Why Mitt Romney is spending more time in Iowa




Mitt Romney now sees an opportunity to win the Iowa caucus,
delivering a knock out blow
to the Herman Cain and Rick Perry campaigns.

There are growing indications that Mitt Romney may make a serious attempt to win Iowa after all.

Romney campaigned in the Hawkeye State Monday, his second visit in three weeks. That brings his grand total of events held in Iowa to 15 - far fewer than most of his rivals, and a very different strategy than the one he employed in 2008. That year, he made an all-out effort to win Iowa only to finish second behind former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. (That loss, combined with Romney’s subsequent defeat in New Hampshire at the hands of Arizona Sen. John McCain, critically wounded his campaign.)

This time around, Romney has been trying to lower expectations for his Iowa performance by signaling that he wouldn’t put much time or money into it.

Lately, however, there have been hints he may be reevaluating that strategy. The Romney campaign has been placing thousands of robo-calls in Iowa comparing the candidate’s position on immigration to that of Texas Gov. Rick Perry. He has been hiring additional staff in the state. Romney’s son Josh also made three visits to Iowa last week.

Why the possible shift? For one, many polls now show Romney either leading or close to leading in Iowa. His closest competitor is Herman Cain, whose campaign has been in a state of disarray since news about sexual harassment allegations broke last week. More to the point, Cain has been running an “untraditionalâ€