Ron Paul at 9.1% not even mentioned when results come in
These are the results in after an alleged voting machine malfunction. (About 4,500 votes of 13,000 had to be re-run):
As you can see, FOX dismisses Ron Paul’s support initially, and then when he gets 9.1% after campaigning for only two days he is not mentioned at all. (Others like Huckabee, Brownback and Tancredo campaigned in Iowa for months). Carl Cameron also dismissed Ron Paul’s results after Ron Paul won the South Carolina debate post-debate poll.
Out of 14,302 ballots cast
1st place: Mitt Romney (4516 votes)
2nd place: Mike Huckabee (2587 votes)
3rd place: Sam Brownback (2192 votes)
4th place: Tom Tancredo (1961 votes, 13.7%)
5th place: Ron Paul (1305 votes, 9.1%)
6th place: Tommy Thompson (1039 votes)
7th place: Fred Thompson
8th place: Rudy Giuliani
9th place: Duncan Hunter
10th place: John McCain (101 votes)
11th place: John Cox (41 votes)
Analysis by Anson Chi:
By now most of you know the results of the Iowa Straw Poll. This thread is in response to the reactions I’m seeing.
No. Ron Paul didn’t come in 1st. But he came in 5th. This was not election day. This was not the primaries. This was the Iowa Straw Poll. The point of this straw poll is simply to gauge how well the candidates did based on expectation. The candidate that had no expectations in the eyes of the mainstream media placed 5th.
Mitt Romney spent millions of dollars for his 1st place spot. He paid for people to be bussed in. He only beat the second place candidate by less than 2,000 votes.
Sam Brownback spent all but $400,000 of his campaign funds to get either 1st or 2nd. He came in 3rd.
Tom Tancredo has received about as much exposure as Ron Paul, and only bested our candidate by 656 votes. He has also campaigned in Iowa considerably.
Ron Paul, while only campaigning in Iowa for a week, while receiving practically no media exposure, while only relying on the supposed phantoms of the Internet and real life word of mouth, placed 5th. This is not a resounding victory. This is not a defeat. It shows that the message of freedom resonates with people if they only hear it, and we need to escalate our campaigning so that people do hear it.
Some people want a recount. I’m all for it. (I’m sure Brownback’s people wouldn’t mind one too). But if it doesn’t happen, all is not lost. The point is that the message is growing, and all we need to do is let more people hear about the most honest candidate in years, Ron Paul.
Also, be encouraged. Thompson is done. Hunter is done. McCain is done. Brownback’s campaign is in serious trouble (read: done). What that translates to is less competition. And considering that the average difference between the different candidate’s results was only 447 (282 not counting the difference between Romney and Huckabee), this day has shown that it is an extremely tight race. With less competition in the near future, and with a close race for those that will still stay in the race, this means that there will be more exposure ahead for everyone, including Dr. Paul.
Don’t fret. Don’t be complacent, either. The support is growing and so should our campaigning. Not to mention that 9% is almost 5 times higher than Lamestream Media’s prediction of 2%. We’ll win the YouTube/CNN debate and spread the Ron Paul Revolution even further!
UPDATE: Ron Paul’s omission is not a simple oversight. He was, again, omitted from a FOX News article on the Iowa straw poll, leading us to believe with certainty that this is intentional.
UPDATE 2: And again the next morning:
