Unless he wins California, it looks like after tonight Romney has very little reason to stay in the race. He’s finishing third in many states and getting beat on everywhere but his home states of Massachusetts and Utah. It will be a huge surprise if he wins California, and you’ve got to figure that all the coverage of his losses so far will affect voters at least somewhat in the last 3 hours of voting over there.
Logically, the thing to do now would be get out with dignity, preserving his chances for a possible 2012 run or even to challenge John Kerry in the senate race, an interesting idea that I heard a few days ago. He just declared, however, that he was in it until the convention in a fiery (for him) speech. If he stays true to that, he could go out in a humiliating fashion while being ganged up on by Huckabee and McCain, destroying any goodwill he has with the party. The far better choice would be to salvage himself now and look to the future.
