News that two of the top GOP presidential candidates - - Rudy Giuliani and John McCain - - have dropped out of the semi-meaningless Iowa "straw poll" in August might actually help our Badger boy Tommy get a little semi-meaningful publicity there - - if he's still in the race.
That's because with two better-known names bailing out, Tommy moves up in the party's straw poll standings based merely on a smaller field.
Call it Success By Default.
Though the straw poll doesn't necessarily predict eventual caucus winners and actual awarding of delegates in Iowa, Tommy can grab a few minutes of air time on Straw Poll Day, August 11th, if he gets, say, 20% of the party faithful's votes and finishes third or a close fourth.
If he were to get 30-35%, which is unlikely, he could claim victory even if Mitt Romney got all the rest.
If Tommy finishes something like 5th in an eight-person field, or if other candidates drop out and diminish the event even further, then he really should just come home.
Actually, it looks like this is probably bad news. He says in this story that he will need to completely rethink his strategy. What he should do, of course, is get out before he embarrasses himself -- and Wisconsin -- any further.
ReplyDeleteI continue to be amazed at how far down the guy keeps falling. He gets a weekly mocking on The Colbert and Daily shows.
ReplyDeleteThe perils of vanity campaigning.