A couple months ago the concept of a brokered convention was laughable. Only rank amateurs thought the 2012 Republican presidential race would come down to a food fight in Florida.

Things sure have changed after South Carolina.

When I was down there reporting on the primary, I noticed the complete absence of any evidence Mitt Romney was even running. I never met a single Romney supporter in five days knocking around the state. I didn't see a Romney lawn sign till late on Election Day, even though I drove hundreds of miles around the state.

And then Mitt got trounced by Newt. Subsequent trouncings by Rick Santorum led us to the point where even the pros are talking about a brokered convention.

Over at Politickernj.com, Alan Steinberg assesses the prospects:

Steinberg goes on to write:

As I noted in

, Ron Paul anticipated the favorite-son strategy and is running as a sort of favorite son of the young and liberty-oriented voters.

Assuming that scenario plays out, the vote could be split eight or nine ways. All sorts of coalitions could emerge. And in that event, Ron Paul could have one of the largest voting blocs.

By the way, this is why it is so stupid of those blow-dried talking heads to keep asking Paul if he will run as a third-party candidate.

In other words, he's amassing all these delegates purely for the sake of throwing them away.

Now that's amateurish.

As for the professional view, all I can say is: It sure is fun to imagine the possibilities if Romney continues his slide.