He didn’t just beat em, he whipped em with 82%.
How important was the Iowa straw poll?
The results of straw polls are obviously conditionally dependent. Watch:
Effect( Win | Winner = Ron Paul) = Nothing
Effect( Win | Winner = Someone else (E.g. Cain) ) = Holy crap he shot up 15%
The notation “something | something else” means “something given something else.”
Hence, and judging by history, it likely means nothing.
However, the polling companies do put Ron in third right now.