And then were nine Republican candidates, one of whom is Jim Gilmore, Jim Gilmore reminds us.

The unwieldy Republican presidential field became a little less unwieldy today, with the departure of Rick Santorum and Rand Paul. Mike Huckabee dropped out yesterday. That’s good news for the remaining candidates, which, technically speaking, include Gilmore, who won all of 12 votes in the Iowa caucuses. He took to Twitter to crow about it.

The Gilmore campaign at this point raises questions that are more metaphysical than political. What is a presidential candidate, anyway? Can you be a candidate the way Don Quixote is a knight, just by believing you are? If a candidate is still standing, but no one notices, does he exist anywhere but as an echo on Twitter? Can a bunch of pixels run for president? We can thank Jim Gilmore for putting these important questions to the test.