Giving in - finally - to the inevitable, GOP gadfly Rep. Ron Paul has ended his campaign to win the Republican nomination for president.

Washington Times:

Rep. Ron Paul's campaign conceded Tuesday that Mr. Paul probably cannot win enough delegates to be the Republican presidential nominee, though it said it still will try to play a major role at August's convention in shaping the GOP's rules and platform going forward.

A day after the Texas congressman told supporters he is scaling down his campaign and won't actively compete for votes in the 11 states still to hold primaries, his campaign said Mr. Paul still will try to maximize the number of actual supporters he has going to the convention - even though in many cases they may not be able to vote for him to be the nominee over front-runner Mitt Romney.

"Several hundred will be bound to Dr. Paul, and several hundred more, although bound to Governor Romney or other candidates, will be Ron Paul supporters," said Jesse Benton, Mr. Paul's chief strategist, in a memo describing the state of the race.

"Unfortunately, barring something very unforeseen, our delegate total will not be strong enough to win the nomination. Governor Romney is now within 200 delegates of securing the party's nod. However, our delegates can still make a major impact at the national convention and beyond," Mr. Benton said.

Knowing that writing anything even remotely critical of Paul will bring unbalanced criticism from his legion of Paulbots, I will refrain from listing some of the dangerous, wacky, and paranoid things the congressman has advocated or said over the last year.

I'll simply let commenters have their way and hope that Paul's retirement is a long and pleasant one.