For the second year in a row, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul topped the CPAC presidential preference straw poll, gaining 31% of the vote - nearlry 3 times the vote total of his closest rival, fellow Senator Ted Cruz who finished with 11%. Reuters: Paul, a potential 2016 White House contender, won 31 percent in the annual straw poll taken at the Conservative Political Action Conference. His closest competitors were Texas Senator Ted Cruz, with 11 percent, and conservative neurosurgeon Ben Carson with 9 percent. The straw poll was announced at the end of a three-day conference that typically draws many young conservatives. Organizers said one in two of the 2,459 people who participated in the poll were between 18 and 25 years old. Paul was one of four potential Republican presidential candidates to address the annual conference on Friday, along with Texas Governor Rick Perry, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. The Kentucky...(Read Full Post)