Ames Chooses Romney

The much ballyhooed Ames, Iowa straw poll, which is seen as a bellwether for the success of Republican presidential candidates, has given another solid and significant victory to Mitt Romney, who has maintained his upward momentum over the grueling past 12 months or so.

This result should narrow the field of Republican contenders significantly--particularly those who were hoping to slide into a close second place behind Romney and knock him off balance. In fact, Tommy Thompson had stated that he would drop out if he didn't achieve first or second place. I think others will probably follow suit. Bye bye.


Here are the results:

1. Gov. Mitt Romney with 4516 votes and 31%
2. Gov. Mike Huckabee with 2587 votes at 18.1%
3. Sen. Sam Brownback with 2192 votes and 15.3%
4. Tom Tancredo with 1961 votes, 13.7%.
5. Ron Paul with 1305 votes, and 9.1%
6. Tommy Thompson, 1,039 votes, 7.3%
7. Fred Thomson with 203 votes.
8. Rudy Giuliani with 183 votes.
9. Duncan Hunter with 174 votes.
10. John McCain with 101 votes.
11. John Cox with 41 votes.