Sunday, September 23, 2007

Wake Up, Dead Man?   [David Freddoso]

I'm at O'Hare at the moment. A friend just phoned me with the straw poll results, I'll correct them later when I get a chance to look:

Romney — 36

McCain — 24

Rudy — 16

Paul —9

Thompson — 7

This is an incredible result for several reasons. Romney's win is no surprise — he paid for many volunteers to attend, perhaps as many as 200, and he leads in some state polls. But how about McCain finishing second, ahead of Giuliani? His speech was the last of the weekend. A New York Times reporter remarked to me earlier in the day that he was lucky to go last — I (wrongly, I guess) told her I thought he was dead anyway, and it made no difference. His finish is especially interesting in this context. AG Mike Cox, his former state chairman, dumped McCain on Monday. I guess many of the Republicans at Mackinac don't see things as Cox did.

Then there's Thompson, finishing behind Ron Paul. This is partly a reflection of his lack of an organization in Michigan, but it could also be about how bad his speech was.

09/23 11:45 AMShare