Saturday, August 11, 2007

Ron Paul comes in 5th in Iowa straw poll

Eeeeeenteresting. Ron Paul seems to have beaten out both Thompsons, Guiliani, and McCain (the latter two by a fairly wide margin).

It's very weird to have someone in the Republican ranks I'm actually rooting for. :) He'll never in a million years get the nomination, but he's a fun dark horse to watch...

2 comments:

Alissa said...

I wouldn't take too much from that. The straw poll is mostly about effort and organization. Both McCain and Guliani all gave up and didn't try at all. Fred Thompson hasn't officially declared his candidacy and so hasn't been campaigning much either. So Ron Paul really just beat Tommy Thompson, who has been trying really hard and just left the race because he didn't do so hot, plus 2 other guys I've never heard of.

Not that I'm trying to be a spoil-sport--Ron Paul is definitely the most appealing of the Republican candidates. Plus, one could argue that the other big names "bowed out" of the straw poll because they knew they wouldn't play well there and would look weak losing to Romney.

On the flip side, if it does end up being an accurate poll I'm mildly terrified that the 3 guys who raised their hands on the "I don't believe in Evolution" question came in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I suppose at least it's not 1st, but still, particularly if you pool their votes...

Nick said...

It's _Iowa_. What part of that was surprising?

I still think it's remarkable that Paul got that much. After all, it's not like you get a number of votes exactly proportional to how much you campaigned there.