McCain 3½ million votes
Romney 2.8 million votes
The Reps' rules are the only reason this is almost over.
Oh, come on. That's ridiculous.
I think the above says all. This wasn't quite the perfect draw of the Dem race, but it would still be close enough to a draw to make a brokered convention likely under Dem rules (ignoring superdelegates for a moment). If they were using full IRV to boot, Romney might have topped the poll (but probably wouldn't have - he'd certainly have considerably closed the gap though).
John McCain is not exactly the Republican Unity Candidate, you know.
And I'm not sure I see the problem in the first place. In the vast majority of primary races in the US it's winner take all.
This isn't winner take all. Under winner take all, all states would have voted at the same time using the same rules and Giuliani, Thompson etc would still be in the race, with only the national total mattering.
What the Republican Party is using is a further debased version of the abomination that is the Electoral College. Not that the Dem rules are particularly democratic or reasonable either, of course, but they at least do a much better job of reflecting the party's makeup and internal dynamics.
The Reps' rules are the only reason this is almost over.
Which is brings up the point, is the looming disaster ahead for my party the same sort of embarrassment that led the Democrats to reform their system?
You think Reps are going to stay home rather than vote for McCain? I don't really see it. If Romney had won that kind of "clear" victory, I'd agree with you.
McCain will do at least as well as Dole did (he's getting nominated by the same "his turn"+"safe and sane" mechanism as Dole was, actually) and may very well win. Romney could not have won in 2008 no matter what.