Jonathan Bernstein wrote something yesterday that came close to saying what Simfan and others have posted here:
He elaborates on this analysis in another
post today, following news of Romney's withdrawal:
He draws two conclusions from this. First, this is a strong crop of Republican candidates. Second, the size of the Republican field today doesn't guarantee that the race will remain crowded by the end of the year. (I haven't read enough of the 2016 board to know whether these are unsurprising and uncontroversial statements among posters here.)
