The national GOP did a good thing.
In 2012, Paul stole Colorado, Minnesota, Louisiana and Iowa from Santorum. Had those states quickly awarded delegates to him, Santorum would have finished the early states right on Romney’s heals. He would have very likely been seen as the not-Romney candidate in Super Tuesday. Had he won Super Tuesday, he quite possibly would have been the candidate.
As it was, Santorum and Gingrich split Super Tuesday’s not-Romney popular vote very evenly, with Paul also getting a sizeable chunk. With that split , Romney swept Super Tuesday with a fairly small plurality and then rolled through April with huge super-majorities.
“with that split , Romney swept Super Tuesday with a fairly small plurality and then rolled through April with huge super-majorities.”
And we see how well that worked out! Romney was so succesful that he garnered 5 million less R votes than McCain....
Agreed that this rule from the national GOP seems good, but the problem here is Colorado trying to avoid the rule by eliminating a vote for the presidential nominee entirely. They are sacrificing the ability for their rank-and-file to vote for the purpose of allowing the potential hijacking of their delegates to take place.