bad news for romney

John McCain wins Florida, and Rudy Giuliani, after a disappointing third place finish there, is expected to endorse him tomorrow. Not only that, but the eternally optimistic Govenor Huckabee is going to stay in and try to win over some of those southern states where there are votes left to be counted. Talk about a double whammy for the former Massachusetts governor. Rudy was going to be someone else who could have stopped McCain if he had he been more competitive in the early states like Michigan and New Hampshire. He just lost too much free press and momentum by pouring all his resources into one state. If it’s fair to criticize Fred for his one-state strategy, Rudy’s strategy deserves the same skepticism. Now Rudy is done. Thanks for playing, Mr. Mayor. He was never my #1 guy, but I would have voted for him over McCain or Huckabee. It wouldn’t have been a tough decision.

McCain is going to be hard to stop now. I hope Romney can do it. I am openly rooting for Romney to stop McCain, but moral victories don’t generally produce enough delegates to get the job done. There are many votes left to be cast, and I will wait until after Super Tuesday to decide whether my pessimism about the outcome of this primary process is warranted, or whether Romney will shock the world and stop McCain from winning the nomination.