Free Republic

Think of it as a good barometer of what might happen in the important upcoming January caucuses in the Hawkeye State. That's what Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) is saying when he speaks about the Iowa Straw Poll.King believes that no presidential hopeful can win next year's Iowa Caucuses without being competitive in the upcoming Iowa Straw Poll. The congressman has been hobnobbing with the various GOP presidential hopefuls who have been visiting his state, hoping to impress caucus members. The hopefuls will then gather in January for the traditional opening venue of the presidential election season. He says on August...

I'm trying to find out some information about this year's Iowa Straw Poll. I'm thinking about going to see what all the fuss is about. If you've been to the straw poll or are from IA, shoot me an email at dbmountie@gmail.com.

...snip...But I digress. The Giuliani shindig actually made conference call history because something important happened. The campaign announced it would be skipping the Ames Straw Poll. I’m assuming that this news arose not out of a genuine feeling that straw polls are for dorks, but rather because Team Rudy knew it would get creamed. And if Rudy got creamed in Ames, holding onto his media bestowed frontrunner crown would be a large task indeed.

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Some Iowa Republicans are questioning whether presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani intends to largely skip the state's leadoff caucuses. A sluggish start to campaign organizing and indecision about whether to compete in a high-profile straw poll in August has prompted speculation that Giuliani will pay only cursory attention to Iowa and instead focus on other early election states where his high name recognition would pay off. Giuliani has led in national polls of Republican voters. However, a recent poll by the Des Moines Sunday Register of likely GOP caucus-goers in Iowa gave former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney...

Republican Rudy Giuliani has been stuck for weeks on a key decision in his presidential campaign: whether to compete in the Iowa Republican Party's straw poll in Ames this summer. The former New York City mayor's top Iowa advisers have encouraged him to take part in the year's marquee national GOP event as part of building what Giuliani has said he hopes will be a winning campaign for the leadoff Iowa caucuses in January. But the final say belongs to Giuliani, who plans to decide in the coming weeks how the event could benefit or cost him. If he says...