The unofficial results of the Iowa GOP straw poll are in with 14,203 votes cast…

  1. Mitt Romney - 4,516 votes (31.6%)
  2. Mike Huckabee - 2,587 votes (18.1%)
  3. Sam Brownback - 2,192 votes (15.3%)
  4. Tom Tancredo - 1,961 votes (13.7%)
  5. Ron Paul - 1,305 votes (9.1%)
  6. Tommy Thompson - 1,039 votes (7.3%)
  7. Fred Thompson - 203 votes (1.4%)
  8. Rudy Giuliani - 183 votes (1.3%)
  9. Duncan Hunter - 174 votes (1.2%)
  10. John McCain - 101 votes (0.7%)
  11. John Cox - 41 votes (0.3%)

My quick takeaways:

  • Huckabee might well leave Iowa with the most momentum.  His better than expected second place finish can be attributed to one thing: the FairTax.
  • Romney’s victory has to be kind of hollow.  He’ll be able to boast about winning handily, but his biggest challenger (Note: McCain is no longer a “top tier” candidate) effectively sat the straw poll out and Romney invested a lot of resources in Iowa.  One would have expected him to finish with more than 32% of the votes cast.
  • Brownback’s finish has to hurt.  He locked horns with Huckabee constantly during the run up to the poll and outspent him as well.  There may only be enough room for one social conservative in the field and this finish spells trouble for Brownback.
  • Tommy Thompson, thanks for playing.
  • Both Tancredo and Paul far exceeded their standing in national polls (albeit without Rudy in the game).  They should each be able to spin their finish as a positive sign for their respective campaigns - especially Paul who visited Iowa less than five times because he actually tried to fulfill his duties as a federal legislator.
  • Even though McCain wasn’t really trying these results are ominous.  He has some traits that I really like, but far too many that I and lots of other voters cannot tolerate.
  • Fred Thompson’s procrastination is taking its toll.  It serves him well to a certain extent, though, because as GOP voters learn more about him they might not be so smitten.
  • What is up with Duncan Hunter?  I don’t know how hard he tried, but I would have expected him to carry more than 1% of the votes.

Other things of interest from the straw poll:

  • As I mentioned above, the FairTax support was prominent in Iowa.  A retired couple that I know here in Madison County drove up to Ames to voice their support for it - and they weren’t alone.  Huckabee’s biggest applause line came when he talked about implementing the FairTax.  The political class needs to wake up and realize that this is a political winner.  Update: Here are some pictures from a FairTax supporter.
  • Whether or not Mike Huckabee is presidential material remains to be seen, but the guy could be a stand up comedian: “A Republican in Arkansas feels about as out of place as Michael Vick at the Westminister Dog Show.”
  • Why do they call it a “straw poll?”  According to this site there are a number of different etymological explanations.  They all essentially mean to throw a straw into the air to show which way the wind blows.

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This entry was posted by Brian on Saturday, August 11th, 2007 at 9:45 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.