COMMENTARY | It's hardly the determining factor of who will win the Republican presidential nomination, nor does it guarantee an inaugural ball and a seat in that chair behind the resolute desk in the Oval Office. The Iowa Ames straw poll is the race before the race, and this year's challenge separated the girls from the boys -- literally.
Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann came in first, followed in a close second by Texas Rep. Ron Paul. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty pulled a distant third.
Bachmann, the ultra-right Tea Party darling, won 4,823 votes, or around 28.5 percent of the 16,892 ballots cast. While her win guarantees nothing in the long run, it is a strong indication that she has the strongest get-out-the-vote operation of the other Republican candidates. It also shows she has the widest volunteer base in a state whose caucuses, according to The Associated Press, "require those elements."
Despite the non-binding, no-guarantees measure of the Iowa straw poll, Bachmann was quick to tout her victory but she seems to read the Tea Party leaves as being much more significant than they really are.
"America cannot afford four more years of Barack Obama and his failed liberal policies," she said, "and our campaign is the right choice to put our nation back on a path to prosperity."
While the first part may be true, the details to support the latter claim are unclear. While voting for or against the ideas proposed by others, Bachmann is short on presenting concrete ideas of her own. On the issues, such as generating jobs and growth, a more secure nation and achieving affordable energy, she does nothing more than criticize the current administration, chatter about being a co-owner of a business with her husband and offer ambiguous vows of working to "reverse the current state of affairs."
For a candidate who slammed Obama for not producing a debt ceiling plan of his own, it would do her good to reveal that "titanium spine" and start revealing some real solutions of her own.
Ron Paul, who has long been regarded as "a somewhat entertaining distraction," according to the Washington Post, came in just a few votes behind with 4,671, or 27.6 percent. Tim Pawlenty, seen by many as a relative moderate, came in a distant third with just 2,293, or about 13.6 percent.
Appearing on ABC's Good Morning America in May, Paul explained his decision to run for a third time, saying "the time is right" because "more people" agree with his positions, CNN reported. Unfortunately, when it comes to some of those positions, polls have shown otherwise.
Curiously, while Bachmann's website cheers their straw poll win with "We did it!" Paul's website claims he received a "historic vote total" and that second place is actually just like first place.
"Ron Paul technically took second place in the Iowa Straw Poll but lost the top spot by 152 votes-essentially a statistical tie with winner Michele Bachmann."
It's strange comments like that, not to mention his response during the last Republican debate that he did not have a problem with Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon because "everyone else already has one," that will prove for a third time to be Paul's great undoing.
"That's not the kind of guy you need to be sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue," Javier Manjarres of The Shark Tank reported fellow Republican from Florida, Rep. Allen West, saying.
As for Third-Place-Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor's 2012 campaign began "Dead on Arrival." Despite the national exposure he received as a potential V.P. choice during the 2008 presidential campaign of John McCain, Pawlenty has struggled for recognition. "He is the invisible man, the unbelievable man, the unmemorable man" -- according to Gallup -- and the weight of his consistently low poll numbers have been a drag.
In an attempt to appear strong at the Iowa presidential debate, rather than elevate himself with discussion of his own policies, he chose instead to tear Bachmann down with a series of childish, schoolyard attacks. It was sad, embarrassing and most unbecoming.
"We have a lot more work to do," Pawlenty said immediately following the straw poll results, indicating he was determined to keep running despite his unimpressive placement in the Ames poll. "We are just beginning and I'm looking forward to a great campaign."
Thankfully, after a few hours of reflection - and most likely having received a much-needed reality check from his campaign advisers and fellow Republicans - Pawlenty announced he was dropping out of the race.
"I thought I would have made a great president, but obviously that pathway isn't there," Pawlenty said -- and so it goes.
The Ames straw poll has come and gone. Now the real race begins.
On your mark, get set --
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