It's Over: McCain has it Locked up, Despite Pundits

Listening to the "experts" you would think there is still a race going on the Republican side. Is it wishful thinking? Do they hate McCain? Or are they just wrong? They were wrong (as I was) about Obama after Iowa and before New Hampshire, when they predicted Hillary's demise. McCain won big in Florida. It was a death blow to Romney, Giuliani, and Huckabee. Despite spending having spent approximately $40 million to date, Mitt Romney has not been able to stop the McCain momentum. McCain beat Romney on his strongest issue--the economy. But the biggest winners are the establishment. Why do you think he got all the endorsements:

Senator John McCain’s victory in the Florida primary came in the face of considerable odds and suggests that his chief rival here, Mitt Romney, faces tough going in what has effectively become a two-person Republican field.

This was a battlefield where Mr. McCain was supposed to be at a disadvantage, the first competitive contest open only to Republicans. (The others allowed independents to vote.) “An all-Republican primary!” Mr. McCain said in his victory speech here.

Even though voters here overwhelmingly said their top concern was the weakening economy — the issue that Mr. Romney sought to turn to his advantage, asserting that he was far more qualified than Mr. McCain to manage the country back to prosperity — exit polls found that Republicans were more likely to chose Mr. McCain as the best candidate to deal with economic problems.

The weak performance of Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, means that Mr. McCain will now face diminished competition for moderate Republican voters. To compound Mr. Romney’s challenge, Republicans said that Mr. Giuliani was on the verge of throwing his support to Mr. McCain, an endorsement that could help Mr. McCain achieve what will be his main goal in the days ahead: getting the party to rally behind him.

What is more, Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who came in fourth Tuesday night, declared that he was staying in the race, suggesting that he would continue to compete with Mr. Romney for conservative Christian voters.