Look. Something has to give here. The entire primary calendar has been up-ended in the most dramatic way since the creation of Super Tuesday in 1992 and perhaps since the primary system became the way we choose presidents. You don’t just show up to the Ames straw poll. You have to make all kinds of Iowa-specific political promises to win it, promises about farm prices and ethanol — and make all kinds of other promises to a whole mess of activists who are way, way far to the left among the Democrats and way, way far to the right among Republicans.
Those are the sorts of promises that will hurt candidates like Giuliani and McCain (among others) who want to electrify those famed suburban Republican voters in the bigger states. Playing hard in Iowa makes that more difficult. So maybe they’re jumping ship because they fear Romney. Or maybe they’re playing the hunch that working to win Iowa may be counterproductive to doing well on Super-Duper-Schmooper Tuesday.
And why wouldn’t Romney have jumped up in the polls in Iowa? He’s throwing a lot of money around there, unlike any other candidate in the field.