The election of a new pope in Rome is a model of procedural transparency compared with the mysterious ways in which presidential candidates emerge in America. But one of many suggestive puffs of smoke that Republicans watch for is the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference (cpac). As usual, the combined jamboree and think-in that drew thousands of activists from the right-ward end of the conservative spectrum to Washington, dc, on February 18th-20th ended with a straw poll in which participants were asked who they would vote for as the Republican nominee in 2012.
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