Some in the GOP hierarchy are trying to find a way out of the cul-de-sac, and to avoid repeating the “fog of buffoonery” that enveloped the 2012 nomination process:

Branstad questions need for Iowa straw poll

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad suggested it may be time to lay the idiosyncratic Iowa Republican tradition of the Ames Straw Poll to rest.

Branstad said in an interview earlier Tuesday with the Wall Street Journal that the poll has “outlived its usefulness.”

“It has been a great fundraiser for the party but I think its days are over.”

Spokesman Tim Albrecht doubled-down on the governor’s sentiment telling CNN Branstad believes the Iowa straw poll is a “disservice to Iowa Republicans in that it discourages top-tier candidates from attending, and therein threatens their participation in the caucuses.”

[…]

The former Republican presidential candidate and Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann poured vast resources into the event and won. Her standing in the informal poll, however, did not translate into the real contest of the Iowa caucus, receiving only 5% of the vote and coming in sixth.

Former Republican nominee Mitt Romney came in fourth, behind businessman Herman Cain in third and Texas Rep. Ron Paul in second in last year’s straw poll. Romney opted out of the 2012 straw poll after 2008 when he poured many resources into the event only to suspend his presidential campaign shortly after the Iowa caucuses in February of the next year.

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