2006 SRLC Straw Poll results.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/srlc/
John McCain, who came in only 5th (behind even Bush who couldn't run in 2008), with just 4.6% of the SRLC vote, ended up winning the GOP primaries, and his strongest opposition in the primaries came from Mike Huckabee who got only 3.8% of the vote. George Allen, who came in third, couldn't even win re-election for his US Senate seat.
We might have had an interesting race if we’d had Frist leading the ticket. It’s hard to say.
The most interesting thing about that 2006 straw poll list is that Ron Paul doesn’t appear anywhere on it. Weird that just a year later you couldn’t find an online/straw poll almost anywhere that he didn’t win or come in second, which continues to this day. Did this support just crop up overnight? Anyone have an insight?