LOS ANGELES — Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann went
head-to-head over the weekend in a straw-poll battle regarding the GOP
presidential nomination — but this was a race in a forum that neither
candidate wanted to win.
The two women, darlings of the Republican right, ran
at the top of a survey at the Netroots Nations conference, attended by
more than 500 people who consider themselves on the left flank. But
winning this survey means that liberals have the least fear of either
woman, viewing them as candidates who would give President Obama the
easiest race.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the poll as
the candidate that progressives least want to face Obama in 2012. By a
wide margin, the liberal participants said they felt Romney would be the
likely opponent.
Palin, the former GOP vice-presidential nominee, got
32 votes, while Bachmann, the congresswoman from Minnesota, was chosen
by 27 people as the candidate conferees would most prefer ran against
Obama. The survey, which of course lacked any scientific value, was a
Christmas list of what one wing of the Democratic Party would like to
see in the presidential race.
The straw poll was conducted by Greenberg Quinlan
Rosner Research and Democracy Corps in close partnership with Revolution
Messaging. The results are based on a straw poll of 519 conference
attendees conducted via text messaging, onsite iPads and an online
platform.
On more serious issues, the straw poll found that
participants were strongly supportive of Obama despite some public
misgivings. Many liberals have questioned Obama’s policies on U.S.
military engagement and health care as short of what they had sought.
Despite some publicized criticism from the left,
progressives remain loyal to Barack Obama and remain focused on the
economy as the top issue our country faces today,” said Stan Greenberg,
chief executive of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner.
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