It has long been the contention of GOP Strawpolls that Ron Paul supporters were "spamming" their poll. They threatened to remove his name, and now they've gone and done it - though exactly when they did it is not clear. Ron Paul supporters only began to mention it recently in any case.
Ironically, the list below does not contain the name of Alan Keyes, either. Whether this is an oversight, or intentional, remains to be seen.
Ron Paul is running at five percent in New Hampshire and garnering plenty of press and debate attention nationwide. Bill O'Reilly just featured him and CNN, as has been reported, also sought to have him on the air. 60 Minutes is reportedly doing a feature on Ron Paul.
With so much attention being paid to one candidate, albeit not a "front-runner" it makes little sense for a major Internet poll to remove his name. The poll itself, rather than Ron Paul, risks a long, slow slide into irrelevancy.
Sam Brownback
Newt Gingrich
Rudy Giuliani
Mike Huckabee
Duncan Hunter
John McCain
Mitt Romney
Tom Tancredo
Fred Thompson
See ... http://www.gopstrawpolls.com
Additionally, www.pajamasmedia.com began banning Ron Paul as early as February of 2007. The site now carries the following note regarding their presidential poll:
Over 130,000 votes have been cast in the weekly PAJAMAS MEDIA PRESIDENTIAL STRAW POLL. The thirty-fifth week has officially begun.
NEW DEAL: Pajamas Media editors have noted that the number of weekly votes in our poll has diminished drastically from the tens of thousands cast at the outset. For months now, many readers have been complaining to us about the increasing inutility of the poll because of vote-swarming by second tier candidates. Many voters have lost interest and are not participating. Websites that had run our widget were no longer doing so.
Something needed to change.
Therefore, especially since the campaign itself appears to be narrowing its focus to front-running candidates, henceforth the Pajamas Media Poll will be restricted to those first tier candidates listed on the front poll page of the leading online poll aggregator Real Clear Politics. As of now, that is four candidates on the Democratic side and five on the Republican. We will change our lineup on the Sunday after RCP does, if it does.
pajamas media poll:
Fred Thompson 30 46.9%
Rudy Giuliani 21 32.8%
Mitt Romney 8 12.5%
John McCain 4 6.3%
Mike Huckabee 1 1.6%
