2008 is a very different scenario. The night before the CA primary, where my choice was between mitt and McCain, Romney landed at a local airport and spoke, so I went to see him, decided I could live with this vote over McCain, and voted for him. So, yes, I voted for mitt. But those were different choices and I did wish to somehow cast a vote in the primary.
I voted for Huckabee. He was the only guy in the race besides McCain at that point. It was my last ditch attempt to stop McCain. It didn’t matter. McCain clinched that night, and the rest is history.
Santorum endorsed Romney to stop McCain. There’s nothing wrong with that. I remember people here supporteed Romney in 2008 as well. No, he wasn’t the primary candidate with the vote here seemingly split between Hunter and Thompson, but people did support him. The opposition that year was to Guiliani. McCain sort of came out of nowhere, but people were opposed to him too. He was certainly not the candidate of choice on FR. People preferred Romney to McCain.