Eyebuystox,
I hope you are right but, the partnering statements are nothing new and what makes you think he'll look like a fool if there isn't a partner by then? I think any reasonable investor knows that inking partnership deals is not an overnight cut and dried process (at least according to all the input provided on this board by people who claim to have been participants in such processes).
Although I didn't say it in my post (mainly because I lost track of my thought processes as the post got too long), I do believe that one of the reasons they may also have delayed the meeting, other than allowing time for the 1st line data, was to allow time to seal the deal with a partner. This would allow them to go to the meeting with the partner just as they said they wanted to all along.
Its a good point and I wish I had remembered to put it in the post.