contributed by Holly Bailey

With Mitt Romney out of the race, the focus now turns to John McCain, who is set to give a much anticipated speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference here in Washington at 3 PM. A senior McCain aide tells Newsweek that McCain’s remarks will not deviate much from his planned speech on how he and conservatives agree more than they disagree. The aide says McCain will likely “ad lib” a few lines about Romney, but won’t dramatically retool his remarks in relation to the events today.

Privately, McCain and his aides weren’t surprised that Romney exited the race this afternoon. Charlie Black, a senior McCain strategist, told reporters yesterday that it was “mathematically impossible” for the Massachusetts governor to come back and win the nomination. So far, there have been no discussions between the two campaigns, which barely disguised their contempt for one another, about when or if Romney will formally endorse McCain. But the big story here may be what talks, if any, are going on between McCain aides and those to Mike Huckabee, who has been something of a friendly ally to the Arizona senator throughout the race. Huckabee has refused to attack McCain and played spoiler to Romney by peeling away votes among social conservatives in many of the key primary states so far. Asked if there has been any communication between the Huckabee and McCain campaigns, both sides declined to comment.