NYT - Razor Thin Margins Show Nationwide Split or in otherwords PEOPLE VOTE FUNNY

On the Republican side, all of Missouri’s delegates will go to Senator John McCain, under Republican Party rules, but the popular vote looked more like a pie split nearly in thirds.

Mr. McCain, who won 33 percent of the state’s Republicans, finished about 8,500 votes in front of Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, who wound up with 31.5 percent. Not far behind was Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, with 29.3 percent.

Republican voters in Missouri were split over what they saw as the most important issue facing the country, statewide exit polls conducted by Edison/Mitofsky for the National Election Pool showed; 44 percent said the economy was most important, followed by the war in Iraq (20 percent), illegal immigration (18 percent) and terrorism (13 percent).

Republicans who shared certain top concerns also seemed to share preferred candidates. Many who chose illegal immigration said they voted for Mr. Romney, while those who chose the war voted for Mr. McCain, and those who selected terrorism voted for Mr. Huckabee.

Although Republican leaders in Missouri dismissed worries of lasting divisions, saying many voters now seemed ready to unify around Mr. McCain, some spoke of a lingering divide.

“I think frankly Senator McCain will have a challenge,” said Delbert Scott, a Missouri state senator who supported Mr. Huckabee. “People may vote for him, but they won’t bring the neighbors to vote for him.”

My analysis: I agree with Mr. Scott, both Romney and Huckabee supporters would prefer not to vote for McCain. I heard someone say that both the conservative supporters of Romney and Huckabee would cast a ballot for John McCain with a guilty conscious because they know he isn't a true conservative.

Here is the data based on voters top issue:
44% Economy most important - voters didn't seem to vote for a specific candidate based on this issue, which I find surprising. Clearly, Romney would should have swept these voters, yet he didn't.
18% Immigration - voted Romney (Makes sense was endorsed by the candidate that believed in immigration reform the most)
20% War - voted McCain (crashed five planes, spent a lot of years as POW, served on some committees on war)
13% Terrorism - voted Huckabee (can someone please explain what Huckabee has done on Terrorism?)

Now what does this data tell us? Nobody is hurting enough in the economy for them to chose an economic candidate. I guess every voters got a pet issue, kind of fun to see us all muddling through.