His finishes in the Republican heartlands of rural Missouri and Colorado were almost as bad.
Even more unsettling for the Republicans has to be the fact that, despite intensive campaigning in the three states, turnout collapsed.
In Missouri, a classic bellweather state, there was a stunning drop in primary participation. In 2008, GOP primary turnout was 589,289. In 2012 ,GOP primary turnout was 251,496. That's way less than half the turnout just four years ago.
In Minnesota, caucus turnout four years ago was 62,828. This year, it will be under 50,000. That's an almost 20 percent dropoff.
In Colorado, 70,229 Republicans caucused in 2008. This year, turnout was 64,000. That's close to a 10 percent dropoff.
Of course, there were some differences between the 2008 contests and the 2012 contests in these states. The Romney people want you to know that this year's races were "non-binding beauty contests." But isn't your likely nominee supposed to be attractive enough politically to win beauty contests? And isn't this supposed to be the year when conservatives are all excited to pick a nominee and go after the dreaded Barack Obama?
Something isn't adding up here for Mitt Romney.
But that other candidate, Anybody But Romney, is going from strength to strength.
So, too, it would seem, is the prospective Democratic nominee, if Barack Obama is lucky enough to get Mitt Romney as an opponent.
In Missouri's Republican primary on Tuesday, where all the attention and campaigning was focused, Romney secured 63,826 votes.
Running essentially unopposed in the extraordinarily low-profile Missouri Democratic primary, Obama won 64,405.
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