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The MSM will do their best to establish McCain as an indisputable front runner.  I think Romney’s hope lies with an “ABM” treaty (Anybody But McCain) getting established and Romney getting tremendous support to counter McCain.

I would attribute much of McCain’s higher poll numbers around the country to the star treatment in the media, and so I think it is funny that now that he is in the position Romney was a few days ago (leading in the vote and delegate count), we’ll see that as reason for even more star treatment and assertion of front runner status…”no need to give Romney that treatment, McCain is our man! He is up 30 delegates now!”

He has been the media’s darling since before New Hampshire.  New Hampshire’s victory bought him a month of goodwill.

Romney’s victories…maybe 24 hours? 

From this article.

Washington is fundamentally broken, and we’re not going to change Washington by sending the same people back, just to sit in different chairs. I think it’s time for the politicians to leave Washington and for the citizens to take over.

I don’t think anything addresses the issue more fundamentally.  People are tired of what Washington is doing or has done, yet we continue to vote the same people into power.  When will we really change that?

I don’t know if it was old people or what put McCain over the top down in the sunshine state, but this is ludicrous.  I can handle Romney losing, I would simply have prefered that he lose to a republican.

Romney just can’t get ahead with the MSM.

If McCain wins in Florida, his status as the national front-runner will be cemented.

If Romney comes out on top, the battle for the GOP presidential nomination will be up in the air.

Democrats’ Favorite Republican.

A fun video quickly identifying why it is bizarre for McCain to be considered a front runner for the Republican nomination.

Matt Lewis over at Townhall.com (a huge fan of McCain before his campaign shakeup up until the present) says,

Romney was ahead in the last Florida poll I saw, and since nothing that happened tonight is likely to radically upset the apple cart, he wins tonight merely by maintaining the status quo.

Lewis is intensely interested in seeing McCain win Florida, for him to maintain that the race is simply a “two man” affair at this point I think shows just how strongly Romney is picking up speed. Opponents will always give you a watered down version of reality that favors their candidate. Polls already show Romney significantly trending upward and he has been declared a winner in most circles after the one and only debate prior to Florida. Lewis himself even admits as much,

If one had to assign a winner tonight, Mitt Romney would probably get the nod.

Romney is leading the intrade prices at 60.0 to McCain’s 35.0….a sharp reversal from even just a few days ago.

So yes, it is a 2 man race, but I heavily suspect a Romney victory on Tuesday.

The idea of Bill Clinton back in the White House with nothing to do is something I can’t imagine.

Mitt Romney at Thursday night’s Florida debate.

An article here at all-encompassingly added to my already forming opinion.

Today I got an email from Glenn Beck’s email list that includes a paragraph that really nails the nail on the head.

What Glenn finds interesting is that whichever state Mitt Romney wins (3 so far), that’s always the one that the media says isn’t important. Romney would be a change and people are voting that way as he is leading the GOP in delegates. Apparently the media isn’t noticing, because the only thing they report is that he should drop out if he loses Florida.

It is terribly important to recognize the future projections, but those are so heavily shaped by recent performance and the perceived media reaction to them. Recent performance should be enough to keep Romney at the front of the pack. Media reaction is another story. McCain and Huckabee seemed wildly acclaimed with their wins. Romney’s are always “catch up” victories that simply keep him in the game. McCain is at the point where “1 more win seals the deal.” If the roles were switched I simply cannot believe that the media would give as much attention to New Hampshire and South Carolina wins by Romney when compared to McCain victories in Wyoming, Michigan and Nevada plus 2 second place finishes in Iowa & New Hampshire…all resulting in the most delegates and most votes total.

But again, it seems to all come down to fund-raising on par with a lemonade stand. Financial success in life coupled and indeed dominated by nearly unparalleled fund-raising by a Republican Washington outsider just doesn’t count.

UPDATE: Great video over at all-encompassingly.com of Joe Scarborough explaining his take on things

Chuck Norris touches on a touchy subject.

If my candidate of choice was 72 years old when inaugurated, I wouldn’t care because I believe in him.  However, the reality is that not everyone considers age as indiscriminately as I want to believe I do.  While McCain might be able to govern right now, he is only going to get older, has already had health problems in the past with skin cancer, and won’t be viewed as anything but old by the American electorate leading up to November.

So with 2 states down and a few more to go before February 5th, here is where we are at with the Republicans.  Iowa voted for Huckabee, and New Hampshire for McCain.  While I wouldn’t have much to complain about if Romney had won, it is interesting to note, as Hugh Hewitt does, that republican voters haven’t really decided any of the contests yet.  It is also interesting to note that Romney has the most delegates of all the candidates at this point, in a way proof of Huckabee’s and McCain’s inability to appeal in more than one of the 2 early states.

Iowa was decided by single issue evangelicals and New Hampshire by independents.  When there is a generic republican base of voters, we may see some other things given the liberal views and records of Huckabee and McCain.