WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU THROW A PARTY AND NO ONE COMES?

Romney spent a million bucks per son for his sad "win" in Iowa today

Well, someone came; in fact 14,204 Republicans came to enjoy the barbecue and politicin' and vote in the Ames straw poll. Alas, it was only a quarter of the number of people expected. And poor Flip Flop Mitt. He spent over $5,700,000 trying to momentumize his hopeless bid. That bought him 4,516 votes. That's around $1,262/vote. #2 and 3, Huckabee and Brownback, neither of whom spent very much money on this silliness, wound up with more votes than poor Mitt. In 1999 Bush had 7,418 votes. At this rate even predator corporate vulture Romney and the Mormon Church will run out of money before the primaries get to any of the big states!

Gov Mitt Romney won the 2007 Ames straw poll, receiving 4516 votes, or 31%.

In a surprise, Gov. Mike Huckabee finished second with 2587 votes at 18.1%

11. John Cox with 41 votes.
10. John McCain with 101 votes.
9. Duncan Hunter with 174 votes.
8. Rudy Giuliani with 183 votes.
7. Fred Thomson with 203 votes.
6. Tommy Thompson, 1,039 votes, 7.3%
5. Ron Paul with 1305 votes, and 9.1%
4. Tom Tancredo with 1961 votes, 13.7%.
3. Sen. Sam Brownback with 2192 votes and 15.3%

The Des Moines Register speculates that the reason so few people bothered to show up is because the major candidates like Giuliani, Fred Thompson and McCain didn't participate. The other Thompson (Tommy) is expected to drop out by Monday.

The big winner, of course, was Huckabee. “We overperformed,” he said. “The bigger story is we did it with not a dime of paid advertising.”

But of course, there is no winner for the Republicans in Iowa. "None of the Above" would have trounced all of the above but you have to be a registered Republican to get into the straw poll. The University of Iowa poll that came out yesterday didn't ask people what party they're registered with. They just wanted to know, who do Iowans want to see in the White House.

Among a sample of 907 registered voters, Clinton had 18 percent support, an increase of 4.5 percent since the March UI poll. Obama, D-Ill., was second with 13.8 percent, an increase of 2.9 percent. Romney saw the largest increase in support. He was supported by 8.9 percent of all registered respondents this time - nearly double his March support of 4.7 percent. Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., tied with Romney, also receiving support from 8.9 percent of registered voters, a drop of more than 3.5 percent from the last poll.

UPDATE: ARIGATO, MR. TOMMY THOMPSON

Knockout punch for silly Republican pygmy™ Tommy T. One down; 8 or 9 to go.