I prefer to term it a Clintonian plurality win - similar to 1992 when Perot gained approx 20% of the non-leftist vote.
I'm assuming Dems in open primary states will go heavy for Romney as a 2012 version of Operation Chaos, although a lot of FReepers have told me this won't happen.
Exactly. The odds of Deval Patrick getting a second term were slim to none, given the basket case economy of MA and his abysmally low poll numbers going into the election. But this Axelrod prodigy pulled it off because the anti-Patrick vote split between the Republican and the Independent. That is guaranteed the strategy they’ll try to pull on us in 2012. Maybe the current RNC head will do better than Steele at averting crisis. We shall see.