Final results of Thursday's Illinois straw poll:
1. Mitt Romney 40.35%
2. Fred Thompson 19.96%
3. Ron Paul 18.87%
4. Rudy Giuliani 11.61%
5. John McCain 4.12%
6. Mike Huckabee 3.04%
7. Sam Brownback 1.08%
8. Duncan Hunter - .65%
9. Tom Tancrado - .33%
Paul just beat Guiliani and McCain, but loses to a candidate not officially running and Romney.
I'm not sure how much time Ron Paul has spent in Illinois, but this vote should at least show that he is a viable top-tier candidate. CNN seems to hesitate to even mention his name or the surprising results, instead pausing to worship the organization of the man who bought the victory at the first straw poll in Ames by bussing in and putting up all of his voters. I'm not saying that they didn't want to vote for Romney after he bought them a weekend getaway to Ames, it's just that election results of this type have little real meaning to me... I had also read in another article posted that claimed that Paul's supporters had all paid their own way. That's not exactly true, as many of the supporters (500) were offered a ride (by bus). But he received 1000 votes more than that, so enjoyed widespread support anyway.
The basic premise is this: Ron Paul is as electable as the numbers show: he has superman-strength on the internet, and is gaining with every poll done by phone. Paul is the alternative to Romney in a state where the frontrunners enjoying more national support than him had less votes than he did put together; the only other "candidate" is a man not even in the race, which shows that no one takes the other candidates besides Romney seriously. All of the second tier candidates had much stronger showings in Ames than in this one.
1. Mitt Romney 40.35%
2. Fred Thompson 19.96%
3. Ron Paul 18.87%
4. Rudy Giuliani 11.61%
5. John McCain 4.12%
6. Mike Huckabee 3.04%
7. Sam Brownback 1.08%
8. Duncan Hunter - .65%
9. Tom Tancrado - .33%
Paul just beat Guiliani and McCain, but loses to a candidate not officially running and Romney.
I'm not sure how much time Ron Paul has spent in Illinois, but this vote should at least show that he is a viable top-tier candidate. CNN seems to hesitate to even mention his name or the surprising results, instead pausing to worship the organization of the man who bought the victory at the first straw poll in Ames by bussing in and putting up all of his voters. I'm not saying that they didn't want to vote for Romney after he bought them a weekend getaway to Ames, it's just that election results of this type have little real meaning to me... I had also read in another article posted that claimed that Paul's supporters had all paid their own way. That's not exactly true, as many of the supporters (500) were offered a ride (by bus). But he received 1000 votes more than that, so enjoyed widespread support anyway.
The basic premise is this: Ron Paul is as electable as the numbers show: he has superman-strength on the internet, and is gaining with every poll done by phone. Paul is the alternative to Romney in a state where the frontrunners enjoying more national support than him had less votes than he did put together; the only other "candidate" is a man not even in the race, which shows that no one takes the other candidates besides Romney seriously. All of the second tier candidates had much stronger showings in Ames than in this one.