straw poll #2

The tea party’s dilemma

NEW YORK—The crisis has been resolved, but this respite is temporary. We are bound to have more standoffs and brinkmanship in the months and years ahead. To understand why, you must recognize that, for the tea party, the stakes could not be higher. The movement is animated and energized by a fear that soon America will be beyond rescue.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, put it plainly at the recent Values Voter Summit in Washington: “We’re nearing the edge of a cliff, and our window to turn things around, my friends, I don’t think it is long. I don’t think it’s 10 years. We have a couple of years to turn this country around or we go off the cliff to oblivion.”

Cruz dominated the summit’s straw poll, taking 42 percent of the vote, more than three times his nearest rival. His fundraising committees reported this week that they took in $1.19 million in the third quarter. Cruz’s national approval rating may be an abysmal 14 percent, but to the base of the Republican Party he is an idol.

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0000732347

straw pollは「世論を探る非公式の)調査、投票」のことです。LODCEには"an informal test of several people's opinions to see what the general feeling about something is"とあり、世の中の動向を探るためのものということが分かります。

この表現、以前、Sugiuchiくん（現 高田の馬場大学院２年生）が取り上げていて、strawにある「とるに足らない」ものという意味からの転移であろうと述べていますが、これは間違い。

strawには「前兆、世論などの風向き」という意味もあり、straw pollはここから来たものでしょう。それは藁を空中に浮かして風向きを探るところからきたのでしょう。遅ればせながら訂正しておきます。（UG）