Even if just showing up is 80-percent of success, God-o-Meter was nonetheless surprised that Mike Huckabee won 62-percent support in a straw poll of religious conservatives taken in conjunction with last night’s Values Voters debate (video here) in Florida. Sure, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, and John McCain skipped the debate, calling its relevance into question. And sure the event’s questioners, including Eagle Forum chief Phyllis Schlafly and American Family Association chairman Don Wildmon, have seen their personal influence wane since their heydays in the 1970s and ’80s. Even so, God-o-Meter was taken aback that Thompson, once expected to be the savior of disgruntled social conservative voters, managed to garner just 4-percent support in the poll—which surveyed several hundred conservatives—and that Romney came in dead last, with 0 support.

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