If econocrisis had occurred in primaries, would McCain-Obama still be the race?

[Mr. Morden]

It would have greatly helped Romney if it had happened before Iowa, as it might have allowed him to win both Iowa and NH.....(maybe.....it could have won him NH, but I'm not sure if it actually would have been enough for him to beat Huckabee in Iowa)....But once McCain beat Romney in NH, then any Romney victory was inevitably going to be a hard slog, as Romney was always going to have some problems in the South, and there were places like those WTA states in the Northeast (like NY and NJ) which were inevitably going to go to McCain or Giuliani, provided either of them was viable.

I guess the scenario if the financial crisis hit after NH would be that Romney wins Florida, then goes on to win Super Tuesday with all the states he won IRL, plus CA, GA, MO, and maybe one or two others.  Even so, it probably wouldn't be as big a victory as McCain had IRL, and the race would have kept going.