whut: did ron paul just quit?

Over on The Caucus, the NYT's political caucus blog, Ariel Alexovich reports this morning that "just before 11 p.m. Friday night, Representative Ron Paul, a long-shot G.O.P. candidate from Texas, basically conceded that he’s not going to win the party’s nomination."

Here's my disconnect.  For a candidate who built his personal brand and a national campaign on plain-speak, this so-called concession is an artful bit of double-speak.  It's a simple message wrapped in pastry dough then deep-fried in suet.

With Romney gone, the chances of a brokered convention are nearly zero. But that does not affect my determination to fight on, in every caucus and primary remaining, and at the convention for our ideas, with just as many delegates as I can get. But with so many primaries and caucuses now over, we do not now need so big a national campaign staff, and so I am making it leaner and tighter.

Translation:

Since I've got no shot of influencing the convention with Mitt gone and since now I need to worry about getting re-elected to my Congressional seat, its time to say so long and thanks for all the fish and here are some pink slips but I'm still a candidate for POTUS, really.

I think the rest of the article speaks for itself, as do the 54 (and counting) comments. As is true with all webby disquisitions on the topic of Ron Paul, the polemicomments are super entertaining.  Read them and enjoy.

But I'm drawn, as I often am when I'm rushing to finish a post while still trying to simulate a deep understanding of a topic, to the (last) comment of the (first) commentator:

He’s saying he will never END THE FIGHT.

But that's exactly what he's just said.  Or did he?