Unofficial nominee primaries: Romney vs McCain

[old timey villain]

Anybody have any insight as to how Romney has compared to McCain in the primaries held after the frontrunner's main rival exited the race?

I mean, basically, that with no viable challenger remaining for Romney to deal with, these primaries are seen more as formalities. Once Huckabee dropped out in late February, McCain consistently got between 70 to 80 percent in the remaining primaries. In the primaries this week, Romney hasn't done nearly as well.

I'm not trying to say that Romney won't win the nomination. I mean, a primary win is a win is a win. But as the "unofficial nominee" Romney seems to be doing worse than McCain four years ago. Are there still a lot of defiant GOP voters who aren't quietly accepting his candidacy?

[HagridOfTheDeep]

You're pushing a pretty blatant agenda here. Once Gingrich is out of the race, Romney will be doing just as well. Other than Paul, Huckabee was the only one left. It would make sense that McCain would sweep the remaining states so easily once Huckabee dropped out. Same will be true of Mitt.

Paul's ceiling has seemed to increase this time around though, so maybe Romney will do slightly worse.

[Gustaf]

Yeah, it's not comparable. Romney post-Santorum is more like McCain post-Romney, I'd say. That's also not entirely fair though because Huckabee was much stronger in 2008 than Gingrich is now. Once it's only Paul left it should be more comparable (but again not entirely, since Paul is stronger now).