Weigel

URBANDALE, Iowa -- I've been traveling around the DSM metro area today before heading back to Sioux City, seeing what's up at each GOP candidate's campaign HQ. Tomorrow I'll have more details; for now, the most revealing lit I've found was Michele Bachmann's flier. On the cover: The slogan "Michele Bachmann, right here right now." Inside, among other things, is a guide to Bachmann's opponents.

Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, both of whom outpoll Perry in the state, are unmentioned. It's been clear for around a month that Perry is only a theoretical, if-everyone-else-implodes threat, and clear for two weeks that Gingrich is in a solid position to beat Bachmann. The winner of the Ames straw poll is running a lean campaign. And it's hard to see how it doesn't end unless she punches one of the top three tickets out of Iowa. (By contrast, I think Santorum can stick it out to South Carolina.)