GOOD SPEECH=GOOD POLLING=MOMENTUM. The gang at TalkLeft was wondering why I said yesterday that Barack Obama's speech to Take Back America mattered. The answer is the existence of the first-ever TBA straw poll, which Obama won with 29 percent of ballots cast, according to results announced this afternoon. John Edwards followed a close second with 26 percent of the 720 votes, and Hillary Clinton came in third with 17 percent -- which is a surprisingly good showing for her, given the audience. (Online straw polls at liberal blogs usually find her in the low single digits.) The Obama victory over Edwards was fairly narrow -- just 3 percentage points -- and so the quality of their respective speeches could well have made the difference. The speech also mattered because it represented an opportunity for Obama to seize the favorite's mantle from Edwards, who has thus far been the liberal darling and netroots hero. Time will tell if he's been able to do that, but winning the poll provides a nice boost, either way. The poll was conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner for The Politico.com.
--Garance Franke-Ruta
