Romney Bails

There have been times, in the past few weeks, where the expression on Mitt Romney's face just seems incredulous. He's been saying all of the right things, doing all of the right things - playing hard for the nomination. And yet ... the media hates the guy, the other candidates hate the guy, the grassroots seem to care less. What's a brother gotta do?

Turns out it's a hill too steep to climb. He won over a motley bunch of country-club Righties and the conservative commentariat, scored a couple of states, and spent a pile of cash from the Romney family fortune. But as a good businessman he probably can look at the numbers, read the environment and the risk and reasonably conclude: It isn't going to happen.

Some have suggested that the time has come for the stop-McCain coalition to throw their efforts behind Huck for the final round of "last pseudo-conservative standing". That might make as much sense as anything this election season, were it not for the fundamental math problem with regard to delegates, the fact that Huck has limited, regional appeal - and the likelihood that he has been guaranteed the second seat on the Strait Talk Express.

Romney might be playing the long-term game. With all this talk of Reagan, one possible option is to pretend it's 1976 all over again, and we need to wander four years in the darkness of Carter-like weakness before a spiffy new conservatism ascends.

Because it's 'game over' for this GOP cycle.