(...) Since he surged, Huckabee has been getting much tougher coverage, as any reader of this blog has seen. Romney's still getting hit from a lot of different directions - his dad and Martin Luther King, his immigration positions, the usual flip-flop charges, etc. If McCain wins New Hampshire, you'll see him get coverage that's much tougher. His foes will start reciting immigrationdeal-campaignfinancereform-gangof14-votedagainst Bushtaxcuts over and over again. You'll see every picture he's ever taken with Ted Kennedy dominating the airwaves. If Fred Thompson surges, he'll get knocked around, too. And there's still some possibility of the murder-suicide effect; if any candidate goes too negative on another, the mud splashes on both of them.

So it's possible that by the time we get to Florida, most of the other Big Five have won only one or two states and has higher negatives from several tough primary battles. Rudy can swoop in, win delegate-rich Florida, and then try to execute his big state Super Duper Tuesday strategy, and pound home, electability, electability, electability...

It's not a perfect path to the nomination, but right now, no one has one...

Jim Gerarthy, sul blog The Campaign Spot della National Review.