Question about Iowa Straw Poll Result and Romney

by Mary

I've not seen anyone discuss the one truly interesting result from the Iowa Straw poll.

Here are the tallies:

Michele Bachmann: 4823
Ron Paul: 4671
Tim Pawlenty: 2293
Rick Santorum: 1657
Herman Cain: 1456
Rick Perry: 718 (write-in)
Mitt Romney: 567
Newt Gingrich: 385
Jon Huntsman: 69
Thad McCotter: 35
Total votes cast: 16,892

The story has been that Mitt Romney decided to sit this one out so don't worry about his showing.

But even so, he got less votes than Rick Perry who wasn't even a candidate. Not only was Perry not on the ballot, people had to write in his name. (Wonder how many of the write-ins spelled Perry's last name "Parry".) And he still got more votes than Romney.

So what does that say about Mitt and his prospects? Or is it only an Iowa thing?