Romney's Glass Jaw

I was somewhat shocked and mystified to read in Friday's Wall Street Journal that Mitt Romney is skipping the Iowa straw poll. Of course his handlers pitched it as skipping all straw polls, but the story recalled Mitt's loss to Mike Hickabee in Iowa in 2007. And his fear that a 2011 loss would possibly derail his current lead among GOP candidates.

To paraphrase the Journal's William McGurn, this isn't what we need in the GOP presidential candidate race. We need a bare-knuckled brawl on principles, ideas and philosophies.

Instead, Mitt is trying to run out the clock before the primary season has even begun. Yes, we all know he hopes to win in friendly, neighboring New Hampshire. But after skipping the South Carolina debate, and now Iowa's straw poll, Mitt's beginning to look like Rudy in 2007- wait until some safe later primaries and hope for the best.

So it was mystifying to me that this weekend's Wall Street Journal column by the increasingly-irrelevant Peggy Noonan extolled Mitt's virtues and his "good week."

Most off the mark, I believe, was Noonan's belief that Romneycare actually makes Mitt invulnerable to Wonderboy's attacks. Is she kidding?

Romney is now a living flip-flop on health care. He pushed for a law he now criticizes. He wants to repeal one version of his plan- Obamacare- while bemoaning his own version.

This is strength?

No, it's more of Mitt's bifurcated, self-justifying solipsistic nonsense.

I don't endorse Romney. I don't think he's the GOP's best hope to attract crucial independent voters. But it doesn't bode well for the GOP race when the alleged front-runner is too afraid of loss to even show up in Iowa this summer.

If Mitt is so afraid of his lower-polling Republican competitors, how's he going to handle going up against a sitting president, no matter how weakened?