Romney won a little-heralded but significant straw poll at the Illinois state fair today. Here are the results:

1. Mitt Romney -- 40.35%
2. Fred Thompson -- 19.96%
3. Ron Paul -- 18.87%
4. Rudy Giuliani -- 11.61%
5. John McCain -- 4.12%
6. Mike Huckabee -- 3.04%
7. Sam Brownback -- 1.08%
8. Duncan Hunter -- .65%
9. Tom Tancredo -- .33%

Mitt's margin of victory was bigger than in Iowa, and I find it amazing that despite Rudy's efforts and McCain's organization in the state, they were beat by an undeclared candidate and a candidate whose biggest asset is his popularity on the Internet. Also, either Huckabee didn't get much of a boost from his 2nd place showing at Ames, or 3% is the extent of his boost.