Decision 2008: Results from Ames, The Iowa Straw Poll

Yesterday 40,000 republicans gathered and 14,000 casted ballots in Iowa for who they support in the presidential race. Big surprises yesterday. I think the biggest was the low turn out. They expected twice as many votes as were casted. Well predictions came ture and Mitt Romney will his excellent organization in Iowa won the straw poll. He had spent millions on this poll and big contender no shows from Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain led to the poll going for Mitt. He won by what was expected and he isn't hurt by this poll. He isn't strengthened either, because he didn't win it big time. I see things staying the same in Iowa. What was surprising was Mike Huckabee coming in 2nd. He had been runnign a quiet campaign in Iowa and surprised most by beating Brownback for 2nd. This says he is in this race for the lon haul and could get in the top 3 in Iowa. Brownback came in 3rd and Tom Tancredo came in 4th. This really helps Tancredo who has been lagging in his campaign. Ron Paul's huge support from the internet got him 5th. Tommy Thompson who was hoping for 1st or 2nd gets 6th and is widely expected to withdraw soon. He said he would if he wasn't in the top two and 6th is far from that. We will miss you Tommy, but this race isn't big enough for 2 Thompsons. Fred Thompson came in 7th ahead of Rudy and Ducan Hunter who finished poorly got 8th. McCain did somewhat well for not competing. John Cox, whom we have interviewed finished with only 41 votes, but being a minor candidate we weren't expecting him to do any better. What does this straw poll mean? Well it proves who is organized in Iowa. Mitt is very organized. The straw poll winner has always gone on to win Iowa and 2 have won the nomination 1 winning the presidency. However 3 main candidates didm't compete so it is widley expected that the Iowa contest is still wide open. Huckabee proved his strength and Brownback said he has gotten a ticket to the caucuses. Hunter and Thompson are widely seen as the losers of the poll and it may cause both to end their presidential ambitions. It took 1 hour and a half to get results after what was assumed the time they would be given out because of machine malfunctions, hiwever we did finally get the results. It was an interesting day at Ames and now on to Iowa the caucuses.

Full Iowa Straw Poll Results

(R)Mitt Romney 4,516 31%

(R)Mike Huckabee 2,5867 18%

(R)Sam Brownback 2,192 15%

(R)Tom Tancredo 1,961 14%

(R)Ron Paul 1,305 9%

(R)Tommy Thompson 1,039 7%

(R)Fred Thompson 203 1%

(R)Rudy Giuliani 183 1%

(R)Duncan Hunter 174 1%

(R)John McCain 101 1%

(R)John Cox 41 .01%