Romney’s shellacking as of 11 p.m. EST is so great he is not leading in a single county in any state. That’s right — no county anywhere is giving him even a plurality of the vote. That’s a political equivalent of having a perfect game thrown against you.
What does this mean? It means the GOP base really does not want Romney, at least yet. Caucuses are traditionally dominated by a party’s base. Four years ago, when Romney was the favorite of non-southern, very conservative voters, he swept to victory in caucus states outside Iowa. Today, when he is the favorite of moderates, it appears his enormous edge in organization is not paying off.
We’ll see if urban Colorado turns it around for him. According to city-data.com, the four big counties in the GOP caucus in 2008 — Douglas, Arapahoe, Jefferson, and El Paso — run between 2 and 4 percent Mormon. In contrast, Mormons are nearly nonexistent in the major counties in Minnesota. Perhaps that will be enough to help Romney eke out a Colorado win.