How would each of the other Republican contenders be doing right now?

[Phony Moderate]

If they had been nominated of course.

Rick Santorum - Would be trailing of course, although probably by 8-10 points (so not as much as many would think). Only a major Obama scandal or a global economic crash would put him into contention.

Newt Gingrich - Trailing by 12-14 points. Too arrogant. Too unlikable. Too many skeletons in his closet. Most of his supporters on here would be saying "just wait until the debates!".

Ron Paul - I'm really not sure about this one. Could be slightly leading, could trailing by a huge margin. One thing is for certain though - this forum would have far more activity right now and Dave would have to appoint several extra moderators.

Rick Perry - Would be trailing by a similar margin to Gingrich. But this time it would be the Obama supporters on here saying "just wait until the debates!".

Jon Huntsman - Would be leading by 2-4 points. Still very much a competitive race, much to the surprise of the moderate heroes on here.

Michele Bachmann - Trailing by a huge margin, etc.

[pepper11]

Jon Huntsman - Would be leading by 2-4 points. Still very much a competitive race, much to the surprise of the moderate heroes on here.

Have you seen him debate or give a stump speech? He makes Romney looks like the most animated and personable guy in town.  He may be within striking distance because of his moderate views but there is no way he would be up on Obama.

[Lincoln Republican]

Herman Cain -

Trailing Obama by 15-20 points.  

The Democrats would have defined him long ago by his past behavior, and would have had women who had been sexually harassed by Cain make ads.

They would have joked that Cain's job strategy would be

"You want a job don't you?"

They would have shown how ineffectual and harmful his 9 9 9 policy would be for America.

I am absolutely certain the Democrats would have dug up some other very incriminating and harmful management behavior by Cain when he was a CEO.

In other words, Cain would have been the walking dead in the campaign by August.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

The Great People's Candidate Rick Perry would be ahead by at least 40%.

[Lief 🗽]

Winfield, your racism is showing. Please tone it down.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

The Great People's Candidate Rick Perry would be ahead by at least 40%.

Rick Perry really knows how to pick which major party candidate to support for President. He picked winners in 1976 and 2004. Great track record there.

[morgieb]

All of them would be doing much worse except for Huntsman.

EDIT: Although I suspect Pawlenty wouldn't be doing too bad...at least he'd be within a couple of points.

[Cobbler]

Pawlenty and Huntsman would be competitive, and I could see Paul and Johnson being competitive as well. (Though Paul is kind of a wildcard).

Santorum, Gingrich, Bachmann, and Perry would be behind.

Cain would be winning by 50%, obviously.

[Lincoln Republican]

Winfield, your racism is showing. Please tone it down.

Look, Mr. Name Accusation, I don't care if Cain is white, black, brown, Asian, or a little green man from Mars.  The fact of the matter is, he is a sexual harasser, and his behavior is inexcusable.  I would say the same thing about him no matter his racial origins.

And to accuse me of racism is compelte and utter ignorance on your part.  You obviously know absolutely nothing about me.

So before you start throwing around baseless accusations, you had best check the facts first before you make a fool of yourself.   

[Negusa Nagast 🚀]

Paul is a wildcard but I imagine that more likely than not he'd be trailing badly. In his speeches (at least on primary night), he often came across as a rambling ideologue, not really giving a coherent statement to forge forward. Obama would likely paint him (especially due to his economic stances) as dangerous and trounce him.

[NVGonzalez]

The Great People's Candidate Rick Perry would be ahead by at least 40%.

Parry*

[Warren 4 Secretary of Everything]

Santorum

Gingrich

Paul

Perry

Huntsman

Bachmann

Cain

Pawlenty

As much as I love him, Paul will strike people as Barry Goldwater MRK Deux. Cain vs Obama forces white people in the south and great plains to choose between 2 black guys and they just decide to stay home, which puts the states in a dead heat.

[Averroës Nix]

To ask how anyone other than Perry or Pawlenty would be doing is a nonsense question.

Anyway, with the possible exceptions of Pawlenty and a Rick Perry from some parallel universe in which he doesn't have back problems, I doubt that any of these candidates could improve on Romney's current performance. (If we extend our sphere of what-ifs to candidates who never declared, e.g. Daniels, Thune, J. Bush, the alternate scenarios become more interesting.)