This is a flawed comparison. You cannot compare a field of three with a field of two. I can’t see where the pool of GOP voters changed that much in 4 years. Add the Rick and Newt enthusiasm i.e.; the Conservatives, and you get 62%. How does that compare to McLames 47% in a two man race? I also note that Milt is flat over ‘08. That there is the real take away from this poll. All that money and running for President for the past 5 years has given Milt nothing to show for it.
Exactly. You took the words out of my mouth. As we see in the forum every day, conservatives are divided between Gingrich and Santorum, and many of them seem to feel obliged to attack the other of these two, to get him out of the race. If you add up the conservative vote, it’s roughly 2/3 in most of the primaries so far.
McCain had only Romney to worry about.
Furthermore, I think conservatives are a lot less willing now than they were then to vote for the “lesser of two evils.” We’ve seen what that means, far too often.