After Mitt Romney's big victory in Illinois last night, the question is simply: Is the GOP race for president now really, really over?

Of course, delegate-wise it isn't and can't be with the way that delegates are apportioned in many of the races still yet to come. The Wall Street Journal reports that even though Romney has amassed almost exactly half of all delegates up for grabs so far, if he were to continue on at his current pace, the earliest he could seal the nomination wouldn't be until the very last primary scheduled on the calendar, June 2 in Utah.

But the only man conceivably who could beat him, Rick Santorum, is looking at a tough month ahead. You've got Louisiana this Saturday, where Santo is expected to win. You have Wisconsin on April 3 that could be a close contest. But you've also got many more states that favor Romney moving forward, including Maryland, D.C., Delaware , NY and Rhode Island before you get to Santorum's home state of Pennsylvania on April 24.

Let's put it this way: the Santorum folks are playing up his odds for late May — when Arkansas, Kentucky and Texas vote. That's nearly two months away, when most of the nation, if not the GOP establishment, seems ready to anoint Mittens right now, so they can move on to bigger and better things, such as trashing Barack Obama every day, not each other.

By the way, did you see Romney's victory speech last night in Illinois?