VP Buzz: Romney's GOP Votes

In my opinion, Romney makes the best choice for McCain VP for the simple reason that Romney would make the best President. 

But that's just my opinion.  Since we're talking about the GOP's nominee, perhaps it would be useful to look at how Romney did in the GOP primary.

There are six states Real Clear Politics says are "battleground states".  These are Colorado, Virginia, Missouri, Michigan, Ohio and Florida.  Over 4.5 million GOP votes were cast in those states.  Four states voted prior to Romney's gracious exit on February 7th.

The two after the CPAC speech, Ohio and Virginia, probably would have split between Romney and McCain had Romney stayed in.  Nevertheless, lets just look at the actual vote totals.

So, how did Romney do?  Here's the final Washington Post numbers:

Colorado - Feb 5 (competitive):

Mitt Romney	33,288	59%
John McCain	10,621	19%
Mike Huckabee	7,266	13%
Ron Paul	4,670	8%

Virginia Feb 12 (non-competitive):

John McCain	244,135	50%
Mike Huckabee	198,247	41%
Ron Paul	22,066	5%
Mitt Romney	17,532	4%

Missouri Feb 5 (competitive):

John McCain	194,304	33%
Mike Huckabee	185,627	32%
Mitt Romney	172,564	29%
Ron Paul	26,445	4%

Michigan - Feb 5 (competitive):

Mitt Romney	337,847	39%
John McCain	257,521	30%
Mike Huckabee	139,699	16%
Ron Paul	54,434	6%

Ohio - Feb 12 (non-competitive):

John McCain	636,256	60%
Mike Huckabee	325,581	31%
Ron Paul	49,027	5%
Mitt Romney	34,978	3%

Florida - Jan 29 (competitive):

John McCain	693,508	36%
Mitt Romney	598,188	31%
Rudy Giuliani	281,781	15%
Mike Huckabee	259,735	13%

Total for CO, VA, MO, MI, OH & FL:

John McCain	2,036,345	45%
Mitt Romney	1,193,397	26%
Rudy Giuliani	1,116,155	24%
Mike Huckabee	156,642	3%

So, even though he was not running in two of the races, Romney still ended up with almost 1.2 million votes for those six states, second only to McCain.  Romney won two of the contests, CO & MI, and narrowly lost FL, three states considered critical to McCain's general election strategy.

As I've mentioned in another article, VP Buzz:  McCain needs Romney, McCain lost big time to Romney in 5 of 10 states with less than 5% margin of victory for Bush in ‘04: IA, NV, MI, MN & CO.  Net, net - Romney on the ticket may add 47 to 61 electors.  Bush beat Kerry by only 34 electors.

Of course, none of the other potential suitors, Jindal, Pawlenty, Palin, Crist or Cantor, felt strong enough, as candidates, to run in the 2008 primary.  They are each doing great things for the GOP and the country in their current roles.  However, we have no idea what they bring to the table, except their own states. 

I still say, Romney 4 VP = Win 4 McCain.