Good bye, Fred

After a dissappointing third place finish in SC, Fred has announced that he is out. His mother is ill in Tennessee and, well , he was just never really into it.

Romney is in the lead as far as delegates are concerned. McCain is in the lead as far as polling is concerned.

Florida is going to be a huge deal and based on that, some interesting things could happen. Mitt could call up Huckabee (who after failing to win SC, will start to fade) and ask him if he would be willing to pull out in exchange for a spot on the ticket. McCain could do the same, but I just don't see him doing that. Either way, something has to happen. The whole scenario up to this point has followed pretty close to what Rudy was wanting... right up until he ran out of money. Bummer for him. Right now it is looking like Florida will go to either Romney or McCain.

My two cents is that if nobody cuts a deal and Romney, McCain, Huckabee and Rudy all go into Florida without Fred... Romney is the winner. If you look at all of the candidates the only 90% conservative was Fred (just no passion). The next one pushing conservative values is Romney, even if he hasn't always followed them himself. However, the economy has become issue number one and this is a great issue for Romney. He knows what he is doing and if he can keep the outright PANDERING down to a minimum, he will do well (what was that $20 billion promise to MI all about... come on!) He is also the only one that will still have a positive balance in his bank account after Florida. You can't discount that.

McCain has a good record for limiting spending, but he voted against the tax cuts that bouyed the economy after Clinton. This didn't sit well with conservatives. Neither did McCain-Feingold or the McCain-Kennedy boarder fiasco last summer. Some conservatives will stomach McCain if they have to, but most would just as soon vote against him as for him. He has done well up to this point, but in most of these races independents could vote. Not Florida. Most of them were also a split on who gets the delegates. Not the sunshine state. All or nothing. Republicans only.

Now, if Rudy can finish second that might be enough to hold onto a lead in his home territory of NY/NJ.

Quite frankly this whole thing could come down to the wire! Wow! That's pretty exciting.

I'm hoping for a move by someone to pair up as a team and build a ticket. This could do a lot to change the race, but... we'll see.

On the other side... well, it's just a slug fest. The beauty is that in this fight you don't have to worry about your guy losing. We win with each blow! I'm jumping out of my chair with each shot! BEAUTIFUL!!! And good old Bill is having a HARD time staying in the background. Of course he is having an even harder time staying awake. Barack is taking it too personal. He needs to stay above the pettiness if he wants to maintain his composure.

Ahhh! Democrats beating up democrats. It's a beautiful thing.