}

Monday, August 13, 2007

Romney spins

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is trying to spin his dismal showing in an Iowa straw poll as being a huge victory. He’s spent millions of dollars on his campaign in the state, yet only received 31.5 percent of the vote against a pack of lesser rivals, not including frontrunner Rudy Giuliani nor former frontrunner John McCain.

Romney blamed the heat and the fact that he was expected to win as reasons for the low overall participation among Iowa Republicans, and for his low result in which not even a third of Iowa Republicans supported him. My friend Tim Drake summed this up well when he said, “Put another way, 68% of Republicans voted for nobodies instead of Romney.”

Still, it may be a bit early to be planning Romney’s political funeral. At the moment, the first real votes in the race for the nomination won’t be counted for five months, and the new president won’t be elected for nearly fifteen months. That’s a long campaign to go—and to endure.

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