A Victory for Ron Paul

Ron Paul might have finished poorly in Iowa, but he now has a victory under his belt in a straw poll, having won in Alabama. The results were:

Paul 216
Romney 14
Hunter 10
Thompson 9
Giuliani 7
Huckabee 6
McCain 2
Brownback 2
Tancredo 0
Cox 0

Alas, the victory doesn’t look as impressive after reading these caveats from Reason:

Some caveats: It was much smaller than the Iowa or Illinois straw polls, smaller than the last Alabama poll in 1999 (won by Alan Keyes) and Mitt Romney didn’t even bother to try and buy it. It was structured a little bit like Ames Straw Poll with voting card that cost $25 in advance, $35 at the door, and required an Alabama ID to pick up. No candidate came to speak: Baptist minister John Killian spoke for Paul. So there’s a little grist for the cynics… for the true believers, 81 percent is better even than Paul usually does in online polls.

The straw poll must have been unimportant if Mitt Romney did not even bother to buy it. The Alabama straw poll just might have some predictive value, as Paul’s chances to win the nomination aren’t much better than Alan Keyes’ chances were.

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