The following comment appears in the Townhall blog from our resident McCain supporter Matt Lewis. Not that I’m complaining about supporting McCain– I’m a Romney shill and proud of it:

In a sense, by not participating (in Ames), Rudy and McCain have outmaneuvered the Romney campaign. (Romney has undoubtedly already spent a ton of time, talent, and treasure on winning the Straw Poll -- a victory which is now entirely pointless. Rudy and McCain have deprived him of any "bounce" that a victory might have brought him.) It's brilliant, really.

Indeed. The way the two frontrunners have allowed an obscure governor to become the Iowa front-runner? Brilliant! The way they have controlled events to such an extent that Romney now has double digit leads in both Iowa and New Hampshire? Doubly brilliant!! The way that with Thompson entering the race neither McCain nor Giuliani has a remotely viable firewall in South Carolina? Insanely brilliant!!! It’s really quite amazing how Rudy and McCain have outmaneuvered the hapless Romney campaign.

I respect Matt’s effort to put lipstick on this brutally ugly pig of an event, but let’s face facts. Only a few months ago, Rudy and McCain supporters were clucking over a Gallup poll that showed Romney at 3% and what they considered a solid national consensus that Mitt was an irredeemable flip-flopper. Now, as of yesterday, Romney has officially forced both putative front-runners to make a tactical retreat from Iowa.

Even if we grant Matt’s dubious thesis that the latest McCain gambit is an extraordinary piece of political gamesmanship, you still can’t deny that weakness made it necessary. As for Rudy, his campaign flatly declared yesterday that “We’ve made a decision as a campaign not to play in any straw polls this year, most notably, obviously, the Ames straw poll.” Well…

As the Chaser reports, “Earlier this year the Giuliani Campaign did in fact make a concerted effort to win the nationally televised Spartanburg County Precinct Re-Org Straw Poll that aired on Fox News’ Hannity and Colmes. Giuliani finished second in the poll.” Obviously, the Giuliani campaign doesn’t mind “playing” in straw polls when it won’t get smoked. Equally obvious is the fact that the vital Ames Straw Poll didn’t fit into that category.

For McCain and Giuliani, there’s something more ominous still in these developments. Their campaigns, along with Romney’s, have worked New Hampshire and Iowa hard. Romney has spent more money in both, but that’s only because his successful fund-raising efforts have given him more money to spend. To date, Romney has dusted Giuliani and McCain. (Actually, McCain dusted himself, but let’s not quibble over details.) While Matt may think the withdrawal from Ames is a “brilliant maneuver”, the fact remains that both the Giuliani and McCain campaigns spent the past twelve months preparing to participate in the straw poll before performing yesterday’s pirouette. To the layman, the so-called “brilliant maneuver” will look a lot like punking out.

Now, let me offer a piece of advice to the Thompson campaign: Compete in Ames. Come in second. And make it a two man race.

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