No surprise that Ron Paul didn't finish in the top three.

It's a shame that Ron Paul's internet popularity again doesn't translate to actual real world results. Congrats to Romney. Nice showing by Huckabee too.

Great for Ron Paul. Considering he barely bought any tickets and only officially started campaigning in Iowa on Thursday, he did excellent.

It appears that 9.1% of the
people actually get it!

Um, I hate to sound crazy, but where were those Tancredo supporters at? I was there and saw a lot of Brownback, Huckabee, Paul, and Romney supporters, but there was nobody there for Tom Tancredo… I spent a good amount of the day there, and there were much, much more Tommy Thompson supporters than Tancredo supporters… I'm going to call bunk on this; I'd bet my life that Ron Paul had many more votes than Tom Tancredo. Oh well, Ron Paul still has more money than everyone on that list save for Romney and Guiliani…

Well, that shows exactly what order people match the party values. Fantastic news for Romney, as it cements his deserved title as frontrunner and establishes him as the champion of the party amongst those who care about the party's values (fiscal conservative, proven leader, brilliant and dynamic debater, pro-life, defender of traditional marriage, optimist, Reagan-esque in stature and vision, passionate about integirty, in favor of strong economy, families, and military - and with the ideal presidential family and appearance, to boot!)

Go Romney!

Romney's biggest problem has always been his lack of name recognition, resulting in less attention given to his exceptional foresight for this country. This straw poll is an example of what is to come in the next few months. As voters become more familiar with Romney and his platform, they will recognize that Romney is the person that we need to lead this country.

This straw poll is a scandal.

Although it's not "official", it gives credibility to front runners, and causes others to drop out of the race.

It frontloads and definitely produces an effect on the presidential race, yet requires a $35. fee to vote — the logical equivalent to a poll tax.

This tradition should be challenged and eliminated.

I realize that this is not a “scientific poll.” However, I believe when a ballot includes all candidates, you cannot dismiss a showing of less than 1%, regardless of his presence or absence in Iowa. I believe John McCain will be announcing his withdrawal very soon.

Also when you consider the discrepancy between the “credible national polls” and an actual vote available to all who wish to participate (in a given area), it would seem prudent to trust the latter.

Considering the tiny amount of money spent by Brownback, Tancredo and Paul, I would say this somewhat changes the complexion of the race in the minds of the average American. Regardless of the impending media spin.

I think it's it a true testament that Ron Paul has 9% of the vote, without spending close the millions that Romney used to bribe voters.

It's a true grassroots campaign blessed with the original American spirit.

Isn't it amazing that everytime there is a nationally covered vote that one of these voting machines malfunctions or there has to be a recount? We should really be asking why so much money could be put into their development and yet they are faulty. Isn't it a little weird that in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections there were similar problems in key states. How many times will we let them take away our votes before we do something about it? Why are the people in charge of the vote counting in bed with the top candidates? This Neo-Con coup must stop.

Just do the research people. Please.

No reason to get grumpy about a win like this. Everyone deserves worthy opponents.

Well since neither Ron Paul or Mike Huckabee paid any supporters to show up by buying their tickets and providing transportation I think that they both did just fine.

The fact that 1300 people on their own dime took the time to show up and vote does translate into a little more than only a intenet following. Hell, I might have gone and voted for Mitt for a free ride and some free grub! j/k

Tommy Thompson's screwed, time to drop out of the race now.

Ron Paul is the most conservative man running for president. His views on ending the war, not meddling in foreign affairs, shrinking government and aboloshing the income tax among other things only shows what a true conservative he his. He voted against the patriot act, the only republican to do so, and if you value your freedom, your natural born rights, our constitution, you better read the patriot act and see if you agree with it and better yet, go to youtube.com and check out Dr. Paul in some of the past republican debates. Don't be fooled by the neo cons and their warmongering agenda. Its time to step up and be pro choice for life, and liberty, before birth and after! Vote for life! Bring our troops home! End this undeclared unconstitutional war! Vote for Dr. Paul!

This means absolutely nothing. Three of the top four were not even there. Iowa means nothing. Why we even have straw polls in a state which is having a hard time keeping residents from moving away is beyond me.

