I don't really care, but I had never heard of the straw poll until this year and the ammount of attention this farce of a democratic proceeding got really illuminates some of the seriously drastic problems out asinine primary systems create.

I would like to see Ron Paul get more attention as a legitimate candidate for the Republican nod because when he isn't being too crazy most of his ideals are pretty decent.

Yeah I agree; it is unfortunate that the real debate is being stifled in this country. It will not succeed though; you cannot stop the spread of ideas.

If the "Tea Party" and I mean the original thrust of the movement, libertarian fiscal ideals, could separate itself from the absolutely idiotic religious fervor of the fundamentalist right we might have had a chance for some honest debate and forced elected officials to answer tougher questions.

thought I read that in order to vote in this straw poll, you had to buy a ticket for ?$10? and lots of these tickets were bought by the candidates funds themselves for their backers? is that true??

She was born in Iowa. No shock that she 'won' this meaningless straw poll. So does this make these Iowan voters as dense as her?

Yes that is true Monte. The process sounds pretty stupid and I'm not really knowledgeable about the reasoning about it being set up that way.

But beyond that; Ron Paul got second place by basically a less then 1 percent difference and the media has offered him no appearances on shows. In fact his only scheduled appearance was canceled by the show before hand.

This is in stark contrast to Bachmann who is being paraded around like prom queen. I mean go figure; a social conservative won in a social conservative state. The real news is how the eff did a libertarian ALMOST win.

And btw; I completely agree with Sam. The GOP platform is a winner in 2012; if they can subtract the social conservative crap from it.

Maybe all ballots should be offered at a price and if your candidate doesn't win you get a refund.

so in this case, ron paul = diceygirl, eh?