The American Spectator

Early in November Romney started quietly trying to lower expectations about Iowa. I would expect to see more of that but it's a silly game at this point. By some counts he has spent over $7M in the state and been there nearly fifty days. He's had hundreds of "Ask Mitt" meetings and of course made a full court press and won the Ames Straw poll. His campaign has ridiculed Rudy and others for suggesting you can win without the early states of Iowa and NH. So at this point it's not credible to say "oh, any of the three tickets out will do" and further efforts are likely to been seen, at least by Huckabee folks (who also must manage expectations), that they have him on the run.