[Commentary] We’ll see how good the Hillary machine is at spinning this one.

The New York Times just published a memo on its Web site from a top Clinton official who makes the case that his candidate should skip our state entirely. To be fair, this is an internal memo (or was), and Mrs. Clinton will be campaigning here this weekend, and the next two, as well.

But in it there are a number of dismissive assessment of Iowa’s role, and we are more than a little protective of our proud history of vetting candidates for the presidency. For all the knocks on Iowa, bear in mind, we are among the most literate states with some of the best education systems, and candidates since the 1970s have come to expect informed questions.

The question now becomes: Is it worse to discuss blowing off Iowa, and then like A.J. Soprano in the middle of his suicide attempt on the HBO show, decide that you’d rather live ? or is better to have never raised the matter at all?

Let’s put it another way: If your husband or boyfriend issued a memo talking about the advantages of getting a divorce so he could sleep with other people, but then he decided against such a move, does that sit better with you than if he remained faithful all along?

When these memos are released it recalls the advice of an old Hollywood movie boss who never put any discussion on paper or on tape. When he died there wasn’t much to work with for a biography, but life is easier without leaks from the snakes in the grass.