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The results from this straw poll doesn't mean much if the top tier candidates don't show to campaign. All you get is the "Best of the Worst'. Of course these guys should do well. The better staffed, better cashed campaigns weren't there. It does reflect what Rasmussen and a number of other polls indicate......the bottom tier are still the bottom tier. The 'Dead Last Gang' is still dead last.

The smart ones, who didn't spend oodles of cash on a 'popularity' contest were, Rudy, Fred, Duncan to a degree.

The Paulettes were hoping for a better showing and are coming up with some sinister voting machine conspiracy that kept their man from doing better, but Iowans indicated what the rest of the country sees in Ron Paul....'a nut'.

All you get is the "Best of the Worst'.

That all depends upon how you define "worst." Personally, I view the moderates in your "top tier" as the worst: Fred McGiuliomney is just more of the same expansion in the size and scope of the federal government that we've had in the last three administrations.

To suggest, too, that Duncan Hunter didn't put an emphasis on Iowa as some kind of wise political strategy is just foolishness - he doesn't have the resources to have put any kind of push on in Iowa.

I like Hunter and am not inclined to trash him, but your statement was disingenuous at least:

The smart ones, who didn't spend oodles of cash on a 'popularity' contest were, Rudy, Fred, Duncan to a degree.

Hunter doesn't have "oodles of cash" to spend on anything.

Giuliani's big government doesn't play in Iowa, so he skipped it because had he shown up his votes wouldn't have been any different. He wanted to save himself the embarrassment. McCain's the same thing - big government and Amnesty kill him in Iowa.

But why didn't Fred show up? That's the real question - where was Folksy Fred, the savior of the Republican Party, the nation and the world?

He can't do anything that would put him in jeopardy of having to start living within the rules of the Campaign Finance Reform ... he helped to pass. His position is perfect - while everyone else lives within these extraordinary rules, Thompson is able to skirt around all of it by simply not declaring.

What's funny is, scanning through posts from the last few days, Paulites were swearing a third or better place and prove that they have the real world support like they do on 'internet polls'.. hmmmm....

Well put, but I may say this... this was a decent shot for people like Huckabee (who was sitting 5th in the polls behind Mitt, Fred, Rudy and McCain and ahead of Gingrich) and the other also-rans to make a statement, and it appears that at least to their supporters they have.

There has obviously been a split in the results here: those who spent money (Mitt, Brownback, Huckabee, Paul, Tancredo and Tommy) and those who didn’t (Fred, Rudy, Duncan, and McCain). People like Brownback and Tommy spent a lot of money for their 3rd and 6th place finishes, and they’ll likely pay for it. Comparing apples to apples, Tancredo’s 4th of 6 wasn’t quite so impressive although it was adequate, and Hunter’s 3rd of 5 (above McCain and very close to Rudy) shows a lot of potential if he can just get a ground campaign into gear.