President John McCain's Screw Iowa Strategy worked so well in getting him nominated in 2000 that he may be looking at trying it again, says Robert "Valerie Plame's A Secret Agent... Oops, I Guess Not Anymore" Novak:
Sen. John McCain soon will consider opting out of the Jan. 3 Iowa presidential caucuses to take the sting out of a probable fifth-place finish there.
McCain skipped Iowa in 2000 while nearly seizing the presidential nomination from heavily favored George W. Bush. But when McCain was the early front-runner for 2008, it was decided he would contest the state this time.
The rationale for leaving Iowa now would be total concentration on the subsequent New Hampshire primary.
Talking Points Memo says "McCain would do so in order to lessen the embarrassment of a fifth place showing behind Romney, Huckabee, Giuliani and Thompson," without saying if that's a ranked order.
Fifth may be optimistic, if Ron Paul's people have their way; his state field director just gave me a a goal of top five and a prediction of top two today, which would bump the once mighty McCain down to sixth. Wonder if Sam Brownback is regretting that endorsement yet? If this keeps going, McCain may have to worry about serious competition from John Cox and Duncan Hunter.
You'll recall, of course, that McCain skipped the Ames Straw Poll last summer, so in the grand scheme of things he hasn't invested much in the state.
A peek at McCain's public schedule shows him in New Hampshire all weekend, then in Florida and South Carolina after Thanksgiving.
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