The American Spectator

Over the past week, readers cast thousands of ballots in the Spectator’s brokered-convention straw poll. If GOP voters can’t settle on a nominee, we asked, where should convention delegates turn? Well, the results are in, and — with all the usual caveats about the unscientific vagaries of online polling — several things seem clear:

1) Mitt Romney may be the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, but in your hearts, he’s playing fourth fiddle.

Of those still in the race, who gets your vote for the GOP nomination?

2) If GOP delegates begin looking for a savior, you’d point them to Paul Ryan.

3) But among the conservative base, adoration for Sarah Palin remains strong. We suggested five people who convention delegates could plausibly tap. Palin wasn’t among them. Still, hundreds of supporters cast write-in ballots for her. Many chided us — called us “numbskulls” even! — for not listing her as an initial option.

Should it come down to a brokered convention, which of these potential dark horses would you like to see emerge?

Other notable write-in candidates included:

• Nobody - 2.16% (Many of these voters would see a late entrant cynically, as a perverse bargain emerging from a smoke-filled boardroom. “A brokered convention does not represent the people; it represents politicians,” one person wrote.)
• Allen West - 1.80%
• Jim DeMint - 0.71%
• Bobby Jindal - 0.65%
• Andrew Napolitano - 0.27%
• David Petraeus - 0.15%
• Clarence Thomas - 0.09% (So long as his nomination comes after the court’s ruling on Obamacare.)
• Lizard People - 0.03% (I, for one, welcome our new reptilian overlords.)
• Ted Nugent - 0.03% (It does have a nice ring: “Ted Nugent, U.S. President and author of Kill It & Grill It.”)
• Chuck Norris - 0.03% (Balancing the budget would be a cinch, since we could lay off the entire Secret Service.)
• Zombie Reagan - 0.03% (“A people free to choose will always choose BRAINS!!!”)