GOP Primary updates, Sunday, August 14

1. As per reporting at the Daily Paul, the Ames, Iowa Straw Poll Results from yesterday:

1. 28.55% (4823 votes) – Michele Bachmann
2. 27.65% (4671 votes) – Ron Paul
3. 13.58% (2293 votes) – Tim Pawlenty
4. 9.81% (1657 votes) – Rick Santorum
5. 8.62% (1456 votes) – Herman Cain
6. 4.25% (718 votes) – Rick Perry (as a write-in candidate)
7. 3.36% (567 votes) – Mitt Romney
8. 2.28% (385 votes) – Newt Gingrich
9. 0.41% (69 votes) – Jon Huntsman
10. 0.21% (35 votes) – Thaddeus McCotter

0.96% (162 votes) – "Scattering"

This is good news for the Paul campaign. Back in 2007 he got 5th place.

2. Today, Tim Pawlenty ended his campaign . I thought 3rd place at the straw poll would keep him in, but I guess getting less than half of the votes of Ron Paul and Michelle Bachmann, each, made him decide that his campaign isn't going to well.

3. Rick Perry finally made a formal announcement that he is running for president. Perry has some great rhetoric on 10th amendment and federalism issues, but I think he's totally fake. He continues to claim that he is responsible for the successes of the Texas economy. I would argue that he simply hasn't messed it up very much - he didn't introduce a state income tax, which Texas hadn't had before him. He is a big spending governor though.

Now, it really looks like there is a four way race- Romney, Bachmann, Perry, and Paul.