Mitt Romney (as expected) took first place in the poll (not surprising with the money he poured into Iowa). The Big News is that Governor Mike Huckabee has taken 2nd place in the Ames Straw Poll … a huge boost to his campaign and confirmation that he is the man for the job! I’ll post more later when I get more details. It’s a great day! Kerry

8:02pm – Watching Fox News and waiting for live announcement of today’s Iowa Straw Poll Results from Ames, Iowa. Estimates are that 13,000-15,000 votes cast (much less than the 40,000-50,000 predicted) 9:22pm – Still waiting for results. Apparently there was a problem with one voting machine and they had to re-count those 500 ballots by hand and then re-feed them into the machine. I’m not sure why it takes 90 minutes+ to re-feed 500 ballots, butread more…

The following interview took place right after Governor Huckabee’s speech at today’s Straw Poll in Ames, Iowa.

It is 3:15pm ET and Radio Talk Show Host just gave a very exciting introduction for Mike Huckabee … followed by Platts (of Iowa) and Beasley (of South Carolina). Following is my transcript of Governor Huckabee’s speech before the Straw Poll attenders. It is not complete (I don’t type that fast), but it’s a good synopsis. MH: I am not the best funded candidate here today. I cannot buy you … I can’t even rent you.read more…