The Ames Iowa Straw Poll Non-Event

    We had refrained from commenting on Rudy Giuliani's and then John McCain's decisions two days ago not to participate in the Ames straw poll event this summer. Our theory was that a non-event merited a non-comment. The Des Moines Register's veritable David Yepsen had it right when he commented that the event had become a "shake-down of candidates," a purchasable poll, and didn't deserve the status it had attained.
    We're only wading in now because the punditry has been engaged every since in a debate as to whether Giuliani and McCain are skipping the event because they knew they couldn't win (of course!) and whether this diminishes the expected Mitt Romney victory (of course!).
    But none of this diminishes the fact that right now, the polls do give Romney the edge in both Iowa and New Hampshire. We keep saying there's a long way to go. But if those leads hold up, Romney will become the new GOP front runner, Ames or no Ames. The truth is he didn't really need a victory there at this point, given how far and how fast he's come already.