Poor Iowa. It looks like Mitt Romney’s decision to skip the Ames summer straw poll in Iowa–an early, somewhat useless gauge of support in the state–is the right move.

By outspending and organizing his opponents, he cruised to a victory there in 2007 only to get walloped in the actual caucuses by Mike Huckabee. This time around, he’ll lay low and compete in the state, but focus primarily on New Hampshire as a springboard into Florida, where he just barely came up short in 2008, and Michigan, where he remains strong thanks to his father’s having been governor and his win last time around. A loss at Ames, if he were to have competed, would have badly damaged his frontrunner status and weakened him heading into the actual nomination contests. [Politico]