To the Romney supporters out there, this doesn't so much cement his status as front runner as it illustrates how much cash he is pumping into a campaign. I wonder how many people he paid to go in and vote actually went with a true conservative or someone who has convictions as well as values a la Ron Paul or Huckabee.

Romney should have outpaced all of his opponents by a massive margin given the war chest and his own money that he has had to resort to using to go for the Presidency. Go Dr. Paul and Gov. Huckabee.

WOW Ben from California…How wrong you are on all of those things you called Romney. Frontrunner? He polls at 8% nationally…Pro Life? Maybe since last year…but has he EVER done anything to advance the issues of pro life republicans? The answer is no…Defender of traditional marriage? Again someone who supported gay rights as he ran for governor of Mass. is not someone I would consider a supporter of "traditional marriage" Reagan-esque? Romney doesn't light a torch up to Reagan's legacy…Proven leader? Yes of FLIP FLOPPING more than John Kerry…In favor of military? Yep as long as its our sons and daughters going to fight in Iraq while his sons stay at home campaigning for him…that is just as equal in service of the country as the soldiers dying daily in Iraq….Dynamic debater? Who gets outshined by the other republican candidates in ever debate! Get educated Ben! Don't believe the hype!

Though he didnt finish in the top three, its a hell of a jump from not even showing up on the polls. Ron Paul is moving up and up and up and up..

So who do we believe. The Iowa polls had Ron Paul at 0%. This event has Ron Paul at almost 10% of the Iowa vote.

Hmmm…things just don't add up!

Oh man, somebody stick a fork in John McCain and let him limp back to the shuffleboard court where he belongs. Only 70 votes ahead of some self-financed nutcase someone's never heard of? Remember way back when in 2005 when he was going to be everyone's bipartisan dream candidate?

America may be at it again. We have very seldom elected sitting Senators to be President. The last sitting Senator to be elected President was John Kennedy…and before him you have to go back a long way to find the next. Given that the polls suggest we rate Congress even lower than George 43 in being effective, it probably isn't an advantage to be a sitting Senator running for the Presidency.

How can candidates, of either party, proclaim to be 'pro-life' if they are also pro-war, pro-capital punishment, pro-nuclear power, pro-patriot act (which, if you read the whole thing, which most of the candidates who supported and voted for it, never did) is an insult to the intelligence of everyone smarter than the moron in the white house! someone explain that to me…call yourselves "anti-abortion", but NOT 'PRO" life…

This was a great win by Mitt Romney who is probably the most qualified candidate to ever run for President of the USA.
Mitt won the Iowa straw vote with 31.5% of the vote in 1999 George Bush won by a slightly smaller percentage at 31.3%. Mitt’s margin of victory was even greater than Bush’s in 1999. There Mitt’s margin of victory was 13.4% and Bush’s was 10.5%.
Mitt also was impressive in that his average polling number in Iowa to date is at 24.8% according to Real Clear Politics.com. So taking nearly 32% of the vote shows that conservative Iowans like Mitt Romney’s message and where he stands on the issues. Mitt worked hard for this win and Americans like it when public officials work hard, he deserved to win. The fact that Rudy, John, and Fred were scare to compete with Mitt is going to send a message to all Americans that their organization and passion to win and compete in all States is lagging.
The Romney’s would make a great First Family and I believe if Americans liked Ronald Reagan they are going to love Mitt Romney!

If America's liberal wolfpack press and their followers want to continue with their negative sterotypes of this man and his family so be it.
Mitt has no skeletons in his closet and is as "solid" a candidate this country has seen in a long time.

yup, pretty much worthless if you pay people to go and vote. I would vote in that for a free trip knowing it didnt count towards the real vote

HAHA That's great! Ron Paul got 9% of the vote and he was only in Iowa for 2 days and spent very, very little money.

Then we have Romney spending MILLIONS to buy everyones' votes by busing them in, making them steak, and then buying their registration. LOL I don't know what is more pathetic: Romney paying millions to buy votes or the people that were suckered in to do this.

I should have went, positioned myself in front of the BBQ while Mitt was cooking, awaited my opportunity, grabbed the meat he dropped on the ground, and sold it on ebay. But, alas, I was more interested in Ron Paul!!

