Rudy is making his concession speech, and he just offered words of praise for all of his competitors, who he said were “honorable men.”

“Including Ron Paul… who won all of the debates!” He then said he checked the “who won the debate” polls, and saw that Paul won every one of them.

I don’t know if I would have voted for Rudy Giuliani in a primary, but I like the guy. (I would have voted for him in a general election in a heartbeat.) I like his cheerfully combative style. He’s accomplished a lot.

As for his skip-the-little-states strategy, I think it had to be tried before we would know for certain whether it was impossible. The lesson is now clear – the first couple states create the storyline, and if you’re not part of the storyline, you will fade away into the second tier.

And Giuliani sounds like a man very much at peace with the results tonight, and perhaps almost relieved…

UPDATE: CNN switches over to Romney. Did he step on the end of Rudy’s speech? It’s probably Giuliani’s big departure. He’s leaving the race. Come on, man, let him finish.