Fun in Iowa (For Us, At Least)

Today’s the day Mitt Romney finds out if all the money he poured into the Iowa cornfields has paid off. According to the Globe, the Mittser has sunk $7 million in television advertising into the Hawkeye State — the most of any Republican in the field. Worse, according to the Herald, Romney had used more than $17 million of his own money through September in order to keep his campaign flush.

And he might not win.

So maybe money can’t buy you a victory, but it can entertain the hell out of us.

Yesterday, we told you about the nasty back-and-forth sniping between Romney and his principal opponents, Mike Huckabee and John McCain. We also told you that Romney is in a serious battle against Huckabee in Iowa, and against McCain in New Hampshire.

While we were typing away, though, Romney wasted no time making with the funny. First, he took a shot at Huckabee — a guy who just can’t get out of his own way lately. In recent weeks, Huckabee misidentified Pakistan’s eastern border and misrepresented the state of martial law in that country, curiously screened an attack ad for the press that he said he was “refusing” to release, and then criticized the president for not reading the NIE report on Iran when he hadn’t read it either. Which is awesome.

Yesterday, however, Huckabee made a mistake that was tailor-made for Romney to lampoon. The night before the Iowa caucuses, Huckabee left the state, flew to California and appeared on the Jay Leno Show. Huckabee said he thought an arrangement had been reached with the writers of the late shows, and that he wouldn’t be crossing any picket lines. Nope. (The arrangement was with Letterman, not Leno). Huckabee did, in fact, cross the picket lines.

“I guess he’s more focused on the caucus in L.A. rather than the caucus in Iowa,” Romney told reporters earlier in the day.

Zing! If this politics thing doesn’t work out for Romney, maybe he can land a writing gig with Leno.

Speaking of comedy, today’s Herald piece about Romney’s final day of campaigning in Iowa has a precious bit about how he first fell in love with the Land of Ethanol.

He told how he once toiled for a summer on his uncle’s Idaho ranch futilely trying to grow corn, recalling taking a train through Iowa soon afterward and seeing the vast, tall corn fields.

“I said, ‘God must love Iowa,’ ” he told the crowd. “And there’s no question about it for other reasons as well. It’s because of the great people in this state.”

Mitt Romney, the $17-million-and-counting man of the people.

Iowa has been so much fun, it’s a shame it’s almost over. Before we bid it adieu, here are Boston Daily’s picks for the caucuses:

Gonz

GOP: Romney, Huckabee, McCain, Thompson

Dems: Obama, Clinton, Edwards, Biden

Derjue

GOP: Romney, Huckabee, McCain, Paul

Dems: Obama, Clinton, Edwards Biden

Flannery

GOP: Huckabee, Romney, McCain, Thompson

Dems: Clinton, Edwards, Obama, Richardson

Keohane

GOP: Huckabee, Romney, McCain, Paul

Dems: Obama, Clinton, Edwards, Kucinich