GOP Michigan Primary Update — The Three Stooges

The only people who should be pleased with last night’s GOP primary results in Michigan are Democrats.

He may have gotten the most votes, but Objectively Unfit Mitt Romney didn’t win. Apathy did — and by a very wide margin.

Now I realize that this chart uses a percentage of the entire population (not just 18 and over), and that New Hampshire more than likely has a higher percentage of registered Republicans than Michigan. But those factors don’t change the overall huge point this chart illustrates (the chart used available info I had for 96% of the NH vote from this post last week and estimated what the final totals were, and 100% of MI):

Romney got a much, much lower percentage of Michiganders to vote for him that he got to do so in New Hampshire. Some “victory.” More like “BFD.”

David Jackson of USA Today quoted an independent pollster who noted that Romney’s “victory” was helped by “low turnout and little crossover.” What an understatement.

Why such apathy? How about the lack of a genuine conservative candidate who put forth an effort to win in Michigan?

Who among the Three Stooges — Larry Mitt Romney, Moe McCain, and Curly Huckabee — is going to be able to draw out otherwise apathetic conservatives in South Carolina, or for that matter in the later primaries? The biggest thing Mitt Romney proved last night that is that he couldn’t do it, even in his “home” state. Meanwhile, McCain clearly faltered badly, and Huckabee has laid nothing but goose eggs since Iowa.

For now, the bettors have what they think is the answer to that question. On Saturday, South Carolina’s voters will give us their answer in a primary that, as I understand it, has rules that will prevent large-scale crossovers. I get the sense that they plan to tell us that they are not amused by the slapstick antics and positions of Three Stooges.