Is this it for Mitt?

There are lots of reports out there that Mitt Romney is dropping out of the Republican race, and probably doing so in a speech at CPAC while I write this. If so, it removes any lingering doubts about John McCain's status as the presumptive Republican nominee for President. What a strange, strange trip it has been. Romney appeared strong all along to people that closely followed Republican politics. He always seemed to be everyone's second choice, though. Fred Thompson got drafted into the race and developed a small but hard core following. Unfortunately, Thompson was never able or willing to leverage that dedicated base to convert the numbers of followers needed to even be competitive in the race. In some ways, his appearance in the race acted as a road block to second fiddle Mitt, and when Mike Huckabee started to pick up momentum amongst evangelical, socially (but not economic or security) conservative voters, the road opened up for John McCain to win the nomination through name recognition and respect amongst a plurality of voters who like weren't the closest followers of conservative or Republican politics, as well as non-conservative Republicans. And now here we are. Some of us, maybe many of us are, are stunned as to how it all came about, and we now have six to nine months to come to terms with how we want to go forward.