The American Spectator

Marc Ambinder has some theories as to why Rudy isn't personally being more aggressive toward McCain. I have another : Romney is there to do it. Romney can't survive a loss to McCain. He can be counted on to circulate the nasty-gram e-mails and make the anti-McCain remarks in the debate. That -- combined with Rudy's own campaign's email and website missives -- is plenty to make the points he wants to.

Some contend that Thompson, other than making a "consistent conservative" appeal, lacked a rationale for his campaign. This in part I think explains the "change" fetish that has broken out in GOP ranks. It really is not enough, despite the conservative punditocracy's protestations, to simply show you can follow the conservative hymnal word for word. Poor Romney seems to have taken $50M(or whatever) of his own money and multiple primary losses to learn this lesson and is wildly trying to retool to present himself as something other than simply the three-legged stool proponent. It is not that conservative ideology is unimportant in a GOP primary; it is just not sufficient. There needs to be a compelling biography (McCain) or record of accomplishment (Rudy) or personal connection(Huckabee) to garner support. That, plus you have to work really, really hard.

In poll land, a new one has McCain up by 7 points in Florida. Overall he's up just a few. Will Thompson's departure change the equation? Thompson was polling below ten percent already so I'm not sure in Florida it makes a difference.