on my way out of the polling place this morning, i glanced at the republican primary ballot that was on display on a table. mccain, ron paul and huckabee were the three presidential choices on the republican side. i guess mitt had himself removed.
i have no doubt that mccain will win the PA in a landslide, that's how it always works when the contest is effectively over. the people who do bother to turn out all want to vote for a winner.
i'm not really sure why it works that way. i mean, if your vote doesn't matter, why not vote your conscience? in 2004 i was surprised that howard dean didn't start getting more votes after he dropped out. once kerry clinched the thing, there was no reason to worry about "electability" et cetera. so you might as well vote for who you really want.
so i would think that whenever a primary race is decided before all the states have voted, there would be a surge in support for the loser candidates in subsequent races. but it never works out that way. even with the secret ballot, people seem to prefer to get on the winner's bandwagon.
