this was likely one reason Hillary did so well in NH,
Again does that impact the Republican Primary, the topic of this thread? I just don’t see people crossing over that much to vote republican, but then maybe they do.
Yes. I'm surprised you don't see how. Whoever won NH had a slingshot going into South Carolina. and when the same person came out of SC a winner, the die was cast in Florida and from there it was just running the numbers, McCain had it in the bag... we are a country of sheep. The sheep like to be able to say they were on the winning team -- in this case voted for the winner.... the media played McCain as the best and strongest candidate coming out of his NH win and all you had to do was look at the polls immediately following his win there vs before to see the media and the sheeple effect.
If NH had been a GOP-only primary I strongly doubt the winner would have been John McCain and, as a result, I doubt he would have won the nomination.