As our friend Kevin McCullough reports, Strategic Vision has released its latest batch of yummy homemade Iowa polls, just like Ma Gallup used to make. Here are the numbers:

Former New York Mayor Giuliani received 29 percent of the vote, beating out Sen. John McCain of Arizona at 22 percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich got 11 percent and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney received 9 percent.

Kevin's great, but I have to take issue with his headline, “McCain Slipping, Romney Tanking.” In the past month, McCain has gone from 22% support to 21% support. In a poll of 600 respondents, this does not represent statistically significant slippage. I’ll let Kevin skate on that one, though, since McCain is annoying me even more than usual this week.

But Kevin’s way off the mark in reporting Romney’s alleged “tankage.” In the past month, Romney’s gone from 8% to 9% in Strategic Vision’s Iowa’s polling. At the risk of splitting hairs, I feel it’s necessary to note that this means Romney has actually picked up a point. Believe me, I spent a lot of time crunching the numbers on this. At the risk of stating the obvious, picking up a point obviously does not a “tanking” make

I DON’T MEAN TO PICK ON KEVIN. Lord knows he’s not the only pundit who seems to think that Romney has suffered mortal wounds the past month. The sentiment has become so widespread, even the estimable Kathryn Lopez (and my fellow Romney dead-ender) felt it necessary to pen a column asking, “Is the end nigh?”

Kathryn concluded, thankfully, that the end is not nigh. But she was so desperate for a port of sanity amidst the storm of pundit panic that she had to consult Larry Sabato. Until I read her piece, I always assumed that Larry Sabato was cryogenically frozen or maintained in some similar state of suspended animation during non-election years. Have we really reached the point where we will need Larry Sabato all the time?

Given the sad state of the punditocracy, the answer may well be yes. If the blogosphere is going to panic over a presidential news cycle that occurs over a year before Iowa, Professor Sabato’s soothing tones will be more in demand than ever.

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