Among the first ripples of Mike Huckabee's decision to sit out the 2012 presidential election was columnist George F. Will's confident pronouncement on ABC's This Week that it's now basically a three way race – with former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty one of the three left standing.

"People are complaining this is not off to a brisk start," Will told host Christiane Amanpour on Sunday. "I think that's wrong. I think we know with reasonable certainty that standing up there on the West front of the Capitol on Jan. 20, 2013 will be one of three people: Obama, Pawlenty and [Indiana Gov. Mitch] Daniels. I think that's it." A lot of Washington punditry also is calling Huckabee's exit a big win for Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann, who appeals to the same social conservatives as the former Arkansas governor. Much of the same punditry, however, doesn't consider Bachmann electable. Here's Will on the presidential roundtable: