Ready for the perfect storm for a fundamentalist theocrat upset in the Iowa Repub caucus?

[Czolgosz]

Both Giuliani and McCain have pulled out of the Ames straw poll, a dry run for the caucus which Iowa insiders characterize as a "must-do" for anyone who wants to win the Iowa Repub caucus:

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential front-runner Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday he won't compete in a high-profile Iowa straw poll, and rival John McCain quickly followed suit in bypassing the early test of strength.

"We are 100 percent committed to winning the Iowa caucuses in January," said Mike DuHaime, the former New York City mayor's campaign manager, even as he announced the decision to skip the Aug. 11 straw poll in Ames, Iowa.

Hours later, Terry Nelson, McCain's campaign manager, told The Associated Press that in light of Giuliani's announcement "it's clear that the Ames straw poll will not be a meaningful test of the leading candidates' organizational abilities." Thus, he said: "We have decided to forgo our participation in the event."...

Among the top-tier candidates only Mitt Romney said he would participate in the nonbinding August straw poll. It's a decades-old dress rehearsal that allows GOP candidates to measure their organizational strength months before the caucuses, a one-day presidential contest that requires a strong get-out-the-vote operation to ensure backers participate.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070606/ap_on_el_pr/republicans_iowa_12

The Ames straw notoriously skews toward the conservative (which is why Giuliani and McCain fear it) and it has traditionally served as a launching pad for the furthest right-wing candidates to tighten their ground organizations before catapulting into the Repub top tier. McCain and Giuliani both skipping the straw poll indicates a huge failure of confidence from both campaigns and sets up the perfect storm for a gigantic fundamentalist theocrat up set in Iowa's Repub caucus in January.

[tanyev]

1. Ron Paul is warming up his slingshot right now to try and slay a few giants.

[Czolgosz]

2. The "small government" and "get government's nose out of my business" wing of the Repub party's dead

or else Ron Paul would be killing in the polls because he's the only true conservative on those issues in the whole Repub field.