Family Values Tour 2007

Those elusive "values voters" are at it again! Yesterday they released results from The First Ever Values Voter Presidential Debate Straw Poll held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

While every single candidate was invited, left or right, only the ones with no chance at winning showed up. Thompson, Romney, Giuliani and McCain all stayed away, as did the entire Democratic slate.

Here are the results:

Mike Huckabee: 64%
Ron Paul: 12 %
Alan Keyes: 5%
Sam Brownback: 5%
Duncan Hunter: 4%
Fred D. Thompson: 4%
Tom Tancredo: 2%
Rudolph Giuliani: 1%
John McCain: 1%
John Cox: 1%
Mitt Romney: 0 %

What have we learned from this?

For starters, "values voters" hate Mormons. Although this is a pretty meaningless forum, Romney's folks can't be happy that the straw poll voters goose egged him. What does that mean in a state like Tennessee next fall?

Secondly, Sam Brownback needs to drop out of the race. When you lose your base to your rival by a factor of 13, and when you tie Alan Keyes, who most people didn't even know was in the race,you are done. The straw poll also reiterates Huckabee's pure and total dominance over the church crowd. This can't be totally underestimated.

Finally, these voters may value a lot of things, but wordsmithery is not one of them. Here is the headline from yesterday's press release:
"Delegates from America’s Largest Voting Block United"

Uhh, guys? I think it's called a bloc. I hope their press guy wasn't paid a whole lot.