LifeNews.com wasn’t the only outlet that had a bone to pick with ACU Chairman Al Cardenas, Saturday, during the short briefing with bloggers after CPAC ended. The briefing was to set up to explain the results of the straw poll, which Cardenas noted was unscientific, based on the high participation rate of young activists which skewed the results in a libertarian direction. Cardenas said those involved in the political process “would be remiss if they didn’t pay close attention to what’s happening here and the responses we got in this poll.”
NRO’s Patrick Brennan had a problem with the one of the questions pertaining the NSA, which he argued was not an accurate description of the issue.
Attendees were asked the following: “Do you favor or oppose the National Security Agency’s (NSA) use of data collection such as phone-tapping and reading of emails to combat global terrorism?”
He wrote at NRO, “this isn’t an accurate or balanced way to describe the NSA is authorized to do with American citizens or of the controversial policies revealed by Edward Snowden’s revelations.”
Asked if the question gave an accurate impression of what the NSA does, pollster Tony Fabrizio of Fabrizio Lee, who was with Cardenas to answer questions about the poll, said that
it was “an accurate description of what Americans are perceiving from the media.” Which, of course, is one of the things the right accuses the left of doing – repeating misleading impressions to skew polls.
Another blogger wanted to know if gay marriage will be on the straw poll next year, and Cardenas answered, “it’s possible.”
Cardenas also fielded a question about Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, who weren’t invited to CPAC, this year. “Is there any chance they’ll be invited next year?”
Cardenas answered that there are rules for participation at CPAC and the common denominator among the thousands who come to speak there are civility and respect for others and that speakers go through a vetting process. He said he couldn’t predict what would happen next year.