Herman Cain wins the Florida CPAC Straw Poll

{published from draft}

strong debate performance pays off.....

so anyway, via DrewM's post over at Ace of Spades HQ, we learn that Herman Cain has won the straw poll at the Florida CPAC convention. As of 9:30 PM Eastern, memeorandum is all lit up with the news.

Via memeorandum; Byron York's initial reaction:

"....A lot of delegates came to Orlando planning to vote for Rick Perry. But Perry's poor performance at Thursday night's Fox News-Google debate gave them pause and re-opened the question of whom they will support. And many of the conservatives who were attracted to Perry will, when asked for a second choice, naturally gravitate to Cain, who, it just happens, had a particularly good debate on Thursday. So with Perry not commanding the loyalty he did just 48 hours ago, Cain appears to be picking up support...."

There's been some chatter about how Romney activists did a small-scale Operation Chaos and voted for Cain to deny Perry the win (which speaks well of Mitt's organization and chances ). OK, that may have happened, but the numbers don't add up: why would the Romney people vote for Cain so that Mitt would end up third? The results, again via Ace:

Cain 37%

Perry 15%

Romney 14%

Santorum 11%

Paul 10%

Gingrich 8%

Huntsman 2%

Bachmann 1%

more soon