Clinton, Obama, Edwards Gap Narrows on Thursday Poll at the Isabella County Fair

It was the strongest day of voting on Thursday at the straw poll conducted at the Isabella County Democratic Party's (ICDP) booth at the Isabella County Fair.

With just two days left to go the three top presidential contenders in the Isabella County Democratic Party's straw poll at the county fair has tightened considerably in the fourth day of voting on Thursday.

Sen. Hilary Clinton maintained the lead on Thursday after ousting it from Obama with a strong showing on Wednesday. The New York Senator garnered another 27 votes to bring her four day total to 68 votes. But Illinois Senator Barack Obama also had his strongest showing on Thursday too just one vote shy of Clinton's 27 votes. Obama's 26 point Thursday showing now has his county fair total up to 61 votes. Just seven votes now separates the two leaders.

But the most interesting candidate has been John Edwards, who each day of the fair has about doubled the number of votes he had the day before. On Monday Edwards had only 3 votes, on Tuesday he had 5 and Wednesday 10 and on Thursday he took 23 votes to bring his four day total to 41 votes. Now Edwards, a distant third, has become a very strong third closing the ICDP straw poll among the top three contenders.

Yes, we know our straw poll is very unscientific and ten times more people passed us by and didn't want to cast a ballot, but among the more than 200 folks who have cast ballots thus far, a woman and a black man are the top vote getters in the same county where John Engler was born. That's kind of interesting.

Not too surprisingly, folks that go to a county fair in the middle of Michigan, still have identified the same three front runners that the MSM (the mainstream media) think are the three top contenders.

The second tier of candidates at the Isabella County Fair though includes Al Gore as a write-in candidate now with 10 votes, including the 3 he picked up on Thursday, Bill Richardson came in second on the second tier with 9 votes and Dennis Kucinich had 6 votes. Richardson took 4 votes Thursday and Kucinich added another 2 from the Thursday tally.

Bringing up the rear in the third tier of candidates were Gravel, Biden and Dodd who each added another vote on Thursday. Gravel now has 2 votes, Biden 2 and Dodd has 3 votes from the four days of the straw poll.

Friday may or may not be a big day of voting at the county fair. The Merchants Building at the county fairgrounds on Friday opens at 1 p.m. and closes at 10 p.m. where the ICDP has its now infamous presidential straw poll. Will Edwards close the gap and take over the lead? Will Hillary lose the lead to Obama? Will it be a 3-way tie?

Of course, we don't know. But we did rule as an invalid ballot a write-in for Fred Thompson on Thursday. We aren't sure whether that ballot was cast by a misinformed Democrat or a Republican who just wanted to have some fun. Can't blame them though -- all the fun was down at the Democratic Party booth.

By the way, the Isabella County Fair only costs $3 to get into and that's to park a whole vehicle full of good Democrats to come on over to vote. There are some other things going on at the county fair too that are kind of nifty, like animal things and ride things and the elephant ears are kind of tasty.

Not too surprisingly the best food is served at the 4-H Food Barn and the volunteers are working very hard, both young and old to raise money for a fine cause. Peter Gallinant said the Fried chicken dinner on Thursday night was great. Peter, a former president of the CMU Dems, worked 3 shifts at the county fair and was by far the top vote getter in the ICDP. He got more people to vote than any other ICDP fair volunteer. It's great to have a bunch of young people working with us at the county fair.

Come on out to the fair on Friday or Saturday and cast your vote in the straw poll. Any dedicated group of supporters could take this election. Come for the politics, but enjoy the fair too. It's still a good old-fashioned county fair untainted by the glitz of bigger and fancier fairs. There are still more cows than country singers at the Isabella County Fair and we have fun doing politics too.

You might even meet a candidate for drain commissioner while you are there. We haven't had a Democratic drain commissioner in Isabella County for decades.