Imagine, for a moment, that you are Mitt Romney. You find yourself faced with a dilemma: The traditional first benchmark in a Republican campaign, the Iowa straw poll, is coming up. You've agreed to participate. But the three candidates who most people consider to be your top rivals have backed out, leaving you competing with candidates who aren't necessarily in your league.

Expectations are high for the Romney campaign, even after he paraphrased Joseph Kennedy, saying he won't pay for a landslide. No one thinks he will do anything but win by a wide margin (except Tommy Thompson, who told a blog yesterday he would be "shocked" if he doesn't win). He can't back out, and should he do anything other than win in a landslide, many in the media will call it a stumble. Romney, one would think, allowed expectations to be set too high. A win is good, but it's not as good as a win over actively-participating Rudy Giuliani or Fred Thompson.

If Romney stumbles, could it actually hurt the second-tier candidates who perform well in the poll? If column inches are dedicated to Romney's misstep in Iowa, then Tommy Thompson, Mike Huckabee, Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo and the rest of the gang could see diminished returns from what is supposed to be their big day. If Romney doesn't pull off a huge win, the only beneficiary could wind up being Fred Thompson.

Being a member of the Bush Administration is a difficult thing to do these days. Senator Russ Feingold wants to censure the president. Congressman Dennis Kucinich wants to impeach the vice president. The House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to issue citations for contempt of Congress to White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former counsel Harriet Miers.

And then there's Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who testified on Capitol Hill yesterday. "Your credibility has been breached to the point of being actionable," Senate Judiciary ranking Republican Arlen Specter told AG, per Washington Sketch. Rumors of Gonzales' demise were greatly exaggerated earlier this year (one prominent pundit I spoke with in April expressed dismay that he hadn't been forced out back then). But Gonzales apparently remains entirely disinterested in the notion of stepping down.

Finally today, some good news for an industry in pain: While dead-tree newspaper readership continues to slip, political consultants are increasingly spending money on newspaper ads (including on newspaper websites) instead of television. PQMedia reports that spending on newspaper ads has jumped from about $25 million in 2000 to $104 million in 2006. That remains less than 5% of advertising dollars spent by campaigns, but it certainly helped a few journalists keep their jobs.

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