Did Mitt dodge a bullet, or was he told about the gun?

I have seen this written elsewhere, and the more I think about it, the more it makes a sort of sense. The Democrats will win the presidency, of that I am sure, are the republicans banking on this? Is this a Bob Dole situation where they are throwing what they believe to be an undesirable a bone, not letting said undesirable know that an even bigger dog is going to chew up both said bone and undesirable (of course biding their time for future battles)? I believe that this IS the case, Mitt was made aware of the dynamics and bowed out to fight agian in 2012, they have picked thier champion.

How Mitt became the standard bearer of the right I will never know, but it does seem he is on the inside track on this one.

It seems to me that on these larger issues it becomes more and more difficult to hide your hand, watch the news and pay heed to the propoganda, it's telling.

Update: Another argument that I think bolsters my original point, the fix is in.

So here is why they are sabotaging McCain- they want him to lose, or at the very least are hedging their bets. They want and need to paint him as not conservative, not pure enough to really represent the wildly successful (in their minds) conservatism that makes up the Bush dead-enders. That way, when they are blown out of the water in 2008, they don’t have to do any reflection, they don’t have to assess, re-prioritize, or re-think their policies. They can simply pin it all on McCain, claim he lost because he didn’t offer the voters a “real” conservative alternative, and get back to championing the end of the “death tax” and other important issues without skipping a beat.

In other words, McCain is the fall guy, and they are just distancing themselves from him.