McCain, not participating at Ames, Iowa Straw Poll, finishes 10th with 101 votes (0.7%)
It can safely be said that as far as Senator McCain, Rudy Giuliani, and Fred Thompson are concerned, the Ames, Iowa Straw Poll really is as meaningless, as their campaigns claim it is.
Let’s look at McCain’s tally:
As it turned out, McCain did better at the Ames, Iowa Straw Poll than he did in 1999. In fairness, there was really nowhere to go but up: eight years ago, McCain received just 83 votes and finished with 0.35% of the vote (i.e., less than four-tenths of 1%). In absolute terms, McCain received 101 votes on Saturday, 18 more than he received eight years ago. Moreover, relative to the number of ballots cast, it was an improvement. Only 14,302 ballots were cast on Saturday, less than 60% of the total cast in 1999.
Accordingly, McCain’s 101 votes this year were good enough to give him 0.7% of the vote, and 10th place (escaping last place solely due to John Cox’s presence on the ballot, who came in 11th).
To be sure, McCain himself set the bar for expectations at its lowest possible level: zero. However, the equally negligible tallies of fellow noncompetitors Rudy (183 votes) and Fred (203 votes, and whose nonparticipation also underscores his noncandidacy) would add credence to McCain’s argument: namely, that if you don’t play at Ames, you won’t draw support. Obviously, nobody will conclude that Fred, Rudy, and McCain rank 7th, 8th, and 10th among Republicans in Iowa - despite the fact that the straw poll places them at those ranks.
So were McCain supporters voting tactically for Sam Brownback, as The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder had reported they were not doing – officially, of course? We’ll never know, unfortunately.
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