Front-runners fading?

Joel Belz of World Magazine "Finding a front-runner" revisits his prediction from May of this year that some of the front runners for the GOP nomination would fade from (and drop out of) the race in due time. He interviewed a disenchanted voter at the Ames Straw Poll who was not inclined to support any of the current "top tier" candidates and wrote about what he found:

But [the dissatisfaction] comes far more from the discovery by the voters that the 'Big Three' (in both parties) just maybe aren't all that big. In my May prediction, I suggested that one or two candidates would say something dumb and then crash and burn. That hasn't happened yet—at least the crashing and burning part. More likely, I said, some front-runners would just wear out. I think you're watching that. And all that is what prompted the young mother to say so fervently:

"Ahhh. I finally found a candidate I can support. Mike Huckabee. It was like he was speaking to my heart. I think I even got teary. I'm not saying Mike Huckabee's the man. I am saying it's becoming altogether likely that an unlikely man with an unlikely name will push the front-runners aside."

I think Belz' marathon analogy (hinted at here but fully discussed in his op/ed) is appropriate. Perhaps, in this election cycle more than any other before, it is possible for a tortoise to beat a hare to the finish line.