I'm surprised to see that Thompson placed fourth in the Values Voter straw poll. I'm even more surprised that Ron Paul finished ahead of a top tier candidate billed as the second coming of Ronald Reagan. Sure, Paul's been doing very well in polls taken after presidential debates, but that's because his tech-savvy bloggy base of supporters knows what an SMS is and how to send one. But there was no text message spam going on here -- the shoddy cell phone reception at the Hilton actually makes that physically impossible. So unless these ballots were stuffed, I could see Thompson (lazy and stupid by some accounts) dropping out soon.

No surprise that Huckabee finished second, but why did Romney come in first? It's a clear indicator that Romney has managed to effectively deflect criticism that he's a flip-flopping, abortionist Log Cabin sympathizer. With that no longer a hurdle, Romney's newfound Values Voter friends could imperil Giuliani's candidacy (who did not even place in the top four).

As a side note, according to the poll, the issues that matter most to Values Voters are, in ascending order: life/abortion, sanctity of marriage, tax cuts, permanent tax relief for families. Note the absence of war or terrorism from this list -- Giuliani's flagship issues.