Romney benefits from being hated
One of the defining features of the race on the Republican side has been just how much the other campaigns dislike Mitt Romney. After the ABC New Hampshire debate where they had all taken it in turns to lay into him, their surrogates in the spin room didn’t event try and disguise the fact that this animus was as much personal as it was political. It also helps explains why Mike Huckabee is always taking shots at Romney not McCain and why the other candidates have not gone nuclear on each other. But this week, the contempt in which he is held by his fellow candidates might actually have helped Romney.
If McCain had spent Sunday and Monday stumping in California with Governor Schwarzenegger he would probably have locked down the state. Instead, he spent a large chunk of these two days in Massachusetts trying to humiliate Romney in his home state--the McCain camp would have just loved to have beaten Romney in the state which he governed. Meanwhile, the race in California is now too close to call and Romney might well pull off a win there that he can use to justify staying in the race and ramping up the negative attacks on McCain.