Romney making a mega buy in PA.

["'Oeps!' De blunders van Rick Perry Indicted"]

In 2004 neither Kerry, nor Edwards contested Vermont even though Howard Dean had already dropped out.

As Wikipedia (not always right but jibes with my memory) notes, Dean's victory in VT was actually a surprise. Most people thought it would go to Kerry (Edwards didn't bother to file there). There are actually a number of examples of candidates contesting their opponents' home states: Reagan '76 in MI, Reagan '80 in TX (he won it), Clinton '92 in CA (another win), Bush '00 and to a lesser extent Romney '08 in AZ. There was also that Rick Santorum guy who tried to win Romney's birth state some weeks back.

["'Oeps!' De blunders van Rick Perry Indicted"]

In 2004 neither Kerry, nor Edwards contested Vermont even though Howard Dean had already dropped out.

As Wikipedia (not always right but jibes with my memory) notes, Dean's victory in VT was actually a surprise. Most people thought it would go to Kerry (Edwards didn't bother to file there). There are actually a number of examples of candidates contesting their opponents' home states: Reagan '76 in MI, Reagan '80 in TX (he won it), Clinton '92 in CA (another win), Bush '00 and to a lesser extent Romney '08 in AZ. There was also that Rick Santorum guy who tried to win Romney's birth state some weeks back.

With the exception of 1992, the primary was still competitive in all other cases. That's clearly not the case anymore this year.

Oh, and Michigan ain't Romney's home state.

1980 wasn't any more competitive by the time of the Texas primary (early May) than this race is now. And come on, lots of people were describing MI as Romney's home state when it looked like he might lose it. The broader point is there's not any tradition of laying off an opponent's home state when it looks like you have a shot there, even in essentially settled races like '80 and '92.