The Republicans like photo ID to vote requirements. In 2006 this was the main Iowa legislature holdup to paper trails on touch screen voting machines. And in the run-up to Ames, the Republican Party of Iowa took shots at the Democrats on ID and election day voter registration in their media kit:
The Republican Party believes all official elections in Iowa should require every voter to show a photo I.D. to vote. Requiring a photo I.D. is a fundamental election reform opposed only by liberals.
Now somebody somewhere is trying to spin the low straw poll turnout by blaming... the ID requirement!
And MSNBC's First Read bites:
"[D]on't get carried away on turnout -- the Iowa GOP did a much better job of checking for Iowa IDs than in years past."
Undoubtedly, the GOP will continue to deny that ID-to-vote effectively functions as vote suppression.
In other Ames followup, Todd Beeton at MyDD has a votes-per-visit counter that shows Ron Paul as the big winner. And Kos says the big winners are... the Senate Democrats?
A crappier (Huckabee) showing could've meant an early withdrawal and a shift over to a challenge of Mark Pryor's Democratic-held Senate seat. And while Pryor would've likely won, it would've meant real money spent in defense of a race we otherwise have sewn up.
Now, with this showing, not only is Huckabee motivated to stay in the race, but he also looks very attractive as a potential vice presidential candidate once he inevitably comes up short in the race.
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