Rand Paul had decided two months ago that he wasn’t going to be the Republican nominee, and since then he was looking for an opportunity to get out. Today, two days after a fifth-place finish with four percent in Iowa, Paul called it quits.

Paul had telegraphed his acceptance of defeat as early as December. He came out of Thanksgiving and into Iowa with an approach that wasn’t geared towards winning the caucuses or the New Hampshire primary. He was shedding “Liberty Voters” to Ted Cruz, but he wasn’t fighting Cruz to keep them. He instead was mostly attacking Rubio’s hawkishness on foreign policy and national security.