Mike Huckabee cruised to a victory in a (very) early 2012 straw poll today at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, DC.Huckabee received 28 percent of the vote while former Govs. Mitt Romney (Mass.) and Sarah Palin (Alaska) as well as Gov. Tim Pawlenty (Minn.) received roughly 12 percent of the vote. Indiana Rep. Mike Pence took 11 percent.All but Palin addressed the crowd over the three-day gathering of social conservatives. Palin was in Alaska to welcome her son, Track, back from a year-long deployment in Iraq. (The Fix somehow missed this point in an earlier analysis in which we surmised that Palin's absence was evidence that she was far from a sure-thing to run in 2012.
Before too much is read into the straw poll results, remember two things: first, just over 500 total people cast ballots, and, second, we are still more than two years removed from the first votes of the 2012 election.What should we take from the vote? That Huckabee is extremely popular among the most socially conservative of voters who view the former governor as one of them, a part of the movement. No surprise there.But, as 2008 showed, Huckabee must find a way to expand from that base if he hopes to the nominee in 2012. Huckabee used his strength among social conservatives to win the Iowa caucuses last year but was unable to follow it up with a win in any other early state
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