Closer than it seemed

There are many missteps Romney made that cost him the nomination. I pretty much agree with the 10 mentioned here.

That said, Romney came far closer to winning than most people think:

After Iowa, New Hampshire, and Wyoming, Mitt was winning the race. This went almost completely unrecognized; the media grossly underplayed Romney's lead. In my opinion, their favoring of McCain could have been what gave McCain the lead. (People voted for who the media said was the leader, even when McCain wasn't the leader. As a result, McCain became the leader.)

After those three states, Romney won Michigan, Nevada, and Maine, and McCain won Florida and South Carolina. (Florida, being the most important of course was a close race...36% to 31.1%.

Romney was robbed by the following factors...

1. The media bias

2. Many of the other GOP candidates, who dislike Romney and teamed up against him...he is not a Washington insider like them

3. The Huckabee/McCain/Ron Paul scandal in West Virginia that Romney really won. Being that it was the first Super Tuesday state result, Romney's win here could have really helped him have a stronger showing for rest of Super Tuesday.

Even after all that abuse though, Romney still did tremendously on Super Tuesday.

McCain: 43.1% (3,611,459)
Romney: 35.4% (2,961,834)

If the GOP counted delegates like the Democrats (instead of winner-takes-all) the race would be VERY different right now. Romney is a smart guy though, he suspended his campaign for the good of his party. Be looking for him to rise again either as VP running mate this year or president 2012.