Ron Paul Wins Values Voter Summit Straw Poll Despite Having Some Admirable Values

A committed Christian and staunch pro-life advocate, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul garnered a first-place showing at the Values Voter Summit straw poll, winning 37% of the vote and trouncing Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, and Michele Bachmann.

To which Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council and organizer of the straw poll, had the only reasonable response: the guy who won most votes among Values Voter Summit attendees is obviously not the real choice of "values" voters…

"I don't think Ron Paul is truly reflective of where values voters stand," said Perkins on CNN's American Morning on Monday.

Perkins described the Texas congressman's top place finish in the poll as an "outlier."

"Ron Paul bused in over 600 people not to attend the conference but to hear his speech and vote," he said. "I give them credit for being organized."

Maybe the president of a designated hate group — and who better to judge values? — is right. After all, Paul's speech focused on war as the greatest threat to family life and invoked the Golden Rule in describing the ideal foreign policy. And every real "values" voter knows the real threat to family values comes from…committed, loving relationships formed by gay couples. Cue Bryan Fischer, president of the American Family Association, who also spoke at the Summit…

We need a president who will treat homosexuality not as a political cause at all, but as a threat to public health…Homosexual behavior represents the same threat to human health that injection drug use does. I believe we need a president who understands that neither homosexual behavior nor injection drug use represent lifestyles that any responsible government ought to normalize, legitimize, legalize, protect, sanction, or subsidize.

Well then. It's possible that the views of Ron Paul's supporters are not "truly reflective" of what many regular Summit attendees believe, but I'm pretty sure I know which group has the better values.

Photo by Steve Pope/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Tags: American Family Association, Bryan Fischer, Family Research Council, Ron Paul, Tony Perkins, Values Voter Summit