Plus, Romney's father was a big gun in Michigan, and even though McCain is now getting his ass kicked there, he might hope for Romney to bust up Obama's lead.

The downside to Romney is in the South, where there are, needless to say, not a whole helluva lot of Mormons, and where Mormons tend to be seen as a bizarre cult.  It might further depress conservative turnout, which McCain can't afford, given that Obama is registering new voters in such enormous numbers there, and given that we're probably going to see an explosion in turnout among blacks and young people, of whom there are many in the South.

McCain's lead in South Carolina -- the third-least-likely Obama pickup in the Deep South (behind Alabama and Louisiana) -- is down to single digits (6 in the latest Ras poll, and Ras has tended to underestimate Obama's final outcomes in the region).  If that's the story in SC, think of what the story might be turning into in Virginia, NC, Georgia, Mississippi, etc.

So he might be playing with fire going with Romney, but he might have no choice if it looks like O is going to clean his clock out in the West.  My sense is that, if he chooses Romney, he'll have decided, "Okay, I'm going to gamble and assume that I carry all those southern states."  Kind of like Florida, which McCain can't afford to defend because of the expense of playing in the Florida market (and, if he can't assume a win in Florida, the election's probably over anyway).

Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin