SC Straw Poll Results - RP 2nd

[Razmear]

Hi, just got back from the South Carolina Palmetto Family Council Straw poll.

Here are the Results, will reply with details about the event after posting the numbers:

539 Votes Cast

1. Huckabee - 206 votes - Appeared in Person
2. Ron Paul - 179 - Phoned in message from Michigan
3. Thompson - 43 - Phoned in
4. Brownback - 29 - Phoned in
5. Hunter - 25 - In Person
6. Romney - 14 - Phoned In
7. Gilbert - 12 - In Person (NC Businessman, was actually kinda Pro-Paul)
8. McCain - 10 - Phoned In
9. Cort - 7 - In Person
10. Rudy - 5 - No Call, No Show, Didn't even respond to the questioner.

Anyone not listed received 0 votes.

eb

[JosephTheLibertarian]

Huckabee.. I'm gettin' awfully tired of that guy.

[bbachtung]

Huckabee was there IN PERSON, and Ron Paul was there as a piece of plastic with a voice coming out of it. Huckabee got 27 more votes by being there in the flesh than the disembodied voice of Ron Paul. That had to hurt for Huck.

[Razmear]

K, now that the numbers are posted, here is the summary of the event from my point of view.
This event was $50 a ticket to attend, we got our 2 tickets from the campaign and carpooled with a couple who paid the $100 for their own tickets the ~120 miles to Columbia.
The Granny Wagon was in attendance (I swear they must have a dozen of these with identical monkeys to be in so many places), and parked up front.
We got there about 4:45, checked in, got our ballots and found a table.
The food was BBQ and really good. It was buffet style which allowed me to eat far more than my fair share (3 plates of BBQ pork, 2 peach cobbler deserts and about 7 cups of coffee). But enough about the food.

The first candidate speaker was Mr Cort, who is an alleged terrorism expert (His National Campaign Manager told me while we were smoking outside earlier that he wrote a book: "Saddam's Attack On America". When I asked which attack that was he seemed perplexed by my question and suggested I buy a copy of the book.
His speech was a mix of Pat Robertson man love, homophobic ranting "We are in for a disaster far worse than 9/11 if we allow homosexuality to continue", and outright fear mongering. He even quoted Robertson's New Year's prediction about a nuclear attack against the US and went on about 25 missing Russian Suitcase Nukes that were already in the country ready to blow up at any moment. The dude was a total nutbag, but at least somewhat amusing.

Next up was Ron Paul's phone in. Ron had no way to hear the audience so when we cheered he kept on talking. We tried to hush the supporters so the others could hear with limited success. The audio quality was not great and the message was hard to hear over the phone, if he had shown up in person I have no doubt he would have won this by a landslide. Ron finished up in exactly 10 minutes which was the allotted time for the candidates and the MC from the event complemented him on his consistency.

Now, honesty the sequence of events gets a bit fuzzy after Ron's speech as to who spoke when, and there were also frequent trips outside to chat with the other Ron Paul smokers so parts of the other candidates speeches were missed.

The guy Dan Gilbert, Businessman from NC was very good, and several commented that he would be a good VP choice. He even said in his speech that he respected Ron Paul in many ways.

After McCains call in he got by far the least applause, barely even a polite golf clap from the audience.

Fred's call in seemed more like whining about how much traveling he has been doing lately, then mixed in with some bravado promises. More than one person commented that he was laying on the 'Southern Drawl' a bit heavy in his phone call.

I missed Romney's call in (smoking) but heard that he did not take the near the full 10 minutes allotted.

Hunter showed up in person and gave a very good speech, and joked about being able to have his picture taken with all the Ron Paul supporters. I couldn't stand the man before, from just seeing him in the debates, but in person he's a pretty decent guy. Also he was not very pro war in his speech and focused more on 'family values' and border security. And yes he used the 'if you can jump my fence we sign you up for the olympics' line once again. He stuck around for autographs and had a good sized crowd around him, far more than the 25 folks who actually voted for him.

Huckabee knows how to talk to a southern conservative crowd, invoking God often, and sounding very good without actually saying much. He again called for the Fair Tax, and mentioned that he was the 44th governor of Arkansas and would be the 44th President if elected. (Maybe numerology is a hobby of his?) His ministering/preaching skills are definitely going to help him in this race, like someone who likes listening to the melody of a favorite song so much that they don't need to pay attention to the words to like the singer.

After the numbers were announced, the Ron Paul crowd was very upbeat, coming within 27 votes of 1st place wasn't bad. But as I said, if Ron had shown up, we would have won it easy, and converted many more new supporters in the process.

After the event, all the Ron Paul signs that were placed at the event were scavenged by his supporters for use elsewhere, along with a truck full provided by the campaign. The other candidates signs, mainly Romney plastic bag signs were left for the event staff to deal with.

I didn't see any media there, but others reported seeing TV crews, so we'll have to see tomorrow if there is any local coverage of the event.

eb

[Scribbler de Stebbing]

Huckabee was there IN PERSON, and Ron Paul was there as a piece of plastic with a voice coming out of it. Huckabee got 27 more votes by being there in the flesh than the disembodied voice of Ron Paul. That had to hurt for Huck.

Ron Paul's brain wrapped up in a piece of plastic, or a real live Huckabee . . . brain in plastic or Huck . . . paper or plastic . . .

Plastic please.

[james1906]

This is great news. It appears Hunter is done. Serves him right for pulling the 'blame America' crap in the last debate.

[Razmear]

I just blogged this report at http://RP4.US and submitted to Digg at:
http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/South_Carolina_Straw_Poll_Results_and_Report

btw, recent videos of RP's appearances have also been added to the blog.

eb