Between them they got 2/3 of the primary vote in New Hampshire and Florida in 2008. Throw in Giuliani and together they got half the primary vote in South Carolina. Pretty good for guys without support from the base.
In return GW Bush turned a blind eye to SEC enforcement of so many egregiously fraudulent banking and finance practices that later in 2008 would bring the nation to its knees.
Beware, though. Bush may have turned a blind eye to some practices out of cronies -- or maybe he couldn't get Congress to do anything about the abuses. A more free-market, small government party might do the same thing out of principle (and of course, Democrats would overlook similar practices for their own reasons).
Between them they got 2/3 of the primary vote in New Hampshire and Florida in 2008. Throw in Giuliani and together they got half the primary vote in South Carolina. Pretty good for guys without support from the base.
However, I don't think either McCain nor Romney topped 35% in any primary until after the nomination was sewed up.
Clearly, thanks to "winner take all" states, both were nominated by a plurality of the primary voting population. Neither could be said to have won a majority of the GOP voters until they were unopposed.