The Fred has already vacated New Hampshire, where he’s likely to get beat by Ron Paul, and will skip Michigan and Nevada to make his stand in South Carolina. That’s where Huckabee is currently turning into a juggernaut. Fred has a tough battle ahead but he does have until the 19th of January (all of a fortnight) to make his case. Maybe taking up residence in South Carolina while the rest of the candidates fight out other states will turn out to be a good move, but he’ll be in the hole on delegates by the time of the primary and the world is likely to be talking about Obamania by then. Either that, or “Whatever happened to Obama?”

So tonight we find Fred on the Factor, making his first appearance there. His wife Jeri appeared on the show once before and acquitted herself well, but this is Fred. He did fine. He gets the big picture right and makes the case for himself as the only authentic and consistent conservative in the race. No flubs on Pakistan, and he injects realism into the debate over what we can and should or shouldn’t do about the instability there (hint: He doesn’t agree with Bill Richardson). And there isn’t a lot more to say. Fred’s running an unorthodox campaign, partly out of strategy and partly out of financial necessity. I’d like to see him stay in the race if only to keep tugging it to the right. In a saner world Fred would have raised $20 million in the last quarter and Ron Paul would be worried about gassing up the bus. But that isn’t the world we live in.

Update (AP): Calling all ‘Heads — dude needs some coin.

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