Paul was the only speaker so far to fill the entire convention hall at the Conservative Political Action Conference, and some of his supporters were turned away after the room reached its capacity of 1,100 people.

He also spoke to his non-interventionist foreign policy:

“We are now spending one trillion dollars a year to manage our world empire,” he said. “There is nothing wrong with being a conservative and having a conservative belief in foreign policy where we have a strong national defense and don’t go to war so carelessly.”

I, however, felt his best part was when he alluded to the terrorist rights issue (I am trying to quote from a video not Politico and it is approximately right):

“Somebody in the Administration,…makes a determination that that individual is a threat…[even if they are an American citizen]…he can be assassinated.” 

There’s more.  After citing the imprisonment of Eugene V. Debs and suggesting he might have been assassinated today, Paul warned that preservation of liberty is necessary:

“This is protecting the whole integrity of our country and our Constitution and the rights of the individual.”

Paul also cited the erosion of habeas corpus, the acceptance of “secret detention” and basically warned the conservatives that this is a threat to them and is not consistent with conservative traditions.  This was important.  I am glad it was well-received (although there was some booing) and conservative activists need to hear it.  Military tribunals and loss of rights for “terror suspects” is a threat to conservatives. 

Paul admitted his Presidential campaign has increased his visibility on places like Fox News.  I agree with that too.  He also called for freedom of expression and tolarance for other viewpoints. 

I conclude with this observation:  Ron Paul is not a charismatic speaker.  This is actually good.  It is the strength of his ideas that draw people to him.

But the CPAC straw poll is out and there are two surprises:  In a solid second place, just six points behind former Governor Mitt Romney is Bobby Jindal.  That’s right.  Governor Jindal had 14 percent.  This is more surprising when you consider that Romney is unofficially campaigning for President and Jindal has disavowed any interest in the White House. 

The other surprise is that Cong. Ron Paul came in fourth, right behind former Gov. Sarah Palin.  He had 13% of the straw poll votes.  This shows that Paul has made inroads into the conservative activists who frequent CPAC and related events. 

Next year’s straw poll will be critical:  I have indicated my interest in being a credentialed blogger for CPAC and if selected, I’ll live blog from there.  Can I cast half a vote for Jindal and half for Paul?  In the meantime, read my friend Tom White’s blog!