Many years ago, John Lennon wrote and recorded a wonderful song, "Nobody Told Me." Among the lyrics include this stanza: Nobody told me there'd be days like these; Nobody told me there'd be days like these; Strange days indeed...

I would not be at all surprised if those lyrics are bouncing around the brain and shiny dome of "America's Mayor" today; needles to say, the GOP presidential hopeful has had a very difficult week.

In fact, he's been hit by so many blows (no pun intended; see item four below), even this political junkie can't quite remember which of the following volley came first.

1. The candidate gets exposed for failing to appear for any Iraq Study Group meetings. He then tries to spin his way out of his absences by saying he never should have agreed to join the ISG.
   
2. His successor as The Big Apple's Mayor, Michael Bloomberg , divorces himself from the Republican Party – prior to that marriage he was a Democrat – and declares himself an Independent. This maneuver is causing fellow junkies to wonder if the self-describe, "short, Jewish, billionaire from New York" will run for the White House as a third-party candidate in 2008.
3. America's Mayor falls to second place in national polling to former Senator Fred Thompson.
4. And if those three were not enough to give Rudy an Excedrin headache, his South Carolina presidential campaign state chairman gets indicted on drug charges .

Need I say more than Lennon wrote: "Strange days indeed."

Meanwhile, talk about "strange" and pop music, Senator Chris Dodd , who lags in low-single digits in any poll you can find – be it national or in key early states like Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina – has announced that legendary singer/songwriter Paul Simon will campaign with him in Iowa early in July.

I love Paul Simon's music. I fondly remember seeing him and his former partner in song, Art Garfunkel, perform during a reunion tour in the early 1980's. But Iowa is all about reaching out and touching peoples' hearts, minds and hands, Mr. Dodd. Who on your staff came up with this idea?

If one of the candidates wants to find an important endorsement from someone with real Iowa street cred -- especially right now -- reach out to Zach Johnson . Who is Zach Johnson, you ask? He won the Master's golf tournament in April, he went to Drake University and he grew up in Iowa City.

Howard Salter