I have come here to bury the Iowa Straw Poll, not to praise it. The evil that straw polls do is remembered after their deaths, but the good is often buried with them. It might as well be the same with the Iowa Straw Poll. It brought many captives to Iowa whose ransoms brought wealth to the Iowa GOP. Today, at least it has died.

What started as a political novelty in the seventies, became a mafia like shakedown of Republican candidates, bleeding them dry in the run up to a political election in a state whose influence matters less and less and reflects less and less anything other than the greedy bastards who want subsidies for ethanol.

That ends now. And we should be thankful.

I am glad to have played a small part in its undoing.

Now you guys have no choice. Come to the RedState Gathering, which again, it is worth pointing out we set on August 6 to 9 so that it would not compete with the Iowa Straw Poll. We worked with the Iowa GOP. But when they decided to change, they suddenly decided to stop returning our phone calls.

Well, maybe now they might answer the phone.

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