At the Texas Straw Poll...

Mary Katharine Ham | September 01, 2007 3:16 PM

Well, it's 2:30 p.m. Texas time, which means the polls have closed and the votes are being tallied.

The story of the weekend, predictably, has been the uber-enthusiastic Ron Paul crowds. Paul's from Texas, so we've got a good contingent of old-school paleo-conservative fans of his combined with the new, shaggy-haired, just-dragged-myself-away-from-my-Digg-account constituents. (Hugh and I grabbed lots of interviews, plenty of good footage to introduce you to them...)

Unfortunately for the Paulistas/Paul Pods, whatever it is they're called, only registered Republicans who've attended one of the last four Texas Republican conventions can vote in the straw poll. Paul may have about 300 supporters out here with signs, but I've been unable to find one of them who's a delegate qualified to vote. Word on the street is the Paul kids are already saying the voting was "rigged," which doesn't bode that well for Paul's finish. We'll see. He could end up pulling it off. It's his home state and he showed up.

As for everyone else, Duncan Hunter is here, and seems to have pretty good support. The Texans for Mitt are here. They're wearing impressive sandwich boards, but there aren't that many of them. I don't think I've seen one Rudy supporter now that I think of it, but the Fred Heads are here. They stepped up their presence as we moved closer to voting today. Several people have told me they were for Huckabee but changed their minds when he didn't show up this weekend.