Listen, all of you e-mailers, I like Fred. I think he is a real conservative. Clearly the one who covers the most bases in the race this year. But is not getting any votes. Why is that? Maybe it is because we want more from him, and projected more on to him than he has to give. Maybe his style is just not compatible with the moment. Maybe energy in the executive is not a small issue. Maybe the majority of GOP primary voters don’t like him, or like someone else better. Who knows?

There are lots of possibilities, and it is hard to say which is the case, but the thing about an election, or a primary, is that in the end you get hard numbers, and you make your decision based on what they say. Romney, McCain and Huckabee — deeply flawed as each of them are — have numbers that justify going on. Paul is a sideshow. The results are not in yet to measure Rudy’s strategy, but, while he was clever about numbers and where to contest he seems to have forgotten “the psychology of the individual,” and that old saying “out of sight, out of mind.” He will know everything he has to know on January 29 and February 5th. At this moment I would not bet the farm on his emergence as a serious contender.

Arguably Fred knows everything he has to know. I think he should drop out because I don’t really see what he has to gain by staying in. It will only keep muddying the contest between the three leaders. Any smart Republican president will give him a serious job in the next administration. And yes, that leaves us with a really, really, problematic field. But the other side is not comprised of statesmen or giants either. So on we go.