RICHARDSON OUT; ROMNEY PULLS ADS

Big news is coming out of the world of politics today as one of the Democratic candidates has withdrawn from the race and a Republican has pulled his ads in two key states.

The Associated Press is reporting that Democratic Presidential hopeful Bill Richardson is pulling out of the race for his Party's Presidential nomination.

Richardson has struggled to reach double-digit support in the polls, and his showing in the primaries and caucuses so far has been dismal.

We feel that Richardson is making the right decision. We have not attempted to hide our dislike for Richardson, who, with the exception of his views on gun rights, is a big government Socialist like Hillary and Obama.

The other big news comes out of South Carolina as the Mitt Romney campaign announced that it is pulling its ads immediately from both South Carolina and Florida. The significance of this news cannot be over-emphasized.

Romney has managed only one win and two second-place finishes so far. Increasingly it appears that he will not do well in South Carolina, where John McCain, Mike Huckabee, and Fred Thompson are expected to duke it out for the top spots in the primary vote.

In Florida Romney faces a rather large Giuliani voter-base. Mike Huckabee is also expected to do well in the Florida primary.

Thus, the Romney campaign has decided to focus its efforts on Michigan, where the candidate has a good chance of winning. Romney's father, George Romney, was Governor of Michigan in the 60s. The elder Romney even briefly challenged Richard Nixon for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1968.

It is clear, however, that Romney is facing a major problem beneath the surface and beneath all of the headlines. In spite of the megabucks of his own money Romney has spent, he has very little to show for it so far, and the signs indicate it will only get worse.

Giuliani will do well on Super Tuesday. John McCain will do much better than expected. So will Mike Huckabee. And, depending on what happens in South Carolina, Thompson may become a major player on Super Tuesday as well.

In short, Romney is gradually being overshadowed by other candidates.

The fact that he has pulled his ads out of South Carolina and Florida is a clear indication that he has conceded those states as losses.