Rand Paul is CPAC Straw Poll Winner

Senator Rand "Paul took 31 percent of the nearly 2,500 votes cast" in the Washington Times/CPAC straw poll taken during the 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference last weekend (Senator Ted Cruz came in second with 11 percent). Paul won last year's poll as well, and Roger Simon @ pjmedia thinks he knows why:

He [Paul] seems future oriented, unlike the rest of the potential candidates who mouth platitudes, liberal and conservative, bashing each other in the most tedious manner imaginable. Yes, the liberal side is by far more repellent, and old fashioned in ideology to the point of ridiculousness, but this does not absolve the right of the need to come up with forward-thinking solutions to the obvious American decline.

That is why Paul appeals to the young who are oriented, as they should be, toward the future.  The whole Democratic Party is oriented toward the past and so are, alas, too many of the Republicans.  ...

Paul is doing the right thing in seeking to expand the Republican base — appealing directly to minorities and students to explain how conservative/libertarian policies are better for them, instead of running and hiding from these liberal constituencies as Republicans normally do.  That Paul is going into the very bowels of the beast in the next few days, UC Berkeley,  to give  a speech is commendable and dramatic.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he had some interesting results.  The time is certainly ripe.  And beyond that, I think we all know that if we show people some respect they often — though certainly not always — return the favor.