Bachmann’s Iowa chairman defects to Paul

By Norman Leahy | Thursday, December 29th, 2011 | Catch-All

Iowa straw poll winner (remember that?) Michele Bachmann has lost her Iowa campaign chairman to Ron Paul:

[Republican state senator] Kent Sorenson endorsed the Texas congressman on Wednesday night just hours after appearing at a campaign event in Iowa alongside Mrs Bachmann.

She said Mr Sorenson had been offered a large sum of money by the Paul campaign, which denied the claim.

He says he bolted because Paul has the better shot at taking out Mitt Romney.

Paul could use the boost. A CNN poll shows Romney slightly ahead, but within the margin of error.

And speaking of that poll, it’s got a lot of strange data points in it. On the question of “which Republican candidate do you think best represents the personal characteristics and qualities that you think a President should have,” Romney tops the list at 25 percent with Paul (19 percent) and Rick Santorum (18 percent) fairly close behind.

The next question asks which “Republican candidate is most likely to agree with you on the issues that matter most to you?” On that score, Paul comes in first with 22 percent, Romney second with 18 percent and Santorum third with 17 percent.

Then respondents were asked which “Republican candidate do you think has the best chance of beating Barack Obama in the general election next November?” Romney runs away with it at 41 percent. Breaking into the top three for the first time is Newt Gingrich with 17 percent. Paul tallies 14 percent.

So Mitt seems the most presidential, and could likely beat Mr. Obama. But he just doesn’t care about you, so you just might vote for Ron Paul, who can’t beat Obama but feels your pain.

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