Mitt's the Straw-Poll Man

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won the Republican straw poll in Iowa tonight with about 31% of the vote. Of course, it wasn't that hard since John McCain and Rudy Giuliani opted out, and the straw poll was Romney's to lose. Lisa Wangsness at the Globe pointed out that Romney outspent his opponents by an "almost comical degree."

Adam Nagourney of the New York Times noted that everything wasn't all Romney all the time. Presidential candidate and Internet celebrity Ron Paul brought quite a posse to Iowa: "At least from signs and T-shirts, it seems to be a smack-down between Mitt Romney, the Republican of Massachusetts, and Ron Paul, the Texas congressman who could end up proving one of the more interesting tales of the day." Nagourney then pointed out that most of the Paul supporters were from out of state.

But, despite his position as an Internet darling, Ron Paul received only 9% of the vote. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee make a reasonably strong showing at second place - and he didn't even have to spend the amount of money Romney did. Perhaps Huckabee's guitar skills impressed the voters.

As a side note, the voting in Iowa wasn't without its problems. A "malfunctioning machine" prompted a recount of 1,500 votes. The vote-count machines were made by Diebold. Just sayin'.

Image of Mitt Romney before an evocative Iowa landscape from the official Romney campaign site.