In a stunning upset, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee outpaced rivals including Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty to win the 2012 straw poll at the Values Voter Summit held in Washington D.C. Huckabee took 28% while Palin, Romney and Pawlenty each took around 12%.
With Palin supposedly the favorite for the 2012 nomination, the results were interesting, but might also be explained by the fact that Palin was not present to address the Summit (she and her husband Todd were welcoming son Track back from a deployment in Iraq).
Nonetheless, the poll, and the margin by which Huckabee won shows his potential among the values set.