Mitt Romney’s in South Carolina until Thursday, then off to Nevada, where his campaign notes that there’s more delegates at stake.

McCain only put a little money and resources into Iowa. Thompson effectively skipped New Hampshire and Michigan. Huckabee put an appropriately modest amount of effort into New Hampshire. Giuliani’s not bothering with anything before Florida. In that light, Romney’s entitled to “take a bye week” as one of his guys put it to me last night.

He’s at 13, 17, 17 and 14 percent in the last four polls; the most recent one is Zogby has a three day tracking poll that has McCain 29, Huckabee 23, Romney 13, Thompson at 12. He hasn’t led since November.

He’s going back on the airwaves in the Palmetto State. I think that’s a good allocation of resources. Try to get a respectable third place, hope for a delegate or two, and tout that you finished third place over somebody who needed it badly. Florida’s 57 delegates, under winner-take-all rules, are a much bigger prize.