As for Ron Paul, his supporters will give up on him somewhere in mid-2010.

Huck will follow soon. There will be a brokered convention with Romney, McCain, and Paul.

Assuming the predicted catastrophe comes to pass

Entrance Question: Why is Rudy dropping out a “catastrophe” by any definition of the word?

Rudy has run a surprisingly bad campaign. The catastrophe here would be nominating a guy that doesn’t recognize that hanging out in Florida instead of campaigning for office is a bad way of getting elected.

Romney went out after Nevada when he saw it a better chance to pick up delegates than South Carolina. McCain did the same thing when splitting his time between Iowa and New Hampshire That’s strategy. Rudy stayed in Florida while far too much of the process was done with him less visible than Fred Thompson (hard to do).

aahh….. nah, I won’t touch this one.

Exit question two, to the long-suffering Paulnuts: How good do you feel about outlasting Giuliani?

Great! Rudy was the supposed front runner for a good long while, and has — what — half the votes Ron Paul has? Not to mention that Ron Paul has two 2nd place finishes to Rudy’s one, and Paul has three times as many pledged delegates. Even if I hadn’t already voted for Paul, I’d be happy to see Rudy get his authoritarian yankee butt handed to him by a long-shot candidate.

And, follow-up, is your enjoyment at all compromised by the fact that the rEVOLution is still running at about one-half or even one-third of even Rudy’s collapsed popularity?

Doesn’t really count if he drops out before that support gets locked in now, does it? Doesn’t really matter what California thinks of him… they might not even get a chance.

Obviously I don’t expect Paul to win. He’s not really in it to win, even though he obviously can’t come out and say that.

William Amos on January 28, 2008 at 7:00 PM

California changed the rules this year. It is no longer “awinner take all” in the delegate battle. The vote will be divided.

“New rules adopted by the state party, meanwhile, have scrapped winner-take-all voting in favor of a system that awards three delegates to the victor in each of the state’s 53 congressional districts. That change, coupled with the state’s decision to move its primary date, has scrambled the Republican contest less than a year before it takes place.

“It’s like a mini-Electoral College,” Ed Gillespie, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said of California. “It’s going to help make the nominee and have a lot of sway.”

HMMMMMMM?

tommylotto on January 28, 2008 at 6:25 PM

Rudy ran the worst campaign in history. It has become a laughingstock– the campaign that never began. And his strategy was that since nobody else was all that well known back when it began, he would win.

The only flaw in his strategy was that Rudy didn’t count on the other candidates campaigning.

Thacker,

and just what exactly did Fred! do correctly, or more imporantly, better than Rudy?

Beyond your discontent for Rudy, and your wacky spellings of his name, I bet you got nothing to support your little statement there.

Vincenzo on January 28, 2008 at 6:06 PM

I’m going to thoroughly enjoy every time you capitalize the third letter of the R nomination’s name for the next 5 years and remember my discontented wacky spelling of ruDe.

You are obviously a ruDe supporter and have been a ruDe supporter all this time. You above all should know that Fred! beat ruDe in several key states. Also, Fred! didn’t have to abandon his lifelong loyalties to the Yankee’s as ruDe did to pander for votes in NH. ruDe was winning there at one point.

So, Rudy didn’t do anything “wrong” but his failure was hugh

Ahh yes Tommy. . . declaring failure before the battle has even begun. . . at the same time not taking any responsibility. OF COURSE it’s not ruDe’s fault that nobody wants to vote for him. ruDe didn’t do anything ‘wrong’ he was just bad.

I’m just glad all of the ruDe supporters are going away now. And oh yes, I am loving every moment of pwning ruDe and all of his ruDe supporters.

If Paul is anywhere near the ticket I’ll vote against it. We don’t need his baggage, conspiracy theories, Neo-Nazi supporters, etc.

amerpundit on January 28, 2008 at 5:40 PM

Ditto for me. And you can add his supporters here at HA, like the ever stupid Muyoso.

In California [Rich Lowry]
New Gallup poll has it McCain 36, Romney 31, and LAT has it McCain 39, Romney 26 (h/t RCP). It will get even tighter if Romney can pull off a win tomorrow. Nationally, Rasmussen daily track now has Romney slightly ahead, 28-26, although Gallup track still has McCain solidly ahead.

California is not a winner take all state.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/8156.html

Republicans also appear to be settling in on their choices.

According to the new poll McCain leads Romney 39 percent to 26 percent, with Rudy Giuliani a distant third at 13 percent and Mike Huckabee picking up 11 percent. The margin of error for the poll was 4.5 percent.
Those results, based on interviews with 437 likely Republican primary voters, mark a significant improvement for the Arizona senator, who led Romney by only four points – within the margin of error – in the Politico/CNN/Los Angeles Times poll two weeks earlier.

Support for McCain appears to be firming up, with only 4 percent of likely GOP primary voters undecided, compared to 11 percent in the last survey.

P.S. – Oh yeah, and I think Rudy was probably planning this a bit longer than Fred.

and just what exactly did Fred! do correctly, or more imporantly, better than Rudy?

Beyond your discontent for Rudy, and your wacky spellings of his name, I bet you got nothing to support your little statement there.

1) Rated better in debates.
2) Eventually put in the effort in an early state where he was behind, and he did pick up some percentage points there.
3) From a statistical standpoint, Rudy pretty much went nowhere but down. With Fred there were ups and downs, but at least there were ups! He got some buzz from time to time. In the last couple months, Rudy just hasn’t been there.

Just curious, would HA readers be opposed to a Romney/Paul ticket?

Wouldn’t happen. Romney has too many friends who are “international bankers” wink wink.

Fred ran a worse campaign, but he never had a legitimate chance. Rudy ran a better campaign but failed inexplicably more craptastically.

tommylotto on January 28, 2008 at 6:25 PM

So the guy who “never had a legitimate chance” and lost ran a worse campaign than the one who was all but inevitable and lost due to bad strategy? Your logic escapes me.

His fall from grace isn’t “inexplicable”, it’s plain to see- he ran a horrible campaign.

Romney/Thompson 2008? Isn’t that what MM’s poll came up with? I am seeing that combination more and more in the BLOGS.
As a FredHead, it works for me……

Nelsa on January 28, 2008 at 6:22 PM

Fredheads