Republican primaries so far.

My impressions so far:

• This is still anyone's battle.  The delegates are somewhat evenly spread so far.  Romney has dissappointed with second place finished, but he placed to different candidates and has the money and organization to hold out for super Tuesday in February.  He needs to win a few by then or there is major trouble.
  
• Guiliani's decision to use Florida as his firewall and not contest in the early states seems strange right now.  With the momentum that Huckabee and McCain have now, Rudi has his work cut out.   He needs to get a good number of wins on super Tuesday or else he is in trouble.
• I'm really disgusted with the MSM laying the kid glove treatment to Huckabee and McCain.   Closer examination of their records would show that they have done many things that conservatives find objectionable.   It seems that they want to have the most liberal Republicans win so that the conservatives stay home in November and give the Democrats a win.   We have not hear anything in the MSM about Huckabee's record on tax hikes, tuition breaks for illegals, and pardons of violent offenders.  Neither have we on McCain's record on amnesty, the Gang of 14, opposition to tax increases, embrace of environmental radicalism, and McCain-Fingold.  
• We'll know more on Super Tuesday, but I'm rooting for a Romney win in Michigan and let the chips fall where they may.  I don't think McCain and Huckabee will do well in many of these states because they are closed primaries (no Independents allowed to vote) and this is where we'll see grassroot Republicans show their disdain for these CINO's (Conservative In Name Only).

In a perfect world, Fred Thompson has impressed me the most with his thoughtful policies and gravitas.   Alas, his poor campaign managment skills will probably ruin any chance at the nomination.   So, unless Fred proves me wrong in February, it looks like the most viable choices in my view are Romney and then Guiliani.  Huckabee and McCain are unacceptable as their records show a consistent streak wholly inconsistent with conservative prinicples.  Romney and Guiliani's records are not perfect, but in light of the political landscape of their respective prior positions - their accomplishments look very good.  Both men have said the right things about the principles they would govern under, and have explained their executive records adequately.  

So here's hoping that the MSM cheerleading squad gets proven wrong again.