Different Strokes, Folks

John McCain, down but not defeated, argued today that straw polls are meaningless. He may have a point. For him, it would have been rather meaningless to waste his money in Iowa. While he might have made a more respectable showing, I don't think it would have made much of a difference in the amount of actual support. It was clear who the winners would be.

However, to dismiss straw polls as meaningless is nothing more than sour grapes. For lesser-known candidates, these can make a big difference. For Mitt, and perhaps Huck, it was important to their campaigns to make a strong showing. For Mitt, especially, this was a well-calculated maneuver. It doesn't really matter who didn't show up, because Mitt's position was already established. He had figured this as an integral part of a campaign strategy that had been considered and put into place a long time ago.

Rudy Two Shoes didn't want to participate, because, as Mitt gained support, Rudy realized the danger in being shown up by the new guy. As he already had a lot of support nationwide, it would have been detrimental to his success across the rest of the nation. For him, the straw poll was made meaningless by his failure to attend, while at the same time, that failure to attend spoke volumes of his confidence and feel for support.

Each candidate is taking the road that, for him, is the best-calculated for success. To declare his path meaningless is either a miscalculation of one's opponents, or just a political downplay. At this point, for McCain, I would go with political downplay.