Agreed. Let’s not write off $hit Romney quite yet. McCain was dead and buried at this time in 2007 and that old buzzard managed to get back into it somehow.
MCCain, because of his military background, could win south of the Mason Dixon line. Romney cannot. If he cannot win in the Midwest he is DOA.
Somehow is the structure that the republican party has established for primaries. Least conservative states go early, and states in which democrats can vote in a republican primary. Not much has changed.