Updated

So Donald Trump is out.

Mike Huckabee is out.

John Thune is out.

Is it my imagination or are Republicans beginning to all but say 2012 ain't looking good?

Things can change, of course. But there's no denying this course. With so many big names opting out of the race, you have to wonder what they're saying about the race.

Is Barack Obama that unbeatable?

Hard to say. This much is not -- for now, he's looking good and they are not.

Which is weird, because things can change... fast.

Like back in 1992, when Democrats were the ones not looking good in the face of a Republican president looking very good. Their prospects considered so miniscule that they were even called the "seven dwarfs."

Among them then-former California Governor Jerry Brown, former Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas, Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey, Iowa Senator Tom Harkin and a certain Arkansas governor named Bill Clinton. They were the B-Team.

The A-Team, which at the time included Mario Cuomo, Dick Gephardt and a guy named Al Gore, had all opted out -- supposedly waiting out for the next presidential cycle.

Pity, because the B-Team won. A far cry from what many predicted back then.

Fast forward to right now.

Barack Obama is a little more popular, but hardly off-the-charts popular. Still, he stands to raise an off-the-charts amount of money which, for now, I guess, makes him good money and a good bet. And all these so-called Republican puritans challenging him, the butt of a good many jokes.

Now, it's possible The Donald has it wrong and these "apprentices" win big. For now, he's all but saying they're fired. So why should he fire up?

After all, their odds looking daunting, right? Just ask the former Arkansas governor. Not the guy named Huckabee who isn't running. The guy named Clinton, who did.