The New Republic

Says Perkins, in descending order: Romney - 1595 Huckabee - 1565Ron Paul - 865 Thompson - 564 5,776 votes cast. Many online, hence Paul... Update: On-site, as opposed to combined on-site and online, numbers are interesting: Huckabee - 488 Romney - 99 Thompson - 77 Tancredo - 65 Giuliani - 60 Hunter - 54 McCain - 30 950 votes cast. --Noam Scheiber READ MORE >>

Also, I agree with Mike Allen about Huckabee. I've seen Huckabee speak live twice and caught most of his debate appearances. This was the angriest I've ever seen him. I'm not sure if he was just trying to show Tony Perkins et al he has the fire in the belly, or if this is just how he sounds when he's speaking directly to social conservatives, but it was definitely a change of tone. It also seemed to go over very well. READ MORE >>

I spent a few a few hours at the Hilton Washington today chatting up values voters as they waited in line at the event's straw poll. Some thoughts after interviewing roughly 25 people: 1.) My informal survey produced 11 people who were explicitly pro-Romney, 5 who were explicitly pro-Giuliani, 2 who were explicitly anti-Romney, and 11 who were explicitly anti-Giuliani. (There's some overlap there--some people who were pro-Romney were also anti-Giuliani, and vice versa, though some liked or disliked both men.) READ MORE >>

By all the early measures it was a success, one that I think advances the storyline that Rudy is turning out to be an exceptional campaigner. He sounds authentic, likeable, and--all too rare in politicans these days--genuinely funny. He's also been spinning his tenure as New York mayor quite cannily, as when he bragged to his audience today about cleaning up midtown. (We drove pornography out of Times Square and other public spaces," he said to rousing applause. READ MORE >>

So Fred Thompson's Values Voter speech didn't just sound bad on the radio. READ MORE >>

Andrew Sullivan, who really seems to be angry about Hillary Clinton's poll numbers, approvingly quotes from (and links to), this Peggy Noonan column. Here's the bit that Andrew excerpts: READ MORE >>

I continue my campaign to destroy Ramesh Ponnuru's standing on the right by praising his work. On the National Review blog yesterday, Ramesh smacked down conservatives who claim the Bush tax cuts caused revenue to rise. READ MORE >>

Andrew is, understandably, tittering about this bit of research over on the Dish. As Elaine said to George and Jerry on the "shrinkage" episode of Seinfeld: "I don't know how you guys walk around with those things." Happy Friday. --Michelle Cottle READ MORE >>

Fred's explanation of his evolving abortion views at today's Value Voters summit strikes me as both tiresomely convenient and sinisterly shrewd. READ MORE >>

Last month I noted that while Democratic Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is the co-chair of the National Governors Association's clean-energy initiative, the Sunflower State had been conspicuously absent from the list of states that have taken action to cut reliance on fossil fuels, due in large part to the reluctance of its GOP-dominated legislature to get on board. READ MORE >>