Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker tops likely Republican voters' 2016 lists for second week in row. A handful of flubs and a flip-flop that were heavily covered by the media don't seem to have slowed down the second-term governor's momentum in the invisible presidential primary, and in a national Quinnipiac University poll released on Thursday Walker came in first with 18 percent. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, previously considered the GOP front-runner, was right behind him at 16 percent. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker addresses the American Conservative Union's 42nd Annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at National Harbor, Maryland, last week. Walker didn't win the CPAC straw poll, but he has topped national 2016 polls for the last two weeks . Just two weeks ago it was Bush who was leading Walker by an average of two points in early primary states. But by the time the right-wing of the party made its annual pilgrimage to the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area for the Conservative Political Action Conference last weekend, it was Walker who was carrying the GOP's torch. A Public Policy Polling survey released a day before the soft start of the convention found that 25 percent of the Republican party had coalesced around The Badger State's chief executive. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who earlier this week became the first Republican to launch a presidential exploratory committee, made a surprise second showing in that poll, taking 18 percent of the vote, as Bush slipped to third place. This week Bush was back on Walker's heels, though, as the Wisconsin governor took flak over comments he made about President Barack Obama's patriotism and religion, protesters in his state and illegal immigration. As pollsters for Quinnipiac began their survey, Walker was asked by the Associated Press if believes that Obama loves his country. The question was related to remarks former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani made at a New York dinner honoring Walker during which the failed presidential candidate suggested the Commander in Chief doesn't have the same level of deference to America as the rest of his countrymen. 'You should ask the president what he thinks about America,' Walker told The Associated Press when he was approached about Giuliani's comments during a Washington, D.C. meeting of the nation's governors. 'I've never asked him so I don't know.' That same weekend Walker told The Washington Post he couldn't possibly know whether Obama is a Christian or not. 'I've never asked him that,' Walker said. 'You've asked me to make statements about people that I haven't had a conversation with about that. How [could] I say if I know either of you are a Christian?' Jeb Bush shakes CPAC attendees' hands at last weekend's convention. Bush, previously considered the GOP front-runner, was right behind Walker in this week's presidential survey , taking 16 percent to Walker's 18 percent . From there, his week didn't get much better. Asked at CPAC what qualifies him to take on terrorists, Walker brought up his 2012 fight with public sector unions. Democrats in Wisconsin tried to recall him over measures, however Walker won statewide election again, with an even wider margin of victory that he did the first time. 'If I can do that with 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world,' he said. The comments were interpreted by some reporters as a comparison between his home state critics an savages in the Middle East - something his political action committee told Daily Mail Online in an email that was neither fair nor true. Then, on Sunday, he walked back his position on immigration, saying he no longer believes in a pathway to citizenship for illegal residents. 'I don't believe in amnesty,' Walker told Fox News Sunday. 'My view has changed. I'm flat out saying it. Candidates can say that.' Still, other Republicans whose names were tested by Quinnipiac attracted less than half as much support as Walker did in the recent poll. Tied for third were New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee with eight percent each. Carson took 7 percent of the mock vote, and a trio of senators who are expected to run - Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida - received between five and six percent of Republicans' support. Paul's showings in surveys throughout the last month haven't been as strong as some of his likely competitors', Walker and Bush included, but at CPAC it was the freshman lawmaker who claimed victory as his team showed off its organizing prowess and secured him his third straw poll win in three years. Straw poll winners rarely go on to wrap up the nomination. Paul's unique ability to turn out his supporters will prove beneficial in caucus states like Iowa, however.
A handful of flubs and a flip-flop don't seem to have slowed down the second-term governor's momentum in the invisible presidential primary . Walker came in first in Quinnipiac University's survey with 18 percent; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was right behind him at 16 percent . Other Republicans whose names were tested by Quinnipiac attracted less than half as much support as Walker .