Craig Crawford's Trail Mix

Rudy Giuliani’s risky decision to skip the Iowa Republican Party’s straw poll last weekend paid off for him. The former New York mayor and clear frontrunner in national polls for the Republican presidential nomination saved precious time and expense — and the results were so mixed that he lost no ground.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won as expected, but had to share the limelight with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who posted a surprisingly strong second-place finish. That is the sort of jumble that Giuliani strategists are hoping to see if it turns out that he cannot win Iowa’s GOP caucuses, which are dominated by social conservatives who dislike his moderate views.

Still, Giuliani says he plans to compete for the caucuses. After all, the campaign graveyard is littered with past hopefuls who tried to step over Iowa’s first-in-the-nation voting contest. Also, Iowa’s swing-state status in recent general elections makes a hard play for the caucuses useful seeding for the November harvest.