Why Romney call came so early: NYT
Why the early calls tonight? Simpatico early returns & exit polling, says NYT's Nate Silver:
One reason that news outlets called the race for Mitt Romney so quickly may be that there is strong agreement between the actual results so far, the exit polls and the pre-election polls.
Based on votes counted so far, Mr. Romney has 35 percent of the vote, Ron Paul 24 percent and Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. 18 percent.
The exit polls? Almost exactly the same numbers: Mr. Romney 36 percent, Mr. Paul 23 percent, Mr. Huntsman 18 percent.
The pre-election polls, meanwhile, pointed to a finish of Romney 39, Paul 19, Huntsman 17, according to our projections. It looks like Mr. Paul may beat those numbers by 3 to 5 points and Mr. Romney may lag behind them by about the same margin, but that's a pretty good result for the pollsters compared to how New Hampshire surveys have fared in past primaries.