IN fairness, McCain skipped the Iowa caucuses to concentrate on Michigan, South Carolina and Florida. At the time, there was no sense that third place represented a failure. The most that can be said was Huckabee went from Cain-like dark horse, to one of the major contenders.
I didn’t mean to suggest anything different, sorry if that isn’t clear. My point was that people seem to think everything is set in stone already. The fact is, there are a lot of strategic moves being made, and we won’t know until everything shakes out. I merely posted that info to show how the field looked at that point in comparison to now (which is a lot earlier on the calendar).
Romney has a lot invested in the big states, and even if he loses early on he could still be all set. But that doesn’t mean he is the nominee as some would have us believe.