Allen Ridge's post seems a bit too superlative (12:59 pm Aug 12). The Romney's probably don't have any skeletons in their closet…I think that's true. But they don't have some of the badges of honor they should have either. I note that Mr Romney wants to win the current war we are in…but none of his boys want to take part. It easy to talk about sacrifice when your family decides its for someone else to sacrifice so you can continue to amass your american dream…and that seem disingenuos. They are all very priveleged by any common American standard…and they seem to want to continue it just that way. They appear to want their lifestyle…and to want someone else to guarantee it.

Romney reportedly spent 5 million dollars to get 4500 votes here; you have to wonder what the other candidates' numbers would be if they had all spent over a thousand dollars per vote. I'm pretty sure all the others had a MUCH higher votes-per-dollar return than Romney.

Christian conservatives & conservative veterans aren't going to vote for any of these birds, except maybe Brownback who lacks sufficient name recognition to get elected, or Fred Thompson who might get elected as a presidential actor. Sadly, there's not a single worthwhile presidential candidate in either party. Jeb Bush will probably come to the rescue and get elected.

Romney won, and no amount of rhetoric spin will change that.

Although people reading will likely think i am a conspiracy theorist there is something crucial to our nation that must be brought up now before the election of 2008. In this Iowa Straw Poll, electronic voting machines manufactured by Diebold were used. One (or more i have seen different numbers) of the machines failed to report its results so the 1000-4500 (again i have seen different numbers) ballots had to be hand counted. These are the same machines that were shown to be insecure and unreliable by scientists at UC Berkeley as well as Princeton University. The threat these systems pose to our democracy is huge. We must do away with these systems to ensure that democracy is preserved and that every person's vote is counted correctly.

Jeb Bush? Yeah right. Good luck getting elected nationally with Bush as your last name ever again. It will not happen.

I think it's safe to say that if you participated in this event and didn't even get 10% (when the three front runners didn't participate), it's time to take the path of self-respect, like Thompson and drop out. We should be saying good bye to Hunter and Paul now, but it sounds like they're being stubborn. It would be really nice to hear from fewer people at the debates though…

How many common people could afford to pay $35 to vote in a straw poll? This was a bribe or rich vote for Mitt. There are more supporters for Ron Paul out there and his numbers will go up with the real vote, probably in December. Right Iowa?

Romney paid $5 million for 4500 votes. That's about $1100 a vote. Nice.

Romney, the slick used car salesman sold Iowa a piece of junk!!

The Diebold voting machines are being used to control the results. If you google search Diebold Princeton University, you can find a detailed research paper explaining how a voting machine virus could be installed on one machine during normal election activities that could silently spread to the other machines.

This might have happend in the Iowa straw poll. It was reported there were 18 machine use and one of these malfunctioned during the vote. The 1,500 votes recorded by this machine had to be recounted. If one machine averaged 1,500 votes, then the total votes (from 18 machines) should be somewhere around 27,000 votes. However, there were only 15,00o votes counted. What happened to the other 15,000 votes? Especially when the event sold 26,000 tickets. That would mean only 60% of the people there actually voted.

Wow, Ron did an excellent job. Now if the internet buzz turns into actual votes on voting day Ron Paul would win by a 40 to 45 % margin. Go Ron Paul.

The MEDIA is scared about showing the truth.
So what if Ron paul has internet popularity 9.1% get it & you know there are more supporters for him.

-spread the word!!!!!Ron Paul is a comin'

But Ron Pauls internet/grassroots support did translate into real world results. I think that fifth place in the straw poll after polling around 1% for months isn't bad. By the way, it is no suprise that Ron Paul DID finish in the top three in the Illinois straw poll.

Ron Paul

9.1% in Iowa 19% in Illinois 1 week later.

From California….

Go Ron Go!

When you get here, I will only give you my independent vote for president.

[...] I know the purpose of this blog is to point out the flaws of the Top Tier, so why am I posting about John Cox, a candidate that scored 0.3% at the Iowa Straw Poll? [...]

well paul is in third because brownback and tancredo already dropped