"Straw Polls" are simply polls of local political junkies that do politics as a hobby and get together to conduct a popularity contest. They are equivalent to taking a "Greatest Movie Ever Made" poll at a Star Trek convention.
Straw polls reward candidates with the most fired up, not necessarily the largest, bases. That is why most of the minor Straw Polls are won by Ron Paul.
Who wins a particular Straw Poll depends on the flavor of the political junkies in any particular part of the country which is why Cain won in Florida and Romney beat Cain like a rented mule, 51% to 9%, in Sunday's Michigan Straw Poll.
Winner of the Iowa Straw Poll: Michele Bachmann
Winner of the California Straw Poll: Ron Paul
Winner of the Pennsylvania Straw Poll: Rick Santorum
Winner of the Michigan Straw Poll: Mitt Romney
In short, Straw Polls tell you what the local political junkies in (insert state here) are thinking. Scientifically conducted polls such as Gallup and Rassmussen polls tell you what average voters throughout America are thinking.
Later in the week, as the results of other scientifically conducted polls polls come out, we will learned what the majority of average voters in America think after the last debate rather than only know what the political junkies at one meeting on Florida thought after the last debate.
That said, Perry got way too cocky and lazy and I read that he declined to engage in any special debate preparation. In the ridiculous "30 second sound bite" formats that pass for "debates" in America today, that is a fatal flaw.
My worry about Perry is that the problem may not only be laziness and that that problem is that he may, like Goerge W. Bush, not be able to explain his way out of a paper bag.
If Perry crashes and burns, the ultimate GOP nominee will most likely be Mitt Romney.
“Later in the week, as the results of other scientifically conducted polls polls come out, we will learned what the majority of average voters in America think after the last debate rather than only know what the political junkies at one meeting on Florida thought after the last debate.”
OK but who shows up to vote in primaries?
Perry needs to convert any debate question into something dealing with his strong points, aka: job growth, balance budgets, deregulation, revival of the 10th Amendment.