Huckabee the real winner of the Iowa straw poll

Here's the roundup:

Attendance: 30,000-33,000
Total Voters: 14,302

Romney 4,516 votes (31.5%)
Huckabee 2,587 votes (18.1%)
Brownback 2,192 votes (15.3%)
Tancredo 1,961 votes (13.7%)
Paul 1,305 (9.1%)
T. Thompson 1,039 (7.3%)
F. Thompson 203 (1.4%)
Giuliani 183 (1.2%)
Hunter 174 votes (1.2%)
McCain 101 votes (0.7%)
Cox 41 votes (0.2%)

The poor showing by Tommy Thompson resulted in him dropping out of the race.

CNS News reports on Huckabee's "likeableness." Newt Gingrich had this quote: "Mike Huckabee is not a second tier candidate. He deserves, by anyone’s qualifications, to be considered a first tier." He spent less than $200,000 on the event. Romney by contrast spent over $1 million.

Ron Paul beat expectations. Apparently he had a very visible presence, even beyond his voting numbers, as a lot of his supporters came in from out of state and could not vote.

In 1999, there were 23,685 voters. The drop-off shows the waning of enthusiasm in the Republican ranks that has been prevalent in fund-raising numbers (with Republicans behind Democrats by $100 Million so far). It is also due to McCain and Giuliani passing on the event, and Fred Thompson as having yet to enter the race, as the Des Moines Register points out.

Historically, the straw poll is not so far off in predicting the winner. Bush 43 won it in 1999, Dole tied with Phil Gramm in 1995, and Bush 41 came in third in 1987 to Dole and Pat Robertson.