Ron Paul Will Finish Second At Ames Straw Poll

So says Patrick Ruffini, one of the brightest young minds in politics. I respect his opinion and a straw poll like the one in Ames is made for Paul's type of committed people. More interesting is Ruffini's speculation as to whether the bigger names, like McCain and Giuliani (who aren't officially competing in Ames) will urge their supporters to vote for Paul in order to make Mitt Romney's inevitable win have an air of buffoonery about it.

I see that Ron Paul is up to 3% in the Gallup poll, above Huckabee and Brownback. He won’t come close to winning, but can he aggregate whatever Bilderburger and Trilateral Commission-phobic votes there are in his corner, in the same way that Lyndon LaRouche could get 15% in a Democratic primary against Bill Clinton?