Consider the state of Iowa, home to the nation’s first presidential preference vote (a straw poll attached to precinct caucuses). Iowa has played host to the GOP’s first serious presidential straw poll for as long as anyone can remember. And it will again in 2012.

Not so fast, says Mr. Romney’s legal advisor Ben Ginsburg, who may be the only person in the world who thinks Iowa will not lead off the 2012 presidential campaign voting. Specifically, Mr. Ginsburg is quoted as saying: “Whether Iowa goes first in 2012 is up for grabs in unprecedented fashion….”

Here’s a rough translation of what Ginsburg is really saying: Mitt doesn’t want to run in Iowa because he did that in 2008, spent a ton of money and got hammered by some guy he’d never heard of (Huckabee) who spent about 1/10th of what Romney spent. In 2012, he’s afraid that if he loses to Palin in Iowa, he will be much diminished going into New Hampshire and the not-Sarah vote will look elsewhere for a champion. So he would like for New Hampshire to be perceived as the nation’s first true test of the GOP presidential primary/caucus season.

Good luck with that.