The press loves a horse race and often invents them even when there's no evidence of one. If you read the coverage lately, you'd think that Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul were surging ahead with the former likely to grab the G.O.P. nomination and the latter making a stronger showing than anyone had expected…and maybe that's right. But maybe The Gallup Poll is correct when it indicates that Huckabee is more or less tied for a distant second place finish behind Giuliani…tied with McCain, Romney and Thompson. And Paul is way down at 3%, tied with Alan Keyes, who not one person on the planet thinks has a chance of being the nominee. What's more, the numbers show no momentum for either man in recent weeks. Huckabee is right where he was a month ago (with Giuliani even farther ahead of him now) and Paul is down a point from where he was a month ago.
Yet still, you read how Huckabee and Paul are coming up from behind, gaining on the others. Why do I have the feeling that neither man is even running for the Republican Presidential nomination any more? Huckabee's running for the veep slot and Paul's getting ready to make an independent bid.