I think people underestimate the factors that lead a large % of Mormons in Utah and Nevada to vote for Romney. First off you have to realize that the majority of LDS voters are R and that they are very conservative. So from that stand point here are some reasons why Romney looked so attractive regardless of his religion.
1) Here is a list of the candidates and their problems wooing the Mormon vote:
Huckabee - Not an attractive candidate for conservative Mormons because of his thinly cloaked bashing of Mormons that started in Iowa combined with a liberal history when it concerns social entitlement programs and criminal rights. In addition, Huckabee carries baggage from all of the ethical issues when he was Governor of the state more closely associated with Clinton. Plus, Huckabee's "Southern Charm" of Aint's back woods band and Campaign Spokesman Chuck Norris that helped carry him in the south did not buy many votes North of the Mason Dixie line or West of the Mississippi. And did anyone in Utah or Nevada hear his comment's concerning the confederate flag while trying to win votes in South Carolina?
McCain - the guy is hot headed and know for outbursts of foul language, his voting record is moderate at best liberal at worst for a R, and all of the bills that had his name on it were not popular with conservative voters.
Paul - And just so the Ron Paul supporters don't get angry, Paul - while he has some good ideas many are unrealistic including his foreign policy and he did not get nearly the publicity of the other candidates.
2) What candidates spent time and money in Utah and Nevada to help inform the Mormon voters of their candidacy? Romney and Paul. Which ones got votes? Romney followed way back by Paul who is a marginal candidate in any state.
3) Romney is well known in Utah and is generally respected because of his work with the Olympics. How many people in the Mountain West region had ever heard of Huckabee or Paul before the election started? Good old conservative Mormons in the Mountain West had probably only heard of McCain in connection with his liberal bills while in the Senate, McCain-Finegold, McCain-Kennedy etc.
I dislike it how many people here and in the national media discount all of the factors I mentioned above and say that people only voted for Romney because of the shared religion. While it is sad that there are probably some Mormons that voted for Romney because of their shared faith, there really were not many alternatives for a non-Bigoted, informed, conservative Mormon voting R.
On a side note, I like Romney, not everything, but thought he was the best Candidate put forward. His dropping out shows how astute he really is and I think we will see him in 4 or 8 years. Even if he had come out of the R primary we would still have a D as our next president. If you doubt, look up on CNN.com the actual number of people who voted for Hillary on Super Tuesday. They only show it by state but I added them all up by candidate and Hillary got almost 4 Million votes from CA, NY and NJ alone which is what the R front runner McCain received from ALL of the 20 states that voted that day. After 8 years of W. Bush America will vote for a D Candidate.
