There come downtimes during this convention when there's nothing of consequence to cover and you find yourself sitting at a bus stop, clawing your eyes out in slow-motion boredom as Fox News' 20x30 big screen drones on in the background about sleeper cells and property damage and surges working.

But then you see Willard Mitt Romney, in all his robotic gusto, strolling along an empty St. Paul street, and you figure, meh, why not follow the weird Mormon around for awhile, maybe see what brand of gum he fancies? At the very least, it will burn a few calories.

“Money talks,” goes the cliché, and let’s be clear: Willard Mitt Romney has a lot of money. So much, in fact, that the oil-slicked Mormon boasted a greater net worth than all other presidential candidates combined during his doomed lunge toward the White House.

But there’s one thing that speaks louder than cash: Guns. And Romney has no shortage of those either, in a manner of speaking. Two words: Blackwater USA Worldwide.

Watching McCain re-brand himself through surrogates is fascinating -- especially when they're incompetent surrogates like Mitt Romney.

Behold a pale horse: Mitt Romney might be coming back.

Mitt Romney has dropped out of the presidential race. Which is not all that surprising, given his anemic showing on Tuesday. But check out this parting (and hyperbolic) shot he delivered to the Dems during this morning's announcement:

"If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win," he said. "And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."

Even more noteworthy: he reportedly said this with a straight face.

Romney takes down the Minnesota caucuses. Now I'm regretting not sending a photographer to the (alcohol-free) Romney party.

McCain and Huckabee ran basically neck-and-neck for second, with Ron Paul an embarrassing fourth. Embarrassing because it's shameful that he got so many votes here.

The Corner has been getting up what seems to be reasonably accurate exit polls in previous races, and if that form holds true, perhaps these numbers might make Super Tuesday more interesting than I previously thought.

To be sure, McCain is still the frontrunner, and he's still winning important states. But he's not winning convincingly (if this data is accurate) in any of them save the NYC metro states, and with Romney apparently leading in places like Missouri and Huckabee performing well in the south, perhaps this one isn't ready to get put to bed just yet.

Politics fans hoping for a brokered convention are rooting for Romney to take the Florida primary. This would prevent the national media for tagging John McCain with the "front-runner" label, and keep the race wide open.

Plus, there's the fact that, should Romney end up the nominee, the McCain people have already prepared the perfect attack ad for Democrats to use. The video is after the jump.

By now, most of us have watched the heated exchange between Mitt Romney and that seated, laptop-wielding fellow named Glen Johnson, whose job it is to follow the good candidate around and write about it for the AP.

Most pundits have either criticized Johnson for injecting his opinion/attacking the candidate at an inappropriate moment or, conversely, commended him for holding Romney's feet to the fire. I don't buy either analysis. Check out the nut of the exchange:

Romney: I don't have lobbyists running my campaign. I don't have lobbyists that are tied to my-
Johnson: That is not true Governor, that is not true.

Mitt Romney doesn't have a lobbyist running his campaign. His campaign manager, Beth Myers, may be many things, but she isn't a lobbyist.
But Romney obviously has at least one prominent lobbyist, Ron Kaufman, in the capacity of an "unpaid adviser," giving him lots of advice.

Johnson, by interrupting Romney a moment too early, didn't give the good candidate time to finish telling his lie.

CNN is calling Michigan for Mitt Romney, setting up a three-way race with John McCain and Mike Huckabee:

With 10 percent of precincts reporting, Romney had 37 percent of the vote compared to Arizona Sen. John McCain's 31 percent. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee had 16 percent of the vote, followed by Texas Rep. Ron Paul with 7 percent. Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson had 4 percent, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani trailed with 3 percent.

Both Thompson and Giuliani badly trailing Ron Paul? Ouch.