One Political Pundit Weighs in on Ron Paul’s Alabama Victory
by James Buchanan
A political pundit on the appropriately-named website outsidethebeltway.com noted that “Despite all the attention paid to the meaningless Ames, Iowa straw poll, there has been almost zero coverage of the fact that Ron Paul dominated the Alabama straw poll Saturday, absolutely demolishing the competition:
(Alabama Straw Poll Results)
Paul 216 (81%)
Romney 14
Hunter 10
Thompson 9
Giuliani 7
Huckabee 6
McCain 2
Brownback 2
Tancredo 0
Cox 0
This is a stunning setback for Mike Huckabee…”
The Ron Paul victory in Alabama is a stunning setback for Romney, Giuliani and Fred Thompson too. Why is it that out of all the hundreds of political writers and pundits on the Cable News shows and major news networks, only one political writer has bothered to comment on the glaringly obvious mass-appeal of Ron Paul???
It seems as though the pundits are obsessed with only the Iowa straw poll. But the Iowa Straw Poll has NOT reliably predicted who will win the Republican nomination. One article notes “Alan Keyes won the last contested GOP (Iowa) straw poll in 1999, followed by Orrin Hatch, with eventual nominee George W. Bush coming in third… Pat Robertson won the Iowa straw poll in 1987…” Some candidates become obsessed with Iowa and spend a ridiculous amount of time and money in this one small state. The top four candidates in Ames this year, spent 66 days or more in Iowa. Romney is believed to have spent nine million dollars. Tommy Thompson, who placed sixth spent half a million.
In contrast Ron Paul spent 17 days in Iowa and placed in the top five –a finish the Wall Street Journal considered “impressive”. Given that there are 50 states, it’s a little insane to spend 66 days in just one state –especially a small one. Despite all the time and money Romney spent in Iowa, he got less than a third of the vote!!!
Rudy Giuliani and John McCain both chose not to actively campaign in Iowa, but one source notes that Giuliani spent 26 days in Iowa. Perhaps Rudy decided to announce he would not campaign in Iowa once he realized very few people there liked the big city liberal.
Admittedly the Georgia straw poll involved only a few hundred people, but that’s all you really need for a poll. The straw polls show the nation, who ordinary Republican voters want for their candidate. The value of the straw polls is that they give a snapshot of the true popularity of the candidates among real Republican voters. The people showing up at the straw polls made the effort to go to the event to vote for their candidate. The straw poll is more reliable than private pollsters, who could be controlled by an unscrupulous special interest faction (such as the neocons).
Another straw poll in New Hampshire gave Ron Paul 73 percent of the vote. The Alabama and New Hampshire events aren’t the only straw polls that the mainstream media has chosen to ignore. Below is a list of Ron Paul’s results in all the straw polls where ordinary Republicans could vote.
Ron Paul’s Straw Poll Results
State………….Percentage…….Place
Utah…………………5.4%…………….2nd
Georgia……………..17%…………….2nd
South Carolina……..18%……………2nd
Iowa………………….9%……………..5th ($35 fee required)
Illinois………………..19%……………3rd
New Hampshire…….73%……………1st
Alabama……………..81%…………….1st
Some straw polls, such as the recent one in Indiana, use “delegates” to do the voting. So instead of letting ordinary Republicans vote, some bureaucratic party hack is voting. The results of “delegate straw polls” are completely meaningless.
Ron Paul has beaten the system-approved neocons Giuliani and McCain in every single one of the above straw polls. There has probably never been a candidate who has done so well in so many straw polls and gotten so little attention from the mainstream media.