.

Romney triumphed by a single vote over Ron Paul, who took second place 439 votes to 438. Both men won 24 percent of the vote. Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich essentially tied for third with 18 percent of the vote each.

1,806 ballots were cast by the conservative activists who attended the conference. No other candidate got more than four percent of the vote.

COMMENT:  Ron Paul always drags his army of black-helicopter spotters to these beauty contests, hoping to boost his absurd presidential ambitions.  Paul is a dangerous eccentric, some of whose views on national security actually come from the fringe left. 

The danger is that, if Paul ever develops influence in the GOP, it can destroy the party by driving out everyone who can pass a basic psychiatric screening. 

April 11, 2010